given of the adventures of a traveller which we quote from Jardine's
Naturalists' Library collated with other versions. "Our waggons, which
were obliged to take a circuitous route, arrived at last, and we pitched
our tent a musket-shot from the kraal, and, after having arranged
everything, went to rest, but were soon disturbed; for, about midnight
the cattle and horses, which were standing between the waggons, began to
start and run, and one of the drivers to shout, on which every one ran
out of the tent with his gun. About thirty paces from the tent stood a
lion, which, on seeing us, walked very deliberately about thirty paces
farther, behind a small thorn-bush, carrying something with him, which I
took to be a young ox. We fired more than sixty shots at that bush,
without perceiving any movement. The south-east wind blew strong, the
sky was clear, and the moon shone very bright, so that we could perceive
everything at that distance. After the cattle had been quieted again,
and I had looked over everything, I missed the sentry from before the
tent, Jan Smit, from Antwerp. We called as loudly as possible, but in
vain; nobody answered, from which I concluded that the lion had carried
him off. Three or four men then advanced very cautiously to the bush,
which stood right opposite the door of the tent, to see if they could
discover anything of the man, but returned helter-skelter; for the lion,
who was there still, rose up, and began to roar. They found there the
musket of the sentry, which was cocked, and also his cap and shoes. We
fired again about a hundred shots at the bush, without perceiving
anything of the lion, from which we concluded that he was killed, or had
run away. This induced the marksman of our company to go and see if he
was still there or not, taking with him a firebrand. As soon as he
approached the bush, the lion roared terribly, and leapt at him; on
which he threw the firebrand at him, and the other people having fired
about ten shots at him, he retired directly to his former place behind
that bush. The firebrand which he had thrown at the lion had fallen in
the midst of the bush, and, favoured by the strong south-east wind, it
began to burn with a great flame, so that we could see very clearly into
and through it. We continued our firing into it until the night passed
away, and the day began to break, when seven men were posted on the
farthest waggons to watch him, and to take aim at him if he should come
out. At last, before it became quite light, he walked up the hill, with
the man in his mouth, when about forty shots were fired without hitting
him, although some were very near. Every time this happened, he turned
round towards the tent, and came roaring towards us; and, I am of
opinion, that if he had been hit, he would have rushed on the people and
the tent. When it became broad daylight, we perceived, by the blood, and
a piece of the clothes of the man, that the lion had taken him away."
"For the satisfaction of the curious," says Sir William Jardine, "it may
be mentioned, that he was followed, and killed in the forenoon, over the
mangled remains of the unfortunate sentinel."
A Night Surprise.
Mr. Gordon Cumming gives an even more thrilling account of a similar
adventure of his experience. He says:--"About three hours after the sun
went down, I called to my men to come and take their coffee and supper
which was ready for them at my fire; and after supper, three of them
returned before their comrades to their own fireside and lay down.... In
a few minutes an ox came out by the gate of the kraal and walked round
the back of it. Hendrick got up and drove him again and then went back
to his fireside and lay down. Hendrick and Ruyter lay on one side of the
fire under one blanket and John Stofolus lay on the other.... Suddenly
the appalling and murderous voice of an angry bloodthirsty lion, within
a few yards of us, burst upon my ear, followed by the shrieking of the
Hottentots. Again and again the murderous roar of the attack was
repeated. We heard John and Ruyter shriek, 'the Lion! the Lion!...' Next
instant John Stofolus rushed into the midst of us almost speechless with
fear and terror, and eyes bursting from their sockets, and shrieked out,
'the lion! the lion! He has got Hendrick, he dragged him away from the
fire beside me. I struck him with the burning brands upon his head, but
he would not let go his hold. Hendrick is dead! O God! Hendrick is dead!
Let us take fire and seek him....' It appeared that when the unfortunate
Hendrick rose to drive in the ox, the lion had watched him to his
fireside, and he had scarcely lain down, when the brute sprang upon him
and Ruyter (for both lay under one blanket) with his appalling murderous
roar, and roaring as he lay, grappled him with his fearful claws and
kept biting him on the breast and shoulder, all the while feeling for
his neck; having got hold of which, he at once dragged him away
backwards round the bush into the dense shade.... The next morning, just
as the day began to dawn we heard the lion dragging something up the
river side under cover of the bank. We drove the cattle out of the kraal
and then proceeded to inspect the scene of the night's awful tragedy. In
the hollow where the lion had lain, consuming his prey, we found one leg
of the unfortunate Hendrick, bitten off below the knee, the shoe still
on the foot, the grass and bushes were all stained with his blood, and
fragments of his pea-coat lay around. Hendrick was by far the best man I
had about my waggons ... his loss to us all was very serious."
A Lion Outwitted.
In the southern part of Africa, where the Hottentots live, lions were
very common, and the adventures of the inhabitants with them very
frequent. One evening a Hottentot saw that he was pursued by a lion. He
was very much alarmed, and devised the following means of escape. He
went to the edge of a precipice, and placed himself a little below it.
He then put his cloak and hat on a stick, and elevated them over his
head, giving them a gentle motion. The lion came crouching along, and,
mistaking the cloak and hat for the man, as the Hottentot intended he
should do, he sprang upon them with a swift leap, and, passing over the
head of the Hottentot, was plunged headlong down the precipice.
Old Instincts and new Opportunities.
In the "Miscellany of Natural History," from which several of these
anecdotes are taken there is a story illustrating the way in which old
instincts will show themselves in the presence of new opportunities. On
the evening of the 20th October 1816, a lioness made her escape from a
travelling menagerie which was drawn up on the road-side, about seven
miles from the town of Salisbury. It was about eight o'clock, and quite
dark, and the Exeter mail was passing when the animal suddenly darted
forward, and springing at the throat of the off-leader, fastened the
talons of her fore-feet on each side of the neck, close to the horse's
head, while those of the hind-feet were forced into the chest. In this
situation she hung, while the blood streamed from the agonized creature,
as if a vein had been opened by a lancet. It may be easily supposed,
that the alarm excited by this encounter, was very great. Two inside
passengers instantly dashed out of the coach and fled to a house on the
road-side. The keeper of the caravan came, and immediately set a large
Newfoundland dog on the animal. The lioness, on finding herself seized
by the leg, quitted the horse, and turned upon the dog, which the
spectators expected would very soon become the victim of her fury; but
she was contented with giving him only a slight punishment, and on
hearing the voice of her keeper, retired under a neighbouring straw
rick, and gently allowed herself to be secured. "This anecdote," says
the writer, "is remarkably characteristic, the moment that the animal
found herself at liberty, and an object of prey presented itself, all
her original propensities, hitherto restrained, were instantly called
into action; but no sooner did the voice of her keeper reach her ears,
than the force of long habit prevailed, she became calm, and allowed
herself to be bound, and led again to her den."
The Tiger.
The tiger is one of the most beautiful, but at the same time one of the
most rapacious and destructive of the whole animal race. It is found in
the warm climates of the East, especially in India and Siam. It so much
resembles the cat, as almost to induce us to consider the latter a tiger
in miniature. It lurks generally near a fountain, or on the brink of a
river, to surprise such animals as come to quench their thirst; and like
the lion bounds upon its prey, easily making a spring of twenty feet and
upwards. When it has killed one animal it often attacks others,
swallowing their blood for which it has an insatiable thirst in large
draughts; for even when satisfied with food, it is not satiated with
slaughter. The tiger is said by some to prefer human flesh to that of
any other animal; and it is certain, that it does not, like many other
beasts of prey, shun the presence of man, but has been even known on
more than one occasion to spring upon a hunting party when seated at
their refreshment, and carry off one of the number, rushing through the
shrubs into the forest, and devouring the unfortunate victim at its
leisure. The strength as well as the agility of this animal is
remarkable; it carries off a deer with the greatest ease.
The tiger is ornamented with long streaks across its body. The ground
colour is yellow, very deep on the back, but growing lighter towards the
belly, where it softens to white, as it does also on the throat and the
inside of the legs. The bars which cross the body from the back to the
belly are of the most beautiful black, and the skin altogether is so
extremely fine and glossy, that it is much esteemed, and sold at a high
price in all the eastern countries, especially China. "The colouring of
the tiger," says the Rev. J. G. Wood, "is a good instance of the manner
in which animals are protected by the similarity of their external
appearance to the particular locality in which they reside. The stripes
on the tiger's skin so exactly assimilate with the long jungle grass
amongst which it lives, that it is impossible for unpractised eyes to
discern the animal at all, even when a considerable portion of its body
is exposed."
Ravages Committed by Tigers.
The ravages committed by tigers have often led to the organisation of
hunting parties formed with a view to exterminate the more aggressive of
the enemy. The following narrative of a tiger excursion at Doongal is
from the "East India Government Gazette."
"There were five tigers killed by the party, besides one bear killed,
and another wounded; a wolf, a hyæna, a panther, a leopard, and some
immense rock and cobra capella snakes. Among the occurrences during the
excursion, some were of a peculiar and pathetic nature. The first
happened to a poor Bunnia, or dealer, of the village of Doongal, who had
been to the city of Hydrabad, to collect some money, and who was
returning, after having gathered together a small sum, when on the way,
a little beyond the cantonment of Secunderabad, he saw an armed Pæon
seated, and apparently a traveller in the same direction. After mutual
inquiries, the Pæon told the Bunnia he was going to the same place; and,
as the Bunnia was glad to have somebody to accompany him, he gave him a
part of his victuals; and, on their way, they mutually related their
histories. The Bunnia innocently mentioned the object of his visit to
the city, and the fact of his returning with the money he had collected;
this immediately raised the avarice of the Pæon, who decided in his mind
to kill the poor Bunnia in a suitable place, and strip him of his money.
They proceeded together, with this design in the mind of the Pæon, until
they came to a place where the ravages of the tiger were notorious, and
he prepared to kill the Bunnia; and while he was struggling with him,
and in the act of drawing his sword to slay him, a tiger sprang upon the
Pæon, and carried him off, leaving his shield and sword, which the
Bunnia carried to Doongal, as trophies of retributive justice in his
favour. The next victim was the wife of a Bunjarra. They were resting
under a tree, when a tiger sprang up, and seized the woman by the head.
The husband, from mere impulse to save his wife, held her by the legs;
and a struggle ensued between the tiger pulling her by the head, and the
man by the legs, until the issue, which could not be doubted, when the
tiger carried off the woman. The man seemed to be rather partial to his
wife, and devoted himself to revenge her death,--forsook his cattle and
property,--resigned them to his brother, and offered his services to be
of the tiger-killing party, and strayed about the jungles, until he was
heard of no more."
"A camel driver, who had been just married, was bringing home his bride,
when a tiger followed, and kept them in view a great part of the road,
for an opportunity to seize one of them. The bride having occasion to
alight, was immediately pounced upon by the ferocious beast, and he
scampered away with her in his mouth. A shepherd was taken by a young
tiger, which was followed by the mother, a large tigress, and devoured
at a distance of two miles; and a Bunnia, or dealer, from Bolarum, was
seized returning from a fair. A woman, with an infant about a year old,
was captured by a tiger; and the infant was found by the Puttal, or head
of the village, who brought it to his house. Some of the Company's
elephants that were going for forage were chased by a tiger, which was
kept off by a spearman; and a comical chase of them was made up to
Doongal, the elephants running before the tiger, until they entered the
village. It is said the lives lost by these tigers amounted to about
three hundred persons in one year, within the range of seven villages;
and the destruction of cattle, sheep, and goats, was said to be
immense."
[Illustration: Lieutenant Collet and the Tiger]
An Intrepid Hunter.
Captain Brown in his "Natural History of Animals" tells a thrilling
story of an adventure of Lieutenant Collet, of the Bombay army, who
having heard that a very large tiger had destroyed seven inhabitants of
an adjacent village, resolved, with another officer, to attempt the
destruction of the monster. Having ordered seven elephants, they went in
quest of the animal, which they found sleeping beneath a bush. Roused by
the noise of the elephants, he made a furious charge upon them, and
Lieutenant Collet's elephant received him on her shoulder, the other six
having turned about, and run off, notwithstanding the exertions of
their riders. The elephant shook off the tiger, and Lieutenant Collet
having fired two balls at him, he fell; but, again recovering himself,
he made a spring at the lieutenant. Having missed his object, he seized
the elephant by the hind leg, and, having received a kick from her, and
another ball, he let go his hold, and fell a second time. Supposing that
he was now disabled, Collet very rashly dismounted, with the resolution
of killing him with his pistols; but the tiger, who had only been
crouching to take another spring, flew upon the lieutenant, and caught
him in his mouth. The strength and intrepidity of the lieutenant,
however, did not forsake him: he immediately fired his pistol into the
tiger's body, and, finding that this had no effect, disengaged his arms
with all his force, and, directing the other pistol to his heart, he at
last destroyed him, after receiving twenty-five severe wounds.
The Leopard.
The Leopard, who is also known as the panther, belongs to Asia and
Africa. He is distinguished by the beauty of his coat which is of a rich
fawn colour, graduating to white underneath his belly. It is covered
with spots or clusters of marks which resemble the form of a rose. He is
an agile climber and a terror to goats, sheep, monkeys and all lesser
animals, but shows no special hostility to man unless attacked or
cornered.
The Leopard's Tenacity of Life.
Like other members of the cat family the Leopard shows remarkable
tenacity of life. Whether like the domestic cat he has nine lives or
not, he certainly takes a great deal of killing.
The following account is from the pen of an eye-witness quoted from
Captain Brown's "Natural History of Animals".--"I was at Jaffna, at the
northern extremity of the Island of Ceylon, in the beginning of the year
1819, when, one morning, my servant called me an hour or two before my
usual time, with 'Master, master! people sent for master's dogs--tiger
in the town!' There are no real tigers in Ceylon; but leopards or
panthers are always called so, and by ourselves as well as by the
natives. This turned out to be a panther. My gun chanced not to be put
together; and, while my servant was doing it, the collector and two
medical men, who had recently arrived, in consequence of the cholera
morbus having just then reached Ceylon from the Continent, came to my
door, the former armed with a fowling-piece, and the two latter with
remarkably blunt hog-spears. They insisted upon setting off, without
waiting for my gun,--a proceeding not much to my taste. The tiger (I
must continue to call him so) had taken refuge in a hut, the roof of
which, like those of Ceylon huts in general, spread to the ground like
an umbrella; the only aperture into it was a small door, about four feet
high. The collector wanted to get the tiger out at once. I begged to
wait for my gun; but no--the fowling-piece, (loaded with ball, of
course,) and the two hog-spears, were quite enough. I got a hedge-stake,
and awaited my fate, from very shame. At this moment, to my great
delight, there arrived from the fort an English officer, two
artillery-men, and a Malay captain; and a pretty figure we should have
cut without them, as the event will show. I was now quite ready to
attack, and my gun came a minute afterwards. The whole scene which
follows took place within an enclosure, about twenty feet square,
formed, on three sides, by a strong fence of palmyra leaves, and on the
fourth by the hut. At the door of this, the two artillery-men planted
themselves: and the Malay captain got at the top, to frighten the tiger
out, by worrying it--an easy operation, as the huts there are covered
with cocoa-nut leaves. One of the artillery-men wanted to go in to the
tiger, but we would not suffer it. At last the beast sprang. This man
received him on his bayonet, which he thrust apparently down his throat,
firing his piece at the same moment. The bayonet broke off short,
leaving less than three inches on the musket; the rest remained in the
animal, but was invisible to us. The shot probably went through his
cheek, for it certainly did not seriously injure him, as he instantly
rose upon his legs, with a loud roar, and placed his paws upon the
soldier's breast. At this moment, the animal appeared to me to about
reach the centre of the man's face; but I had scarcely time to observe
this, when the tiger, stooping his head, seized the soldier's arm in his
mouth, turned him half round staggering, threw him over on his back, and
fell upon him. Our dread now was, that, if we fired upon the tiger, we
might kill the man. For a moment, there was a pause, when his comrade
attacked the beast exactly in the same manner as the gallant fellow
himself had done. He struck his bayonet into his head; the tiger rose at
him--he fired; and this time the ball took effect, and in the head. The
animal staggered backwards, and we all poured in our fire. He still
kicked and writhed; when the gentlemen with the hog-spears advanced, and
fixed him, while he was finished by some natives beating him on the head
with hedge-stakes. The brave artilleryman was, after all, but slightly
hurt: He claimed the skin, which was very cheerfully given to him. There
was, however, a cry among the natives, that the head should be cut off:
it was; and, in so doing, the knife came directly across the bayonet.
The animal measured little less than four feet, from the root of the
tail to the muzzle. There was no tradition of a tiger having been in
Jaffna before. Indeed, this one must have either come a distance of
almost twenty miles, or have swam across an arm of the sea nearly two
miles in breadth; for Jaffna stands on a peninsula, on which there is no
jungle of any magnitude."
Hunters Hunted.
Captain Brown gives a thrilling story of an adventure which befell two
Boers in South Africa in 1822. They were returning from a hunting
excursion, when they unexpectedly fell in with a leopard in a mountain
ravine, and immediately gave chase to him. The animal at first
endeavoured to escape, by clambering up a precipice, but, being hotly
pressed, and slightly wounded by a musket-ball, he turned upon his
pursuers, with that frantic ferocity, which, on such emergencies, he
frequently displays, and, springing upon the man who had fired at him,
tore him from his horse to the ground, biting him at the same time very
severely on the shoulder, and tearing his face and arms with his claws.
The other hunter, seeing the danger of his comrade, sprang from his
horse, and attempted to shoot the leopard through the head; but, whether
owing to trepidation, or the fear of wounding his friend, or the sudden
motions of the animal, he unfortunately missed his aim. The leopard,
abandoning his prostrate enemy darted with redoubled fury upon this
second antagonist; and so fierce and sudden was his onset, that before
the Boer could stab him with his hunting-knife, he had struck him in the
face with his claws, and torn the scalp over his forehead. In this
frightful condition, the hunter grappled with the raging beast, and,
struggling for life, they rolled together down a steep declivity. All
this passed so rapidly that the other man had scarcely time to recover
from the confusion into which his feline foe had thrown him, to seize
his gun and rush forward to aid his comrade, when he beheld them rolling
together down the steep bank, in mortal conflict. In a few moments he
was at the bottom with them, but too late to save the life of his
friend, who had so gallantly defended him. The leopard had torn open the
jugular vein, and so dreadfully mangled the throat of the unfortunate
man, that his death was inevitable; and his comrade had only the
melancholy satisfaction of completing the destruction of the savage
beast, which was already much exhausted by several deep wounds it had
received in the breast, from the desperate knife of the expiring
huntsman."
The Jaguar.
The Jaguar, otherwise known as the American Leopard, belongs to the
forests of South America, and has many points of difference from as well
as some of similarity with the Leopard of Asia. Though ferocious in his
wild state, he is amenable to civilizing influences and becomes mild and
tame in captivity. He is an excellent swimmer and an expert climber,
ascending to the tops of high branchless trees by fixing his claws in
the trunks. It is said that he can hunt in the trees almost as well as
he can upon the ground, and that hence he becomes a formidable enemy to
the monkeys. He is also a clever fisherman, his method being that of
dropping saliva on to the surface of the water, and upon the approach of
a fish, by a dexterous stroke of his paw knocking it out of the water on
to the bank. D'Azara, says: "He is a very ferocious animal causing great
destruction among horses and asses. He is extremely fond of eggs, and
goes to the shores frequented by turtles, and digs their eggs out of the
sand."
The Strength of the Jaguar.
The strength of the Jaguar is very great, and as he can climb, swim, and
leap a great distance, he is almost equally formidable in three
elements. He is said to attack the alligator and to banquet with evident
relish off his victim. D'Azara says that on one occasion he found a
Jaguar feasting upon a horse which it had killed. The Jaguar fled at his
approach, whereupon he had the body of the horse dragged to within a
musket shot of a tree in which he purposed watching for the Jaguar's
return. While temporarily absent he left a man to keep watch, and while
he was away the jaguar reappeared from the opposite side of a river
which was both deep and broad. Having crossed the river the animal
approached, and seizing the body of the horse with his teeth dragged it
some sixty paces to the water side, plunged in with it, swam across the
river, pulled it out upon the other side, and carried it into a
neighbouring wood.
A Night of Horror.
Mrs. Bowdich tells a story of two early settlers in the Western States
of America, a man and his wife, who closed their wooden hut, and went to
pay a visit at a distance, leaving a freshly-killed piece of venison
hanging inside. "The gable end of this house was not boarded up as high
as the roof, but a large aperture was left for light and air. By taking
an enormous leap, a hungry jaguar, attracted by the smell of the
venison, had entered the hut and devoured part of it. He was disturbed
by the return of the owners, and took his departure. The venison was
removed. The husband went away the night after to a distance, and left
his wife alone in the hut. She had not been long in bed before she heard
the jaguar leap in at the open gable. There was no door between her room
and that in which he had entered, and she knew not how to protect
herself. She, however, screamed as loudly as she could, and made all the
violent noises she could think of, which served to frighten him away at
that time; but she knew he would come again, and she must be prepared
for him. She tried to make a large fire, but the wood was expended. She
thought of rolling herself up in the bedclothes, but these would be torn
off. The idea of getting under the low bedstead suggested itself, but
she felt sure a paw would be stretched forth which would drag her out.
Her husband had taken all their firearms. At last, as she heard the
jaguar scrambling up the end of the house, in despair she got into a
large store chest, the lid of which closed with a spring. Scarcely was
she within it, and had dragged the lid down, inserting her fingers
between it and the side of the chest, when the jaguar discovered where
she was. He smelt round the chest, tried to get his head in through the
crack, but fortunately he could not raise the lid. He found her fingers
and began to lick them; she felt them bleed, but did not dare to move
them for fear she should be suffocated. At length the jaguar leaped on
to the lid, and his weight pressing down the lid, fractured her fingers.
Still she could not move. He smelt round again, he pulled, he leaped on
and off, till at last getting tired of his vain efforts, he went away.
The poor woman lay there till daybreak, and then only feeling safe from
her enemy, she went as fast as her strength would let her to her nearest
neighbour's a distance of two miles, where she procured help for her
wounded fingers, which were long in getting well. On his return, her
husband found a male and female jaguar with their cubs, in the forest
close by, and all were destroyed."
The Puma.