20 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



should lie come open-mouthed at me. When this 

 was told to the Indians, they brightened up, and 

 said they would help me to pull him out of the 

 river. 



" * Brave squad!' said I to myself, ' ''Audax 

 omnia perpeti, ' ' now that you have got me betwixt 

 yourselves and danger.' I then mustered all 

 hands for the last time before the battle. We 

 were, four South American savages, two negroes 

 from Africa, a Creole from Trinidad, and myself, 

 a white man from Yorkshire. In fact, a little 

 Tower of Babel group, in dress, no dress, address 

 and language. 



' 'Daddy Quashi hung in the rear ; I showed him 

 a large Spanish knife, which I always carried in 

 the waistband of my trousers: it spoke volumes 

 to him, and he shrugged up his shoulders in ab- 

 solute despair. The sun was just peeping over 

 the high forests on the eastern hills, as if coming 

 to look on, and bid us act with becoming fortitude. 

 I placed all the people at the end of the rope, and 

 ordered them to pull till the cayman appeared on 

 the surface of the water; and then, should he 

 plunge, to slacken the rope and let him go again 

 into the deep. 



* ' I now took the mast of the canoe in my hand 

 (the sail being tied round the end of the mast) and 

 sank down upon one knee, about four yards from 

 the water's edge, determining to thrust it down 

 his throat, in case he gave me an opportunity. I 

 certainly felt somewhat uncomfortable in this 

 situation, and I thought of Cerberus on the other 

 side of the Styx ferry. The people pulled the 

 cayman to the surface; he plunged furiously as 



