MY FIRST TAPIR 181 



for weeks after he was confined to his hammock unable 

 to move. From the caution he displayed whenever he had 

 to get into the water where sting-rays might be expected, 

 he must really have suffered severely. 



We landed on some rocks on our right just below the 

 rapids, where tufts of stunted trees grow from between 

 the rubble forming the banks at this spot. The men 

 having got on shore were preparing the ropes for hauling 

 the boats up stream, when Isidor, who was in front, 

 crouched close to the ground, and, pointing ahead, 

 whispered loud enough for me to hear, 'Don Andre, 

 Danta.' ^ Not 100 yards away, under a clump of small 

 trees, was a large tapir. He did not seem to have noticed 

 us, for he moved slowly out into the open, biting off 

 leaves here and there from the small bushes as he strolled 

 along, I had an old Winchester rifle I had picked up as 

 a bargain, and a very bad bargain it turned out to be, for 

 the rifling had been destroyed by its having been used 

 as a shot-gun. With this wretched weapon I fired four 

 shots at the tapir, who continued to graze without paying 

 any attention to the loud reports of the shots. Throwing 

 down the rifle I took my twelve-bore, and, creeping 

 stealthily to within a few yards of my victim, I let him 

 have both barrels. He fell on his haunches and I put an 

 end to his sufferings by firing at close quarters into one 

 of his ears. This was my first tapir, and one is generally 

 proud of his first kill of any particular wild animal, but 

 the slaying of this miserable-looking beast was not a feat 

 to boast of. He was wretchedly thin, and his hind- 

 quarters, deeply scored, showed that he had but recently 

 escaped from the claws of a jaguar. The wounds had not 

 healed and were full of worms. He had escaped from 



' ' Don Andr6, a tapir. 



