23 



same. This fondness extends to dogs, which are often fed with the tail 

 of this animal, which is the choicest part. A physician, who once tasted 

 this animal's flesh, informed me that its flavour, in some degree, resembled 

 that of fish, though unpalatable. 



Goldsmith says, that the crocodile " unpeoples countries, making 

 navigable rivers desert and daJigerovsJ'^ Let that suffice for the moderns. 

 Roll in and others spend much learning to show, that the Egyptians wor- 

 shipped this animal, because it defended their nation from all their ene- 

 mies, particularly the Arabs. Let this suffice for the ancients.* Truth 

 requires me to sa}", that there are several examples on record, showing 

 that alligators have bitten persons, while the latter were wading or 

 swimming in the water. Mungo Park, in his second expedition to explore 

 the Niger, says, "that his guide, in crossing a river, was seized by the 

 thigh by an alligator, and dragged under the water. The man put his 

 fingers into the eyes of the animal, which caused him to let go his hold ; 

 but soon afterwards he seized him by the other thigh, and the guide took 

 the same method to save himself, and succeeded, having suffered two 

 bad Wounds." (v. 2, p. 130.) In 1835, the Jacksonville Courier, 

 (newspaper) in Florida, details the case of a young man named Norton, 

 who was bitten by an alligator in the hand and arm, one of the bones 

 of which was broken. The man gouged^ the animal, causing it to let 

 go its hold. It was killed, and measured ten feet in length. 



Admitting these statements as altogether true, it may be truly said, 

 that there is scarcely an animal, wild or domestic, which has committed 

 so few injuries upon man — a position worth illustrating, as even twenty- 

 two centuries cannot make a falsehood, true. Besides, it is right to give 

 the alligator, as well as the devil, his due. 



As illustrative of the pacific and friendly character of the alligator, I 

 make the following quotation from the Missionaries' letters, reviewed in 

 the London Quarterly, volume the eleventh. At the Nicobar islands, in 

 the Bay of Bengal, these animals are numerous. "Mr. Haensel was 

 walking along the coast of Queba, looking on a number of children who 

 were sporting in the water, when he saw a large crocodile proceedino* 

 towards them, from a creek. He screamed, and made signs to some 

 Chinamen, to go to their assistance. The Chinamen laughed at his 



* It seemS; that both ancient and modern historians have had a carte blanche, 

 to say what they pleased about crocodiles and the Egyptians. Rollin and others 

 say, that the latter worshipped the ichneumon, because it killed the crocodile : 

 " it leaped into his mouth, ran down into his entrails, cut out a passage, and 

 returned victorious over so terrible an enemy I" and yet, the same authors pre- 

 tend, that the crocodile was worshipped because it defended the Egyptian na- 

 tion. If the ancients had some faults, they were not wholly destitute of com- 

 mon sense. Why should tliey worship the ichneumon, because it killed the 

 defender of their country ? 



f " Gouge. — A joiner's tool. The word is used by the North Americans, 

 who in their savage quarrels, not unfrequently ^ow^e out eyes." — Richardson'' s 

 Dictionary. Now this definition is, no doubt, intended to have a damagiu!'* effect 

 on Americans ; it is, besides, an Americanism ; and a writer in tlie National 

 Intelligencer says, that American writers, dread nothing so much as an Ameri- 

 canism. This word is not only necessary, but excellent, though the practice 

 it designates, is bad, except in the case of crocodilian fights. 



4 



