WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 211 



food. Should the approach of night stop his 

 career, while he is hunting the wild boar, he stops 

 for the night, and continues the chase the nerty 

 morning. In my way through the wilds to the 

 Portuguese frontier, I had a proof of this: we 

 were eight in number, six Indians, a negro, and 

 myself. About ten o'clock in the morning, we 

 observed the feet-mark of the wild boars; we 

 judged by the freshness of the marks that they 

 had passed that way early the same morning. 

 As we were not gifted, like the hound, with scent, 

 and as we had no dog with us, we followed their 

 track by the eye. The Indian after game is as 

 sure with his eye as the dog is with his nose. 

 We followed the herd till three in the afternoon, 

 then gave up the chase for the present ; made our 

 fires close to a creek where there was plenty of 

 fish, and then arranged the hammocks. In an 

 hour the Indians shot more fish with their arrows 

 than we could consume. The night was beauti- 

 fully serene and clear, and the moon shone as 

 bright as day. Next morn we rose at dawn, got 

 breakfast, packed up, each took his burden, and 

 then we put ourselves on the track of the wild 

 boars, which we had been following the day 

 before. We supposed that they, too, would sleep 

 that night in the forest, as we had done ; and thus 

 the delay on our part would be no disadvantage 

 to us. This was just the case, for about nine 

 o'clock their feet-marks became fresher and 

 fresher: we now doubled our pace, but did not 

 give mouth like hounds. We pushed on in silence, 

 and soon came up with them; they were above 

 one hundred of them ; we killed six, and the rest 



