He then opened a communication with patriot chieftains, who had maintained themselves in isolated parties dispersed over the llanos of Cumaná, Barcelona, and the Apure.

An abundant supply of arms, received from England, was sent to the patriot corps on the banks of the Apure.

If we are able to obtain an elevated view of the savanna,let us say, in the Llanos which constitute the Province of Barinas, and through which the Apure rolls its rapid current to swell the volume of the Orinoco,we shall observe, at distant intervals upon the plain, irregular groups of palm-trees surmounting the wavy level of the grass.

The flood of successful rebellion was rolled back from the coast, and Bolívar, with his dauntless partisans, was soon confined to the Llanos, which stretch away in level immensity from the marshy banks of the Orinoco, the Apure, and their tributaries.

Let us descend upon them at night, here, at no great distance from the banks of the cayman-haunted Apure, and we shall gaze upon a different scene.

Thus José Antonio Paez stands before us, on the banks of the Apure, in the twenty-fifth year of his age.

When Morillo landed, in 1815, with his overwhelming force, only the Llaneros of Paez held out for the Republic; everywhere else in Venezuela the banner of Spain waved in triumph, but on the Plains of the Apure there was neither submission nor peace.

San Fernando, an important town on the Apure, was strongly fortified, and was held by the Spaniards as a potent means of annoying the Patriots in any attempts they might make to cross the river.

But it became necessary that the Apure should be crossed, and Paez quietly undertook to secure the passage.

The gun-boats were navigated in triumph to the Patriot camp, and did excellent service in ferrying the troops across the Apure.

Heading the famous Battalion of Apure, he at once wheeled to the left, and commenced the toilsome march.

Although taken entirely by surprise, the Spaniards had time for a partial change of front, and before the veterans of Apure had assembled at the mouth of the pass, a volley of musketry rang out from the Spanish lines, and the gleaming of bayonets told of a wall of steel across the path.