50 HUNTING TRIPS 



gerous an antagonist as the African or In- 

 dian leopard, and would even attack men 

 unprovoked. An instance of this occurred 

 in the annals of my mother's family. Early 

 in the present century one of my ancestral 

 relatives, a Georgian, moved down to the 

 wild and almost unknown country border- 

 ing on Florida. His plantation was sur- 

 rounded by jungles in which all kinds of 

 wild beasts swarmed. One of his negroes 

 had a sweetheart on another plantation, and 

 in visiting her, instead of going by the road 

 he took a short cut through the swamps, heed- 

 less of the wild beasts, and armed only with 

 a long knife for he was a man of colossal 

 strength, and of fierce and determined tem- 

 per. One night he started to return late, 

 expecting to reach the plantation in time 

 for his daily task on the morrow. But he 

 never reached home, and it was thought he 

 had run away. However, when search was 

 made for him his body was found in the 

 path through the swamp, all gashed and 

 torn, and but a few steps from him the body 



