There are thousands of horses which are wild in the forests, and do
not belong to any one. I was enabled to ascertain a fact, known to
all who have travelled in this country. The horses live there in
societies, generally to the number of five or six hundred, and even
one thousand: they occupy immense savannas, where it is dangerous to
disturb or try to catch them. In the dry season they are sometimes
obliged to go two or three leagues, and even more, to find water.
They set out in regular ranks of four abreast, and thus form a
procession of an extent of a quarter of a league. There are always
five or six scouts, who precede the troop by about fifty paces. If
they perceive a man or jaguar (the American tiger,) they neigh,
and the troop stops: if avoided, they continue their march; but,
if an attempt be made to pass by their squadron, they leap on the
imprudent traveller, and crush him under their feet. The best way
is always to avoid them, and let them continue their route: they
have also a chief, who marches between the scouts and the squadron,
and five or six other horses march on each side of the band,--a
kind of adjutants, whose duty consists in hindering any individual
from quitting the ranks. If any one attempts to straggle either
from hunger or fatigue, he is bitten till he resumes his place, and
the culprit obeys with his head hanging down. Three or four chiefs
march as the rear guard, at five or six paces from the troop. I
had often heard, at Trinidad, of this discipline among the wild
horses, and confess that I could scarcely believe it, but what I
have just stated is a fact which I witnessed twice on the banks of
the Guaripiche, where I encamped five days, for the express purpose
of seeing those organized troops pass. I have met, on the shores of
the Orinoco, herds of fifty to a hundred wild oxen: a chief always
marched at the head, and another at the rear.
The people of the country have assured me, that the wild asses, when
they travel, observe the same discipline as the horses; but the
mules, though they also live in troops, are continually fighting
with each other, and it has not been observed that they have any
chief. They however unite, at the appearance of a common enemy, and
display still more trick and address than the horses, in avoiding
the snares which are laid for catching them, and also for escaping
when taken.