He has perhaps been hitherto too much neglected by us, and we must look backwards in order to take up the thread of his career.  At the very first outbreak of insurrection in 1810, Paez took service as a volunteer in the hastily-levied militia of Barinas, and was quickly promoted to the post of sergeant in a corps of lancers.  His influence and example attracted multitudes of Llanero horsemen to the Revolutionary ranks, but the calamitous period of the earthquake put an end to his military service, and he returned, in 1812, to his pastoral post.  Soon, however, came news of Bolivar fighting from the mountains of New Granada; and in 1813 Paez was once more in the saddle, with the commission, this time, of captain in the Patriot service.  The Spaniards soon learned to dread the fiery lancer of Barinas.  They were never safe from his sudden onslaught; and Puy, the commandant of the Province, rejoiced loudly when an unlucky defeat placed the indefatigable guerrillero in his power.  Paez was condemned to be shot, and was actually led out, with other prisoners, to the place of execution; but a concatenation of extraordinary accidents saved his life, and he escaped once more to the head of his command.  It was not long before he was brought in immediate contact with the now famous Bolivar, and he rapidly rose to independent command.  In 1815, he was second only to the Liberator.  Thousands of grim Llaneros acknowledged no chieftain beside el Tio Pepe,—­Uncle Joe.  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.  Yet, after a while, as the victorious legions of Morillo flooded, in successive waves from the coast, the level region of his refuge, Paez was compelled to evacuate the Plains, and leave them to the invader.  With a few hundred of his horsemen he established himself on the Plains of New Granada.  Scarcely had he grown familiar with his new centre of action when the troops of Morillo were turned westward for the purpose of curbing the rebellious spirits in the neighboring Vice-Royalty,—­when, quicker than thought, Paez was once more over the mountains, and recovered by a sudden swoop the Llanos of Barinas.  Thenceforward, this region remained the surest foothold of the revolution in Venezuela.  Encircled with Spanish troops, it remained, nevertheless, a practical republic in itself, and the vast basin of the Orinoco was the cradle of Venezuelan freedom.  The Provisional Government consisted of a mere council of generals, who, in 1816, created Paez General and Supreme Chief of the Republic.  A vast stride from the hatero’s hut that we saw him inhabiting in 1808!