HOMEWARD BOUND.
Having now accomplished the most difficult part of our labors, namely,
that of transporting three thousand wild animals across a rising stream
by such primitive means, we took advantage of the few canoes at our
disposal to transfer ourselves and chattels to the other side of the
river. This was not so easily done, as the _creciente_ was rapidly
gaining upon us, with no small risk to our ponderous equipment, which
had to be landed on the sandy beach; and unless quickly removed, while
waiting for another canoe-load, our traps were in constant danger of
being carried off by the boisterous waves of the river. I had thus the
misfortune of being deprived of my hammock, which circumstance compelled
me to seek repose at night on the stiff hide covers of the baggage--not
a very comfortable couch after a hard ride in the hot sun.
Our long train of baggage-mules and wild beasts necessitated many
stoppages by the way in order to incorporate stragglers, but more
frequently to hunt anew the runaways among the latter--not an easy
task.
[Illustration: HOMEWARD BOUND.]
The bulls especially showed a marked reluctance to leave behind their
bellowing harems in the everglades across the river. Such was their love
of home in this respect, that we were assured that most of those which
succeeded in evading our pursuit, made their way back to their savannas
in spite of the broad expanse of water which separated them. Much
valuable time and patience were lost in this way, while the increasing
inundation was following fast on our steps, so much so, that long after
we had left the banks of the river on our rear, we had to wade through a
continuous sheet of water, which was every moment rising above the
fetlocks of our beasts. We also had to ford several smaller streams,
already swollen by the rapid rise of the Apure; but, as no canoes could
be had amidst those wilds, for love or money, we availed ourselves of
the primitive contrivance devised on such occasions by means of a raw
hide fashioned into a lighter. The trunks and boxes were carefully piled
inside the skin, and if a person chose to avail himself of this frail
barge, he had only to sit steadily on the top of the baggage; the load
was then carefully launched on the water, the other end of the rope
intrusted to the swimmer and towed in safety to the other side. In this
manner our ponderous Doctor and a few others who were unwilling to
expose their own skin to the tender mercies of the caribes, were
successfully ferried across, although it required a steady nerve not to
stir an inch and thus upset the whole concern.
Our march across the prairies presented a splendid sight and was
suggestive of a long file of prisoners after a well-contested field of
battle. At the head of the column, which extended for upward of a mile,
marched a strong picket of horsemen, the _Punteros_, guiding the
caravan; and on the sides and rear was another file of men with lazos
ready to unfold after deserters. Lively tunes and whistling were kept up
by the men for the diversion of the cattle, which appeared quite
delighted with the music and in consequence became less restive on the
march.
When near San Jaime, I, together with a party of young companions,
having separated ourselves from the rest and taken another route, lost
ourselves in the intricate passes leading to the village. This
circumstance, although it delayed us for some time from reaching the
camp, led us to an abundant field of rich honey, the production of a
small wasp called _matajey_, which builds its nest on the branches of
the trees, in the shape of a large ball. The sting of this insect is so
distressing, that persons affected by it become feverish and benumbed;
therefore, in order to possess ourselves of its delicious honey-combs,
we took the precaution to smoke out the wasps by means of a burning rag
at the end of a long pole applied to the mouth of the nest, when the
whole swarm abandoned it to the hunters without molestation.
It was almost dark when we arrived at San Jaime, having hit accidentally
upon the right path, after wandering the whole day through the woods;
but, being well supplied with honey and water, we did not regret as much
the loss of our dinner, as the fact of its having been prepared by
another kind of swarm, but this time of pretty girls, who had assembled
for the purpose at the cottage of our hospitable host. We enjoyed,
however, the pleasure of their unsophisticated society for some time
before retiring to our hammocks where, fatigued by the toils of our
previous adventure, we speedily lost ourselves again in “sweet, balmy
sleep.”
Being rather in a hurry to reach the pass before a sudden rise of the
creeks connected with the river Portuguesa, we were up long before
sunrise, and had barely time to partake of a substantial breakfast,
prepared by our charming entertainers.
Immediately upon our arrival at the pass, we proceeded to force our
cattle across the river, which being less wide than the Apure, and our
herds having become more manageable after the long march, we were
enabled to execute it in better order and less time than at the former
river. Still we contrived somehow or other to tarry here longer than was
necessary, having wasted three days in accomplishing what might have
been the work of one. The fact is, that we were rather taken up with our
former feminine acquaintances, especially at the close of day, when the
party assembled in the barracoon, destined for the _fandango_, which was
usually kept up the whole night.
Fitful accompaniment to these nocturnal revelries was the deafening
croaking of the toads and frogs, now abounding by myriads in the marshes
and quagmires of the vicinity. The shrill, metallic notes of the frogs,
and the hoarse croaking of their milky brethren, are a feature which
never fails to excite the astonishment of strangers in those regions.
The former especially are so striking, that were an Englishman or
American suddenly transported there, without knowledge of these sounds,
he would imagine himself at home, in the neighborhood of ten thousand
steam whistles. I was assured by our friend B., with reference to the
toads of Guadarrama, a village on the banks of the Portuguese, that one
night he was thrown down in the street by coming in contact with one of
these creatures, which he mistook for a boy in a stooping posture.
Indignant at, what he supposed, the indiscretion of the fellow, B. was
in the act of kicking him away when, to his surprise, he perceived the
seeming boy slowly moving off in the shape of a big toad!
This, of course, is another of B.’s great yarns, which he endeavored to
pass on us as veritable facts occurring to him during his wandering
peregrinations; but really, putting aside his extravagant stories, such
is the volume of voice and long-sustained sopranos, bassos, and
contraltos of the toads and frogs of South America, that one would
suppose they had lungs as big as those of a manatí. And as regards the
size that these creatures attain here, I may quote a passage from a
recent book of travels in those countries which, had it not appeared in
London simultaneously with the first edition of the _Wild Scenes in
South America_,[65] any one might be inclined to think--after reading
the preceding remarks--that they had been suggested by the perusal of
the following paragraphs:
“In soft, dripping weather, the country roads become almost impassable,
and my favorite resource was to sit still and read Tennyson or
Longfellow; but the studies of a novice in Brazil, on a wet evening, are
strangely interrupted by the extraordinary proceedings of frogs and
toads of all sorts and sizes, which testify their exuberant joy by the
most discordant noises. Croaking is no name for it. Some of the milder
and quieter kinds may perhaps be said to croak, but these are soon
silenced by another tribe, whose name is Legion, grunting, snorting, and
shrieking like a railway train at full speed; and when they stop for
want of breath, the ‘wondrous song’ is taken up by larger numbers of
other detestable batrachyans, which keep up a frantic revel of rattling
and clattering, such as I have never heard equalled, except by an
intoxicated chorus of May sweeps.
“Some of the toads are enormous. In one of my mountain rambles I
suddenly spied a very beautiful lycopodium growing in large quantities
on a moist bank, and, without looking at my feet, sprang across the path
to gather a specimen. I stumbled over something very hard and immovable,
and nearly measured my length in the mud; but I seized the lycopodium,
and then turned round to look at the obstacle. It was a monstrous toad,
nearly a foot long, with great yellow pits around its spiteful eyes, and
as ugly a brute as ever I saw. He did not make the least attempt to
move, and seemed to be chuckling over the fact of nearly upsetting a
traveller. A friend of mine, however, told me that he had been offered a
still larger specimen as a present, which he declined to accept on the
ground of ferocity. He said it was as big as a hat, it opened its mouth
like an oyster, barked like a dog, and flew at his legs! A nice pet to
keep in a strawberry-bed!”[66]
But I never was so struck with the power which frogs alone can exert “in
congress assembled,” as one night that I accompanied--soon after our
return from the Llanos--a military expedition to surprise a band of
revolutionists, who had been committing all sorts of depredations on the
plantations across the lake, and were preparing to attack the town of
Villa de Cura on the road to the plains. We started from Maracay in the
early part of a rainy night, and had to take a circuitous route--it
hardly deserved the name of road--around the eastern end of the lake to
reach the village of Magdaleno (headquarters of the marauders) before
daylight. As the expedition had to be conducted with much precaution,
neither drums nor bugles were allowed; consequently all orders had to be
given _viva-voce_. But when we reached the nearest point to the swampy
borders of the lake, I do not believe that even Stentor could have made
himself heard in the midst of that hellish uproar. To add to our
“confusion worse confounded,” the soil was so spongy and drenched with
the vernal deluge, that infantry and cavalry--we had no artillery--were
nearly swallowed up by the mud before firing a shot at the enemy;
fortunately we extricated ourselves before the latter were apprized of
our approach by a volley fired at our vanguard by one of their advanced
posts near the village, which, had they exhibited the least judgment in
military tactics, they might have stationed a little further off, where
we encountered a turbulent stream which only a portion of our force with
the utmost difficulty could cross. As it turned out, we entered the
village pell-mell with their advanced guard, and soon scattered them
over the neighboring mountains, where further pursuit was utterly
impossible.
What a glorious chance these swampy realms of Venezuela would offer some
French gourmand desirous of migrating to South America! And yet, strange
to say, our people will not touch that epicurean _bonne-bouche_, which
has conferred a name upon a whole civilized nation: _les sauvages!_
Another noisy creature that makes its appearance about this time also,
is the _chicharra_, an insect of the locust tribe, with which the woods
are literally filled, and whose sharp, shrill, and continuous chant
almost surpasses that of the frogs themselves. Fortunately, they are
only heard in the day-time; and our route being mostly over open
prairies, we were not so constantly tormented by them, except whenever
we had to pass through the woods infested by these noisy insects. It
seemed to me that for every leaf of those truly gigantic trees there
were twenty _chicharras_, all singing at the top of their voices,
without the least intermission. What they live upon--for I did not
perceive any damage to the foliage of the trees--and when do they get
their meals, my observations could not discover. Sullivan tells us of
two other insects of the tropics, which joined to the above, might rival
the nocturnal concerts of _maître crapeau_.
“During our ride, I was startled by hearing what I fully imagined was
the whistle of a steam-engine; but I was informed it was a noise caused
by a beetle that is peculiar to Tobago. It is near the size of a man’s
hand; and fixing itself against a branch commences a kind of drumming
noise, which by degrees quickens to a whistle. It was so loud that, when
standing fully twenty yards from the tree where it was in operation, the
sound was so shrill that you had to raise your voice considerably to
address your neighbor. The entomological productions of the tropics
struck me as being quite as astonishing in size and nature as the
botanical or zoological wonders. There is another beetle, called the
razor-grinder, that imitates the sound of a knife-grinding machine so
exactly, that it is impossible to divest oneself of the belief that one
is in reality listening to ‘some needy knife-grinder’ who has wandered
out to the tropical wilds on spec.”[67]
Some kinds of trees were also alive with another, though quite harmless
tenant, the _iguana_, a green lizard measuring nearly four feet in
length, and thick in proportion round the body, whose flesh is said to
surpass that of the tenderest chicken, and, I imagine--never having
tasted it--even that of the celebrated French _bonne-bouche_ referred
to above. The eggs which it lays in great profusion, I know from
personal experience, are quite sweet, and can be taken out of the
animal, without injury to the harmless creature, by cutting it open and
sewing it up again. While at San Jaime I heard a story in connection
with this reptile, which is very characteristic of the Spanish
commanders during the war of Independence, and whose memory is still
fresh throughout the country they overran with their exactions. It
appears that one of these gentlemen newly arrived from Spain, had
established his headquarters at San Jaime, which was by this time pretty
well cleaned out of everything that moved upon the earth. One day, the
_soi-disant_ commander was going his rounds about the town, when he met
an Indian boy carrying a brace of _iguanas_ suspended from a stick upon
his shoulders; these lizards, by virtue of their aerial prerogative, or
perhaps on account of their inexhaustible numbers, having escaped the
general onslaught upon other living creatures, not excepting the
inhabitants. The Spaniard, who had never seen iguanas in his country,
naturally had his curiosity aroused, and at once instituted as close an
interrogatory respecting these, as if a doomed “insurgent” had been
brought to him. “Say, boy, are they good to eat?”--“_Si, Señor_,”
replied the boy, who probably had never tasted in his life any other
kind of food.--“What will you take for them?” (quite
considerate).--“_Una peseta, Señor_” (a quarter of a dollar). A bargain
was at once made to the satisfaction of both parties, and the iguanas
were handed over to the orderly beside the commander, who gave the
proper directions to have them served for dinner; and so delighted was
His Excellency with the dish, that he published at once a _bando_
offering a reward of twenty-five cents for every brace of iguanas
brought to him. Three days afterwards he had to countermand the order
through another _bando_, threatening with capital punishment any one who
would _dare_ to bring him another brace of the horrid-looking creatures,
with which the juvenile portion of the town had by this time filled his
headquarters.
The favorite haunts of the iguana are the Ceiba, and the Sand-box
trees--_Ura crepitans_--both bristling with sharp thorns, a good
protection against the persecution of predatory boys; otherwise these
lizards fall an easy prey, when perched upon more accessible localities,
by merely “whistling for them;” for being, as it appears, very fond of
musical sounds, they are readily lulled to sleep by that means, while
the captors prepare a noose at the end of a long rod with which they
secure their victim. They do not always fare badly, however, for being
easily domesticated, they are kept as pets by the female portion of the
household, where they become very useful in ridding the cottage of
cockroaches and other vermin. Their bitterest enemies, however, are
roving, lazy Indians, who not only consider them a dainty morsel, but
take particular delight in tormenting these inoffensive creatures by
quartering them alive, and teazing them in various ways; thus, when any
person is in a bad plight his troubles are compared to those of the
iguana in that predicament, as will be seen in the following popular
ditty:
Los trabajos de la iguana
Cuando los Indios la cojen,
Le quitan los cuatro patas
Y le dicen, iguana, corre!
* *
When Indians seize the iguana
Her sorrows are begun,
They cut off her four feet,
And cry, “Iguana, run!”
How different the case would have been if, instead of the puny, harmless
creatures that iguanas are at the present day, their cruel tormentors
had lived in the times of their prototype, the _Iguanodon_, the most
colossal of the saurian reptiles, sixty feet in length, with a horn on
its snout as formidable as that of the rhinoceros, and teeth sharp
enough to munch to a jelly the most stately Ceiba or Sand-box tree. “It
is difficult to resist the feeling of astonishment, not to say
incredulity”--observes Figuier--“which creeps over one while
contemplating the disproportion so striking between this being of the
ancient world and its congener of the new.”[68] The Iguanodon was in
fact an iguana of huge dimensions, enjoying the freedom of the jungle
with the _Hylæosaurus_ and the _Megalosaurus_--two other saurian
monsters of the cretaceous period. The latter is represented as
possessing teeth in perfect accord with the destructive functions
developed in this formidable creature, for they partake at once of the
knife, the sabre, and the saw.