The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1906-02-28

~lHE highway between Ia Quay
ra and Caracas was exceed
IL ingly rough and difficult and at
~ best barely practicable for the
stoutest wagons. The road wound
around the mountains for distance Of
perhaps twenty-five miles, although as
the crow flies it was not more than five
miles between the two cities. Between
them, however, the tremendous ridge
Of mountains rose to a height Of nearly
10000 feet. Starting from the very
level Of the sea, the road crossed the
divide through depression at an alti-
tude of about 5000 feet and descended
thence some 5000 feet to the valley in
which lay Caracas.
This was the road over which AL
yarado and Mercedes had come and on
the lower end of which they had been
captured. 1t was now barred for the
young soldier by the detachment Of
buccaneers under young Teach and
L'Ollonois, who were instructed to
hold the pass where the road crossed
through or over the mountains. Ow-
ing to the confguration of the pass,
those fifty could hold it against thou
sand. It was not probable that news
of the sack of La Guayra would reach
Caracas before Morgan descended upon
it, but to prevent the possibility or to
check any movement Of troops toward
the shore it was necessary to hold that
road. The man who held it was in
position to protect or strike either city
at will. 1t was, in fact. the key to the
position.
! Morgan. of course, counted upon sur
prisinS the unfortifed capital as he
had the seaport town. 1t was the
boast of the Spaniards that they need
ed no walls about Caracas since na-
ture had provided them with the
mighty rampant Of the mountain
range. whicl could not be surmounted
save in that one place. With that one
place in, the buccaneers possession,
Caracas could only rely upon the
number and valor of her defenders.
70 Morgans onslaught could only be
opposed q rampant of blades and
hearts. Had there been u state OF
war i1f existence it is probable that the
viceroy would have fortified and gar
risoned the pass. but under present
conditions nothing had been done. AS
soon as messenger from Teach in
formed Morgan that the pass had been
occupied and that all seemed quiet
in Caracas. q fact which had been
learned by some bold scouting on the
farther side of the mountain, he was
perfectly easy as to the work OF the
morrow. He would fall upon the un-
walled town at night and carry every
thing by 4. coup de main.
Fortunately for the SpaniardS in this
instance. it happened that there was
another way Of access to the valley of
Caracas frolf La Guayra. Directly up
and over the mountain there ran 4
narrow and difficult trail, known first
to the savases and afterward to wan
derins Smrggiers or masterlcrs out
laws. Originally and until &c = n
iar(ls made the wagon road it had been
the only way Of communication be-
tween the two towns but the path was
so difficult and so dangerous That IT
had long since been abandoned even
by the classes that had first diScoV-
cred and Travelled it. These vagabonds
had formerly kept it in such Il state OF
repair that it was fairly passable, but
no work had been done on it for near
ly 100 years. Indeed. in some places
the way had been dcsisnedly o3literat-
eel by the Spanish government about a
century since. BY nearly al. the in
nabitants its very eXister.ce had been
forgotten.
1t was this trail that Alvarado de-
termined to ascend. The difficulties
III - NY e-cn -,-,cc~ +-h" ,',f:s11 favor-