treme, and nothing could surpass the beauty of the scenery. The
numbers of the cattle also increased. They were under the charge of
black slaves, who were riding about looking after them. We saw neither
Creoles nor Indians: the latter had made their escape to the forests and
mountains, and the former had been carried off to serve in either the
one army or the other. The appearance of the blacks on horseback was
singular. On their heads they wore large straw hats, while their bodies
were covered by a cloak made of rushes, which served to keep out both
the heat and the rain. Their legs were bare, but their feet were
protected by sandals, to which were fastened spurs of huge dimensions.
Each man carried by his left side a long manchette, or sword-knife,
secured to his girdle. They were all galloping as hard as they could
go, wheeling their horses round and then halting in a moment.

"Those fellows would make useful cavalry, if they could be got to face
the enemy; and I should like to find myself at the head of a thousand of
them," observed Mr Laffan. "We should give a good account of any of
the Spanish lancers we might fall in with."

Soon after this, on the shores of a small lake, we came upon a curious
tree, which Mr Laffan pronounced to be the wax-palm, or the _Ceroxilon
andicola_. From its appearance I should have supposed that it could
only grow in the very warmest regions; but it is of so happy a
constitution that it flourishes equally well in temperate and in cold
climates. We afterwards found some on the mountains of Quindio. They
are the most hardy of the Palm tribe: where others would perish, or
assume a dwarfed or stunted form, the wax-palm raises its stem, in the
form of an elegantly-wrought column, a hundred and fifty feet high, with
a splendid leafy plume. From the leaves and trunk exudes a grey and
acrid matter, which on drying assumes the nature of wax as pure as that
of bees, but rather more brittle. I have seen tallow-candles surrounded
by a thin coating of this wax, which, not melting as rapidly as the
tallow, prevents the candle from guttering.

The valley of the Cauca abounds with bamboo-cane, which serves a variety
of purposes. With the bamboo the inhabitants build their houses, and
erect a pretty kind of fence around their farms. The peasantry make
with it sweet-sounding flutes; it furnishes them also with
drinking-cups, water-buckets, and bird-cages, chairs and baskets,
blow-pipes a