Reply of Mr. Knox.
Mr. Comandante: No program of entertainment that you might have devised for me, and I know how well Venezuelans do devise their programs of hospitality, could have made a deeper impression upon me than the one I see before me, namely, the sight of so many strong men and so many beautiful ladies. You have voiced a wish that my visit in Venezuela should have been a pleasant one. We have net only had days and hours of pleasure, but one pleasure has crowded another so rapidly that it is almost literally true that every moment of time that we have spent in your beautiful country has found us to be the recipients of the most kindly hospitality, of the best of good cheer not only from your officials and those who may have been designated by the Government to extend to me a welcome, representing as I do the people of the United States, but I am glad to say that I have been able to read in the faces, and looking into the eyes of all the people of Venezuela, a welcome which I shall never forget.
I beg to propose the health, the happiness, the peace, and the prosperity of the Republic of Venezuela and its generous, hospitable, and kindly people.