SAUVE QUI PEUT ! 185 



ungainly body up the trunk of the tree. The clogs, de- 

 riving encouragement from the approach of the hunts- 

 men, made a final attack upon their enemy, whose body 

 they literally covered ; so that, in fact, we could not find 

 an inch of skin where we might direct a bullet. 



While we were thus hesitating to make use of our fire- 

 arms, and while the bear shook his opponents right and 

 left, and in every direction, a troop of peccaries made their 

 appearance, and simultaneously charged the bear, the 

 dogs, and the huntsmen. The cries, the howls, the gene- 

 ral sauve qui pent, can only be imagined by those of my 

 readers who have been placed in an analogous situation. 

 The dogs, with their tails between their legs, rushed 

 towards us ; the bear, maddened by his wounds, de- 

 meaned himself like an unchained lunatic, and with his 

 feet and his teeth blindly dealt death around him. 



The first sentiment experienced by my friends and 

 myself had been one of stupor ; but from this we were 

 soon awakened by the consciousness of our danger. 



" Sauve qui pent" cried Mr. Morgan, in a voice ex- 

 pressive of anger and astonishment. His brother, and the 

 negro who had followed us, joined him in shouting, 

 " The peccaries, the peccaries ! Save yourself, save your- 

 self!" 



To this unwonted cry was added the report of our car- 

 bines in the middle of the cane-bush, where the peccaries 

 were heedlessly stamping to and fro. The swiftness of 

 our horses, stimulated by fear much more than by our 

 spurs, soon brought us back to Mr. Morgan's plantation. 

 There I carefully folded in my portmanteau the hunting- 

 coat, that it might in after-days remind me of my first 

 encounter with the American Peccaries. 



