118 CENTRAL AMERICA. 



that the feeling of self-protection, if not gra- 

 titude, actuated the poor ox. 



In connexion with panther hunting, I can- 

 not help relating a story of a very vaunting 

 Spaniard, which story I should certainly not 

 relate, had I not been convinced that these 

 pages could never by any possibility be seen 

 by him, or any of his friends, to occasion him 

 annoyance. 



One evening a Spanish traveller from the 

 coast arrived at a rather large rancho on the 

 borders of Segovia, and asked shelter for 

 the night from the owner, who was in charge 

 of a herd of about two thousand cattle half 

 wild ; the greater part of them were safely 

 ensconced in a vast natural amphitheatre of 

 steep rocks, with only one entry, and that 

 very difficult of access ; but a few hundred 

 were dispersed in the forest on the lower 

 ground. 



The traveller had eaten for his supper a 

 good fat fowl, and having produced a bottle 

 of aquardiente^ was, with the help of a little 

 hot water and cigars, making himself exceed- 

 ingly comfortable. At another apology for a 

 table sat two Englishmen, who had done, 

 and were doing precisely the same thing, and 

 were making themselves equally at their ease, 



