To one brought up--born, I might almost say--upon the banks of a
Floridian river, there is nothing remarkable in the sight of an
alligator. Nothing very terrible either; for ugly as is the great
saurian--certainly the most repulsive form in the animal kingdom--it is
least dreaded by those who know it best. For all that, it is seldom
approached without some feeling of fear. The stranger to its haunts and
habits, abhors and flees from it; and even the native--be he red, white,
or black--whose home borders the swamp and the lagoon, approaches this
gigantic lizard with caution.
Some closet naturalists have asserted that the alligator will not attack
man, and yet they admit that it will destroy horses and horned cattle.
A like allegation is made of the jaguar and vampire bat. Strange
assertions, in the teeth of a thousand testimonies to the contrary.
It is true the alligator does not always attack man when an opportunity
offers--nor does the lion, nor yet the tiger--but even the false Buffon
would scarcely be bold enough to declare that the alligator is
innocuous. If a list could be furnished of human beings who have fallen
victims to the voracity of this creature, since the days of Columbus, it
would be found to be something enormous--quite equal to the havoc made
in the same period of time by the Indian tiger or the African lion.
Humboldt, during his short stay in South America, was well informed of
many instances; and for my part, I know of more than one case of actual
death, and many of lacerated limbs, received at the jaws of the American
alligator.
There are many species, both of the caiman or alligator, and of the true
crocodile, in the waters of tropical America. They are more or less
fierce, and hence the difference of "travellers' tales" in relation to
them. Even the same species in two different rivers is not always of
like disposition. The individuals are affected by outward
circumstances, as other animals are. Size, climate, colonisation, all
produce their effect; and, what may appear still more singular, their
disposition is influenced by the character of the race of men that
chances to dwell near them!
On some of the South-American rivers--whose banks are the home of the
ill-armed apathetic Indian--the caimans are exceedingly bold, and
dangerous to approach. Just so were their congeners, the alligators of
the north, till the stalwart backwoodsman, with his axe in one hand, and
his rifle in the other, taught them to fear the upright form--a proof
that these crawling creatures possess the powers of reason. Even to
this hour, in many of the swamps and streams of Florida, full-grown
alligators cannot be approached without peril; this is especially the
case daring the season of the sexes, and still more where these reptiles
are encountered remote from the habitations of man. In Florida are
rivers and lagoons where a swimmer would have no more chance of life,
than if he had plunged into a sea of sharks.
Notwithstanding all this, use brings one to look lightly even upon real
danger--particularly when that danger is almost continuous; and the
denizen of the _cypriere_ and the _white cedar_ swamp is accustomed to
regard without much emotion the menace of the ugly alligator. To the
native of Florida, its presence is no novelty, and its going or coming
excites but little interest--except perhaps in the bosom of the black
man who feeds upon its tail; or the alligator-hunter, who makes a living
out of its leather.
The appearance of one on the edge of the savanna would not have caused
me a second thought, had it not been for its peculiar movements, as well
as those I had just observed on the part of the mulatto. I could not
help fancying that there was _some connexion between them_; at all
events it appeared certain, that the reptile was following the man!
Whether it had him in view, or whether trailing him by the scent, I
could not tell. The latter I fancied to be the case; for the mulatto
had entered under cover of the maize-plants, before the other appeared
outside the timber; and it could hardly have seen him as it turned
towards the gap. It might, but I fancied not. More like, it was
trailing him by the scent; but whether the creature was capable of doing
so, I did not stay to inquire.
On it crawled over the sward--crossing the corner of the meadow, and
directly upon the track which the man had taken. At intervals, it
paused, flattened its breast against the earth, and remained for some
seconds in this attitude, as if resting itself. Then it would raise its
body to nearly a yard in height, and move forward with apparent
eagerness--as if in obedience to some attractive power in advance of it?
The alligator progresses but slowly upon dry ground--not faster than a
duck or goose. The water is its true element, where it makes way almost
with the rapidity of a fish.
At length it approached the gap; and, after another pause, it drew its
long dark body within the enclosure. I saw it enter among the
maize-plants, at the exact point where the mulatto had disappeared! Of
course, it was now also hidden from my view.
I no longer doubted that the monster was following the man; and equally
certain was I that the latter _knew_ that he was followed! How could I
doubt either of these facts? To the former, I was an eye-witness; of
the latter, I had circumstantial proofs. The singular attitudes and
actions of the mulatto; his taking out the bars and leaving the gap
free; his occasional glances backward--which I had observed as he was
crossing the open ground--these were my proofs that he knew what was
coming behind him--undoubtedly he knew.
But my conviction upon these two points in nowise helped to elucidate
the mystery--for a mystery it had become. Beyond a doubt, the reptile
was drawn after by some attraction, which it appeared unable to resist--
its eagerness in advancing was evidence of this, and proved that the man
was exercising some influence over it that lured it forward.
What influence? Was he beguiling it by some charm of Obeah?
A superstitious shudder came over me, as I asked myself the question. I
really had such fancies at the moment. Brought up, as I had been, among
Africans, dandled in the arms--perhaps nourished from the bosom--of many
a sable nurse, it is not to be wondered at that my young mind was
tainted with the superstitions of Bonny and Benin. I knew there were
alligators in the cypress swamp--in its more remote recesses, some of
enormous size--but how Yellow Jake had contrived to lure one out, and
cause it to follow him over the dry cultivated ground, was a puzzle I
could not explain to myself. I could think of no natural cause; I was
therefore forced into the regions of the weird and supernatural.
I stood for a long while watching and wondering. The deer had passed
out of my mind. They fed unnoticed: I was too much absorbed in the
mysterious movements of the half-breed and his amphibious follower.