218 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



them go for a gun. I smiled in a good-natured 

 manner, and made a feint to cut them down with 

 the weapon I had in my hand. This was all the 

 answer I made to their request, and they looked 

 very uneasy. 



It must be observed, we were now about twenty 

 yards from the snake's den. I now ranged the 

 negroes behind me, and told him who stood next 

 to me to lay hold of the lance the moment I 

 struck the snake, and that the other must attend 

 my movements. It now only remained to take 

 their cutlasses from them, for I was sure, if I 

 did not disarm them, they would be tempted to 

 strike the snake in time of danger, and thus for 

 ever spoil his skin. On taking their cutlasses 

 from them, if I might judge from their physi- 

 ognomy, they seemed to consider it as a most 

 intolerable act of tyranny in me. Probably noth- 

 ing kept them from bolting, but the consolation 

 that I was to be betwixt them and the snake. 

 Indeed, my own heart, in spite of all I could do, 

 beat quicker than usual; and I felt those sensa- 

 tions which one has on board a merchant-vessel 

 in war time, when the captain orders all hands on 

 deck to prepare for action, while a strange vessel 

 is coming down upon us under suspicious colours. 



We went slowly on in silence, without moving 

 our arms or heads, in order to prevent all alarm 

 as much as possible, lest the snake should glide 

 off, or attack us in self-defence. I carried the 

 lance perpendicularly before me, with the point 

 about a foot from the ground. The snake had 

 not moved; and on getting up to him, I struck 

 him with the lance on the near side, just behind 



