Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Clitumnus non loci devexitate, sed ipsa sui copia et quasi
pondere impellitur.) We had two bad stations, one at Matagorda and the
other at Los Riecetos, before we reached the little town of Pao. We
beheld everywhere the same objects; small huts constructed of reeds,
and roofed with leather; men on horseback armed with lances, guarding
the herds; herds of cattle half wild, remarkable for their uniform
colour, and disputing the pasturage with horses and mules. No sheep or
goats are found on these immense plains. Sheep do not thrive well in
equinoctial America, except on table-lands above a thousand toises
high, where their fleece is long and sometimes very fine. In the
burning climate of the plains, where the wolves give place to jaguars,
these small ruminating animals, destitute of means of defence, and
slow in their movements, cannot be preserved in any considerable
numbers.
We arrived on the 15th of July at the Fundacion, or Villa, del Pao,
founded in 1744, and situated very favourably for a commercial station
between Nueva Barcelona and Angostura. Its real name is El Concepcion
del Pao. Alcedo, La Cruz, Olmedilla, and many other geographers, have
mistaken the situation of this small town of the Llanos of Barcelona,
confounding it either with San Juan Bauptisto del Pao of the Llanos of
Caracas, or with El Valle del Pao de Zarate. Though the weather was
cloudy I succeeded in obtaining some heights of alpha Centauri,
serving to determine the latitude of the place; which is 8 degrees 37
minutes 57 seconds.
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