1 66 TRAVELS ON THE RIO NEGRO. [February 



As I was walking quietly along I saw a large jet-black 

 animal come out of the forest about twenty yards before me, 

 which took me so much by surprise that I did not at first 

 imagine what it was. As it moved slowly on, and its whole 

 body and long curving tail came into full view in the middle 

 of the road, I saw that it was a fine black jaguar. I involun- 

 tarily raised my gun to my shoulder, but remembering that 

 both barrels were loaded with small shot, and that to fire would 

 exasperate without killing him, I stood silently gazing. In the 

 middle of the road he turned his head, and for an instant 

 paused and gazed at me, but having, I suppose, other business 

 of his own to attend to, walked steadily on, and disappeared in 

 the thicket. As he advanced, I heard the scampering of small 

 animals, and the whizzing flight of ground birds, clearing the 

 path for their dreaded enemy. 



This encounter pleased me much. I was too much surprised, 

 and occupied too much with admiration, to feel fear. I had 

 at length had a full view, in his native wilds, of the rarest 

 variety of the most powerful and dangerous animal inhabiting 

 the American continent. I was, however, by no means desirous 

 of a second meeting, and, as it was near sunset, thought it most 

 prudent to turn back towards the village. 



The next morning I sent all my Indians to fish, and walked 

 myself along the road to Javita, and thus crossed the division 

 between the basins of the Amazon and the Orinooko. The 

 road is, generally speaking, level, consisting of a series of 

 slight ascents and descents, nowhere probably varying more 

 than fifty feet in elevation, and a great part of it being over 

 swamps and marshes, where numerous small streams intersect 

 it. At those places roughly squared trunks of trees are laid 

 down longitudinally, forming narrow paths or bridges, over 

 which passengers have to walk. 



The road is about twenty or thirty feet wide, running nearly 

 straight through a lofty forest. On the sides grow numbers of 

 the Inaja* palm (Maximiliana regia), the prickly Mauritia 

 (M. aculeata) in the marshes, and that curious palm the 

 Piassaba, which produces the fibrous substance now used for 

 making brooms and brushes in this country for street-sweeping 

 and domestic purposes. This is the first and almost the only 

 point where this curious tree can be seen, while following any 

 regular road or navigation. From the mouth of the Padauari 



