trail, known first to the savages and afterwards to wandering smugglers
or masterless outlaws. Originally, and until the Spaniards made the
wagon road, it had been the only way of communication between the two
towns. But the path was so difficult and so dangerous that it had long
since been abandoned, even by the classes which had first discovered and
traveled it. These vagabonds had formerly kept it in such a state of
repair that it was fairly passable, but no work had been done on it for
nearly one hundred years. Indeed, in some places, the way had been
designedly obliterated by the Spanish Government about a century since,
after one of the most daring exploits that ever took place in the new
world.

Ninety years before this incursion by the buccaneers, a bold English
naval officer, Sir Amyas Preston, after seizing La Guayra, had captured
Caracas by means of this path. The Spaniards, apprised of his descent
upon their coasts, had fortified the mountain pass but had neglected
this mountain trail, as a thing impracticable for any force. Preston,
however, adroitly concealing his movements, had actually forced his men
to ascend the trail. The ancient chroniclers tell of the terrific nature
of the climb, how the exhausted and frightened English sailors dropped
upon the rocks, appalled by their dangers and worn out by their
hardships, how Preston and his officers forced them up at the point of
the sword until finally they gained the crest and descended into the
valley. They found the town unprotected, for all its defenders were in
the pass, seized it, held it for ransom, then, sallying forth, took the
surprised Spanish troops in the pass in the rear and swept them away.

After this exploit some desultory efforts had been made by the Spaniards
to render the trail still more impracticable with such success as has
been stated, and it gradually fell into entire disuse. By nearly all the
inhabitants its very existence had been forgotten.

It was this trail that Alvarado determined to ascend. The difficulties
in his way, even under the most favorable circumstances, might well have
appalled the stoutest-hearted mountaineer. In the darkness they would be
increased a thousand-fold. He had not done a great deal of mountain
climbing, although every one who lived in Venezuela was more or less
familiar with the practice; but he was possessed of a cool head, an
unshakable nerve, a resolute determination, and unbounded strength,
which