249 CHAPTER XVII. Baggage separated-native propensities to dancing-leave Obispos-abandoned habitations—not all massacred-plunder-conscription-dexterity of the mules. -Carache-dreary position.-Santa Ana, negociation of Bolivar and Morillo here-singular apparent causeway on which it stands.-Treading and winnow. ing grain-killing of calves forbidden by policy and law of Colombia.-Lodge in the house where Bolivar and Morillo negociated and slept-anecdote of.— Unaccountable influence of the Spanish agents over the press. The propositions of Bolivar in favour of humanity-both armies, unknown to each other, in a desperate situation.-Sucre's first public appearance as a confidential negociator-policy of Bolivar-recruits and reorganizes his army, and with surprising celerity appears at Carthagena, and prepares for its fall.-Commissioners to Spain.-March-precipices-fatigue-halt at the foot of a steep descent.-Manners of the peasantry-cheerfulness universal.—Move off the road towards Truxillo. It was Sunday, and our baggage had not yet arrived; the night, though in a northern climate it would be deemed temperate, was here cool, and the want of our blankets sensibly felt. They reached Obispos at two o'clock, at that time the excuses of the ariero and Vincent were accepted, as the inclemency of the day and night taught us to think them reasonable; but we found afterwards, that they had determined, on setting out, to stop, though not to sleep, at the Spanish camp; the solution of which, and of other instances of delay, was to be found in the propensities of the ariero and our domestic Vincent to dancing fandangoes. In fact, the ariero had sent on his servant the day before to that neighbourhood, and the inclemency of the weather favoured the fandango. The ariero was a man of some property, about thirty years old, and among his class a great coxcomb; our domestic was, if possible, more vain of his dancing than Vestris, and we had some opportunities of witnessing his feats in that way. The Caracas folks, humble and elevated, and of both sexes, are distinguished above all others in the republic as graceful dancers; it was therefore Vincent's point of honour to demonstrate the super-excellence de su propia pais, or, as he said himself, de todos los naturales de aquel pais, his superiority over all the natives of the country. On Monday, 16th of December, at seven o'clock, we left this miserable cottage, at Agua Obispos, or the bishop's water. It may have been a village or town in former times, but to us it was invisible, and there may have been a river or a well of water there, but probably it was so named from the almost unceasing rain that prevails there, and which gives to the plain and mountains that it sprinkles and surrounds, a rich pasture; I could discover but two more dwellings, and of the same style of architecture, in the place: our route, after crossing the valley, lay along the ascent, parallel with its direction, two miles; there were some fine wheat, barley, maize, peas, and other pulse, in pretty large patches, and an apparently well laboured culture; there were numerous cattle grazing, which, from the position of the place, must belong to somebody, and, if there were only a dozen owners, they must be all rich. There is a fact which has not been noticed by any of those who have travelled through Colombia, and which the scantiness of dwellings, and the richness of the husbandry calls to my recollection, as it has relation to the state of the population. We had several occasions to regret the desertion of towns and villages on the road, and, at first, concluded that their population had been all destroyed by the war. The destruction by war did not require any exaggeration, but we found, upon better inquiry, that this solitude was an abandonment always near the high roads, where cultivation was rich and abundant, which was accounted for by some intelligent men, whom we occasionally fell in with on the road, or where we chanced to halt. Where the country was not rich in cultivation, the villages remained inhabited, but only by women, aged, or infant persons. In the rich countries the whole population moved en masse, with their cattle, to some of the remote valleys, out of the reach of the pillage or the march of armies; and out of the reach too of the military conscription. These vacated villages and houses, add an only apparent decay to the actual loss by the war; it was merely apparent, because the people had only moved out of the range of the troops, as it was a frequent complaint when we reasoned with persons who replied to our inquiries for provisions-" No aye nada," we have nothing-it was a frequent apology that exaction was as common with the troops of the republic, as with the Godas. Our appearance with a grenadier in uniform, with his lance in front, made us look entirely military, and as the sergeant was the usual forage-master and purveyor, the people on the roads treated us as they treated all military men, who too often obtained provisions and never paid for them. They acknowledged, indeed, that all the Colombian native troops took was mere food, or perhaps guarapa; but the Godas not only took provisions, but any moveable they cast an eye upon, often broke open the chests, and abused the females, destroying also in wantonness what could not be useful to them. The three houses of Agua Obispos were more than a mile apart, and in that where we lodged, there were more than twenty females of all ages, and but two or three men advanced in years. It was six o'clock when we began to ascend the Sierra, and found the plains and verdant slopes of the ascent on both sides enlivened by a great number of fine horses, horn cattle, and some handsome and clean fleeced sheep. As we could not breakfast with satisfaction where we had slept, we halted at the side of a beautiful rivulet at eight o'clock, and made a substantial breakfast. The rain had ceased, and passed to the summits of a distant range of the paramo, where it seemed to wait till we should move out of the way of shelter. The soil being very rich, and the earth soaked by the last week's rain, the road of the Sierra became, in some places, slippery and dangerous in the abrupt descents. When I had read some traveller's account of the dexterity of mules in such situations, I confess I was apprehensive of some exaggeration, but my incredulity was here perfectly cured. Elizabeth's black mule had travelled to and from Bogota before, and besides being a manageable and safe animal, and his load light, her vivacity led her to pass over such places, even before the sergeant, and it became to her a matter of sport; in the descent from the Obispos Sierra, she was first in possession of the top of the scarp, and her mule took to the steep in a very remarkable manner, crossing its legs on the margin of the mound, and actually sliding with his haunches a little depressed, so that for fourteen or fifteen yards, she sat as erect and easy as on the level road, and her descent was perfectly quiet and secure. The vigour of my mule was unsuitable to this kind of adventure, and my weight added to that of the mule, his hoofs usually stuck in the soil, and it was necessary to descend by traversing the face of the steep zig-zag. We reached Carache after a not very pleasant ride over the Paramo de las Rosas, about three o'clock, and were glad to find shelter in the house of the alcalde, where we remained that night, and having experienced the want of wine or some liquor in the cold and wet we had been exposed to, no wine being to be had, we procured some very excellent aguardiente, a fine alcohol, distilled from maize, pure and colourless as a crystal spring, and laid it by for future exigency. The village scite appears to have been chosen in a whim; the access to it, as we travelled, was through a variety of mazes, through hill and dale, glen and rivulet, where the mountain bases approached close, and their sides immensely elevated and steep; rising a long winding track, covered with deep forests, we suddenly broke from the shade upon the flatted summit of a ridge, which seemed to have been constructed by art, across a valley, and to have divided many it into two, each of which was to be seen distinctly, for miles, in splendid verdure; it was the town of Santa Ana, which stands upon this ridge, on the south end, and is about a mile in length, the ridge itself about two miles, and the level space about two hundred yards, the single street being about fifty feet broad; the fronts of the houses are in the same alignment, but stand apart, and as the south end of the causeway approaches the Sierra, the road ascends and leads over a paramo where vegetation is stunted, and the surface has the appearance of a black turf, with some ferns, and two species of the whortle-berry. This causeway, for it conveys the impression of an artificial creation, is the only thoroughfare, and appears like the summit of a vast bridge thrown over to unite two lofty mountains, which, without this communication at that place, would render the journey difficult and circuitous. Its inhabitants trade in mules, wheat, maize, barley, and other products, and transport merchandize. The valleys, intersected by the causeway east and west, present the most agreeable pictures of a country well settled and cultivation abundant. It has a much better church than towns of more celebrity. It being the only highway, exposed it to much depredation during the war, and its streets often deluged with blood; many of its inhabitants had transferred their families to the remote valleys, some of whom the alcalde said were returning. The winnowing of grain on the side of a steep acclivity, and the circular threshing floors, are seen here in the same style as in Egypt, Hindustan, Persia, and Boutan: a circle of stones placed on the edge, about three feet above the floor, has in the centre an upright post, to which is attached a light beam, as long as the semi-diameter of the circle; the central end is placed by an eye or hole on a pin or pivot in the central post, and the horses, mules, or oxen, are attached to this light beam, and the sheafs of grain are laid within the track of the circle, around which they move, and thus tread out the grain; the abun |