When their convoys failed or were intercepted, it was impossible to obtain food; no foraging-party dared venture forth from the fortified encampment; it was necessary that an entire division should march out into the Llanos, and seek for the nearest herd of cattle.  It not unfrequently happened, in these expeditions, that the very cattle were enlisted on the Patriot side.  Herds of several thousands of the savage beasts were sometimes driven headlong upon the Spanish lines, throwing them into confusion, and trampling or goring great numbers to death.  Close in the rear of the resistless herd then charged the lancers of Paez, with the terrible black bannerol fluttering in the van.  Before the scattered Royalists have time to rally, they are attacked in every direction by their merciless foes,—­and in another minute the battle is over, and the men of the Plains are out of sight!  Sometimes, too, a detachment traversing the savanna would notice with affright a column of thin smoke stealing up into the sky a mile to windward; and almost before the bugle or the drum could summon them to arms, the flames would be seething and crackling around them, and roaring away, in an ocean of fire, across the savanna beyond.  And then, in the rear of the flames, dashed the bloodthirsty lancers, and the blackened embers of the grass turned red with the richness of Spanish veins!  No venture was too arduous for the Llanero chieftain.  He accomplished at one time an exploit in which only the multiplicity of witnesses who have testified to the achievement permits us to believe.  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.  In order further to defend the passage, six large river-boats, each containing a piece of artillery, were anchored at a short distance below the only ford.  But it became necessary that the Apure should be crossed, and Paez quietly undertook to secure the passage.  With a few of his lancers, he rode to the river-bank, and there gave the command, Al agua, muchachos! “To the water, boys!” which he was accustomed to use when ordering his men to bathe.  His meaning was at once apprehended.  The men, stripping off their upper clothing, and holding their swords under their arms, plunged into the stream, shouting loudly to keep off the alligators, and partly rode, partly swam, nearly half a mile towards the gun-boats.  Only the heads of horses and men were visible above the water, and the crews of the gun-boats, after a single discharge, which wounded none of the extraordinary attacking party, threw themselves into the river and made the best of their way to San Fernando, where they alleged that it was useless to contest possession of their charge with incarnate devils, to whom water was the same us dry land, and who butchered all their prisoners.  The gun-boats were navigated in triumph to the Patriot camp, and did excellent service in ferrying the troops across the Apure.