sugar are in the valleys of Aragua and of the Tuy, near Pao de Zarate,
between La Victoria and San Sebastian, near Guatire, Guarenas, and
Caurimare. The first canes arrived in the New World from the Canary
Islands; and even now Canarians, or Islenos, are placed at the head of
most of the great plantations, and superintend the labours of
cultivation and refining.

It is this connexion between the Canarians and the inhabitants of
Venezuela, that has given rise to the introduction of camels into
those provinces. The Marquis del Toro caused three to be brought from
Lancerote. The expense of conveyance was very considerable, owing to
the space which these animals occupy on board merchant-vessels, and
the great quantity of water they require during a long sea-voyage. A
camel, bought for thirty piastres, costs between eight and nine
hundred before it reaches the coast of Caracas. We saw four of these
animals at Mocundo; three of which had been bred in America. Two
others had died of the bite of the coral, a venomous serpent very
common on the banks of the lake. These camels have hitherto been
employed only in the conveyance of the sugarcanes to the mill. The
males, stronger than the females, carry from forty to fifty arrobas. A
wealthy landholder in the province of Varinas, encouraged by the
example of the Marquis del Toro, has allotted a sum of 15,000 piastres
for the purpose of bringing fourteen or fifteen camels at once from
the Canary Islands. It is presumed these beasts of burden may be
employed in the conveyance of merchandise across the burning plains of
Casanare, from the Apure and Calabozo, which in the season of drought
resemble the deserts of Africa. How advantageous it would have been
had the Conquistadores, from the beginning of the sixteenth century,
peopled America with camels, as they have peopled it with horned
cattle, horses, and mules. Wherever there are immense distances to