THE HUNTERS HUNTED.--ESCAPE FROM PECCARIES.--A
JAGUAR-HUNT.--AN IBIS.--THE CAYMANS.--THE WILD
BULLS.
After we had finished our breakfast next morning, we embarked our
baggage and menagerie, and prepared to depart. I was just going on board
the raft when a noise attracted our attention to the forest, and two
peccaries rushed past us, pursuing one another. L'Encuerado, taken by
surprise, shot at one of the animals without killing it, and we all gave
chase. Hardly had we gone a hundred paces, when the Indian, who was in
front of us, turned right about, shouting out, "To the raft! to the
raft!"
[Illustration: "A band of peccaries was pursuing us."]
A noise like the gallop of a troop of horses seemed to shake the
ground. A band of peccaries was pursuing us; and as my two companions
halted to fire, I succeeded in gaining the raft, on which I placed
Lucien. The peccaries, about a hundred in number, rushed on in a furious
crowd. Sumichrast, who was closely pressed by them, leaped upon the
frail bark, almost capsizing it, while l'Encuerado ran along the shore.
"Cut the mooring and push off!" he cried out to me as he disappeared in
the jungle.
Some of the peccaries rushed after the Indian; the others, chasing and
hustling one another, deafened us with their gruntings. I cut the
mooring-line; and, seizing hold of the boat-hook, directed the raft
towards the right bank, whence the uproar seemed to proceed.
"Hiou! hiou! Chanito!"
"Ohe! ohe!" I answered.
I was just going to spring off, when the Indian came in sight, followed
by Gringalet, and plunged into the water, holding his gun above his
head.
L'Encuerado, instead of coming to us on the raft, turned towards a
peccary which in its eagerness had fallen into the water and was
endeavoring to reach the bank. He seized it by an ear and dragged it
towards the raft, assisted by Gringalet, who swam, barking, behind, and
biting it when opportunity offered.
"Fire your gun at this poor wretch's head," called l'Encuerado to
Sumichrast.
This was no sooner said than done, and l'Encuerado leaped on board,
dragging his victim after him.
The peccaries collected on the shore continued to utter loud grunts of
rage; but we were beyond their reach, for the raft was soon carried past
them by the current.
"Are peccaries carnivorous?" asked Lucien.
"Yes, indeed, Chanito. If one of us had been knocked down by the band,
there wouldn't be much left now but bones."
"Isn't the peccary a wild boar, M. Sumichrast?"
"It is a pachyderm--consequently, a relation of the pig," answered my
friend. "The wild boar is solitary, while the peccaries always go in
flocks; this makes them formidable enemies in spite of their small
size."
"What, small! this one is larger than Gringalet!"
"The wild boar is twice as big. A characteristic of the peccary is, that
its tail is rudimentary, and the bristles spotted with black and white;
moreover, only its legs are eatable."
L'Encuerado went round the edge of the lake in order to trace the course
of the stream. We lost more than an hour in false channels, and the raft
ran aground in a shallow.
When the sun had set, and all the birds were flying over us to their
retreats, we landed to bivouac for the night.
A deep-toned roaring sound awoke me up with a start; the first thing I
saw was Lucien, with his gun in his hand, crouching down close to
Sumichrast. On the shore, about sixty yards from us, I saw a long tawny
form, and two shining eyes. A second roar told me the name of our
nocturnal visitor, whose voice I fancied I had heard in a dream.
"And where is l'Encuerado?" I asked my companion.
"He is crawling away to the other side."
A shot cut these words short; the animal gave another roar, and rushed
into the jungle. We heard a noise like a scuffle, and then the jaguar
again came in sight; it ran round and round, roaring with rage. A final
bound brought it to within twenty paces of our camp fire, when it fell
never to rise again.
"Hiou! hiou! Chanito."
This sound took a weight off my mind, for I could not but feel alarmed
for the safety of l'Encuerado.
"Ohe! ohe!" was responded.
Gringalet, who was let loose, ran towards the enormous creature, and
barked at it from a safe distance. The Indian came up, with his gun upon
his shoulder.
"The beast is justly mine, isn't it, Tatita, and I am still the
tiger-hunter?"
"Yes," I replied; "but let the tigers alone, if they will allow you, and
let us go to rest."
We were all going to lie down, when the roar of a tiger again shook the
air.
"Hallo!" cried my friend; "is your beast come to life again?"
"No, Tatita Sumichrast; but my tiger is a tigress, and her mate is come
to see after her."
I told the Indian not to move.
"Let him do as he likes," said my companion; "he will only disobey you."
Half an hour elapsed; all was profound silence, and we could hear the
slightest-rustling of the leaves. Suddenly there was the report of a
gun, and, five minutes afterwards, we greeted with "bravos" the
triumphant "Hiou! hiou!" of the Indian, who, streaming with water, came
to dry himself at the fire.
"I was obliged to ford the stream," he said; "but his lordship has got
the ball between his two eyes this time."
"You are a brave fellow," responded Sumichrast, shaking hands with him.
"Now I shall sleep quietly," the Indian whispered to Lucien.
Master Job, Gringalet, Janet, and Verdet, all had their eyes wide open
when I awoke at day-break. Lucien rose just as I was starting for the
water's edge and accompanied me.
An elegant bird with a long curved bill came and settled down on the
bank; the boy remarked the beautiful bronze-colored plumage of the
wader. I informed him it was an ibis.
"The Egyptian bird which devours serpents?"
"One of its kinsfolk," I replied; "the ibis feeds, generally speaking,
on worms, mollusks, and even on sea-weed or aquatic plants. It may,
perhaps, sometimes eat water-snakes; but as to feeding exclusively on
reptiles, or destroying them systematically, that's quite another
story."
We now reached the bivouac, and found my companions up, and l'Encuerado
in a state of high excitement over his exploit.
Having drunk our coffee, we all turned up our sleeves, and set to work
to skin our magnificent prizes. This difficult operation employed us all
the morning, and was scarcely finished when I carried our baggage on
board the raft, which was soon pushed off from the bank.
Our way lay through walls of the densest foliage, which often met
overhead, while such was the awful stillness of the solitude, that we
felt oppressed, and only spoke in a low voice.
The hour for rest had long passed, and yet no one proposed to land. The
fact was, we wished some more animated resting-place; and though
l'Encuerado, with his pole, shoved us onward with energy, the numerous
bends hindered our progress, and it seemed as if night would surprise us
still afloat. At last the palm-trees became more crowded, and the stream
emerged from the forest, to cross a prairie; here the raft was moored
under a canopy of creepers.
Our first care was to stretch the tigers' skins on the heated ground,
and, while I was helping l'Encuerado, Sumichrast and Lucien went off in
quest of our dinners. The fire had been for some time burning, when
we heard a distant gunshot.
[Illustration: "The banks of the river were covered with alligators."]
Sumichrast returned laden with a green iguana, and Lucien was dragging
by a string a little alligator about thirty inches long.
"Look, M. L'Encuerado!" cried the boy; "here is an alligator or cayman,
a relation of the lizards, and an enemy of man. This ugly young beast
has only baby-teeth, so can not bite much. It feeds on fish, otters,
calves, and many other animals. It is an amphibious being, M.
L'Encuerado, a creature that lays eggs like fowls, but buries them in
the sand, where the sun has to hatch them; it is a brute, too, which is
so fond of man that it eats him whenever it has a chance."
"Take care it does not bite you," said I to the boy; "how did you manage
to catch it?"
"I pursued it, thinking it was a big lizard; M. Sumichrast called out to
me not to handle it, and then tied this creeper round its neck."
"You don't intend to take it away with you, I hope?"
"No; it is an ill-tempered creature, and is always anxious to use its
teeth. I shall just show it to Master Job, and then let it go."
Neither Job nor his companions seemed flattered by this introduction,
and the boy was disappointed when he deposited it at the water's edge;
for, instead of plunging in, as he expected, it made a semicircle, and
ran off towards the forest.
"Don't young alligators know how to swim?" he asked.
"Yes, Chanito; but they do not go into the water till they are old
enough to defend themselves against the big males, which would devour
them."
The sun had scarcely risen, when I saw on the shore, at about ten paces
from us, three monsters luxuriously stretched out. One of them, from
sixteen to twenty feet long, with a brown and rough body, opened its
enormous jaws and showed us its frightful teeth. I took Lucien by the
hand to lead him nearer to the reptiles, the better to inspect them.
"I like tigers better than these creatures," said he; "certainly their
roaring is frightful to listen to, but they are by no means so hideous."
"Look along there, M. Sumichrast!" cried Lucien, when we had again taken
to our raft; "there are eyes floating on the water!"
"You are not mistaken; they are crocodile's eyes."
The child nestled up to me, and I encouraged him; but these dark eyes
appearing in every direction, and following every movement of the raft,
troubled him beyond expression.
The banks of the river were covered with alligators, with their mouths
wide agape. Some of them glided down into the water and came near us,
but the majority remained motionless, not caring to exert themselves.
Lucien's fear began to calm down. He had so wished to see plenty of
alligators; now he complained that there were too many.
"Look at that one," said Sumichrast, "climbing up that spit of land. He
turns round with difficulty, and looks as if he scarcely had the use of
his limbs. The fact is, that his body has no proper joints, and only
moves in one piece. The best way, therefore, to escape from an alligator
is to run up and down, making the turns short and rapid."
[Illustration: "The Indian and his branch descended with a splash into
the river."]
The stream had hitherto flowed almost on a level with its banks, now the
latter became gradually higher, and we floated along under an arch of
foliage. L'Encuerado happened to raise himself to point out to Lucien a
tree covered with parrots, between whom and the Indian there immediately
commenced a lively chatter. Diverted by this amusing conversation,
none of us perceived an enormous branch, which just grazed our heads but
upset our entertainer. When he emerged from the water, instead of
swimming towards us, l'Encuerado made his way to the bank, and began,
with cutlass in hand, to hew and hack at the tree which had been the
cause of his accident.
"If you're going to cut down that colossus," cried my friend, "we had
better encamp here, for it's eight days work at least."
"Only wait ten minutes more, at most, Tatita Sumichrast. It shall never
be said that this great booby broke my head and then laughed at me, to
the heart's delight of the parrots, who no doubt were the instigators of
such conduct."
L'Encuerado, by the notches he had cut in the tree, could easily climb
up to the lowest branch; but in his haste he slipped and fell a second
time into the water.
In a twinkling the Indian was up astride again on his branch, jabbering
like an ape, and slashing his knife into it, when of a sudden it gave a
loud crack, and he and it descended with a splash into the river. At
this noise the parrots sent up a wild scream and flew off, while the
branch floated past us to the ocean. Our companion climbed up again on
the raft, and laughed so heartily at his defeat of the tree and the
fright he had caused to the parrots, that Lucien soon joined in his
gayety. He was, however, thoroughly exhausted, so lay down, when he
slept the peaceful sleep of a child which has tired itself out with a
fit of passion.
For two hours I managed the raft, and then l'Encuerado, awaking, resumed
his post in silence. Suddenly there was a heavy tramping on the ground,
the boughs moved, and the head of a wild bull appeared among the
creepers. The animal surveyed us for a moment with its fierce eyes, and
then made off, bellowing hoarsely.
The sight of this new denizen of the forest confirmed the omens as we
had already read them, and soon, accordingly, there burst upon our view
an immense savannah. We were just about to pass the last shrub on the
bank of the river, when l'Encuerado suddenly brought the boat to a
stand-still. I stood up and saw a herd of wild cattle moving rapidly
down to that portion of the stream which we were about to pass.
"Look out!" cried Sumichrast; "this is better worth seeing than the
crocodiles."
L'Encuerado landed, and, crossing the prairie, called us. I found him
close to an enormous willow-tree. Without loss of time, Lucien,
Sumichrast, and I climbed up among the branches, taking Gringalet with
us; but the Indian preferred posting himself in a more isolated
position.
"We shall have roast fillet of beef to-night," cried he, executing among
the branches such a series of gambols that I feared he would finish by
falling.
The cattle approached. The ground trembled under their feet, and we were
deafened by their bellowing. One of them, a magnificent bull, with a
black coat sprinkled with white spots, took the lead. The drove, which
first trotted on, and then stopped to browse, followed its
imperious-looking chief; the caymans, as if awakened by the uproar,
assembled at the opening of the savannah, and numerous watchful eyes
were to be seen on the surface of the water.
[Illustration: "The entire drove . . . dashed at full gallop into the
stream."]
The wild drove halted at about fifty paces from the stream; the black
and white bull advanced alone and, first leisurely taking a drink,
plunged into the water; he reached the opposite bank, where he halted
and turned right about. Then the entire drove, above which was hovering
a cloud of horse-flies, dashed at full gallop into the stream to join
their guide. Although the drove must have consisted of hundreds, in
less than a quarter of an hour there were not left more than five or six
on our side, and these seemed afraid to cross. Suddenly a gun was fired,
and one of the animals came rushing past our tree with a jet of blood
flowing from his chest. Suddenly he stopped, groaned, and sank down upon
the ground. I cast a glance at l'Encuerado, who descended to the lowest
branch, continuing his gymnastic exercises. The young bulls on our side,
frightened by the report of the gun, at last made up their minds to
cross; one of them, however, stopping to drink, was seized by a
crocodile, and gradually drawn under the water. A second disappeared in
the middle of the stream; and a third, after a fearful struggle, reached
the bank. The whole drove, goaded on by the horse-flies, then resumed
their furious course, and were soon lost in the distance.
These cattle range the prairies in droves of sometimes forty thousand,
and were originally imported by the Spaniards.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]