Cuap, XI. - ALLIGATORS. 317 
innocently, and sociability was pretty general amongst all classes and 
colours. 
Our rancho was a large one, and was erected in a line with the 
others, near the edge of the sand-bank which sloped rather abruptly to 
the water. During the first week the people were all, more or less, 
troubled by alligators. Some half-dozen full-grown ones were in attend- 
ance off the praia, floating about on the lazily-flowing muddy water. 
The dryness of the weather had increased since we had left Shimunt, the 
currents had slackened, and the heat in the middle part of the day was 
almost insupportable. But no one could descend to bathe without 
being advanced upon by one or other of these hungry monsters. There 
was much offal cast into the river, and this of course attracted them to 
the place. One day I amused myself by taking a basketful of fragments 
of meat beyond the line of ranchos, and drawing the alligators towards 
me by feeding them. ‘They behaved pretty much as dogs do when 
fed ; catching the bones I threw them in their huge jaws, and coming 
nearer and showing increased eagerness after every morsel. The 
enormous gape of their mouths, with their blood-red lining and long 
fringes of teeth, and the uncouth shapes of their bodies, made a picture 
of unsurpassable ugliness. I once or twice fired a heavy charge of shot 
at them, aiming at the vulnerable part of their bodies, which is a small 
space situated behind the eyes, but this had no other effect than to 
make them give a hoarse grunt and shake themselves; they im- 
mediately afterwards turned to receive another bone which I threw to 
them. 
Every day these visitors became bolder; at length they reached a 
pitch of impudence that was quite intolerable. Cardozo had a poodle 
dog named Carlito, which some grateful traveller whom he had be- 
friended had sent him from Rio Janeiro. He took great pride in this 
dog, keeping it well sheared, and preserving its coat as white as soap 
and water could make it. We slept in our rancho in hammocks slung 
between the outer posts ; a large wood fire (fed with a kind of wood 
abundant on the banks of the river, which keeps alight all night) being 
made in the middle, by the side of which slept Carlito on a littie mat. 
Well, one night I was awoke by a great uproar. It was caused by 
Cardozo hurling burning firewood with loud curses at a huge cayman 
which had crawled up the bank and passed beneath my hammock (being 
nearest the water) towards the place where Carlito lay. The dog had 
raised the alarm in time ; the reptile backed out and tumbled down the 
bank to the water, the sparks from the brands hurled at him flying from 
his bony hide. To our great surprise the animal (we supposed it to be 
the same individual) repeated his visit the very next night, this time 
passing round to the other side of our shed. Cardozo was awake, and 
threw a harpoon at him, but without doing him any harm. After this 
it was thought necessary to make an effort to check the alligators ; a 
number of men were therefore persuaded to sally forth in their montarias 
and devote a day to killing them. 
The young men made several hunting excursions during the fourteen 
days of our stay on Catud, and I, being associated with them in all 
their pleasures, made generally one of the party. These were, besides, 
