CHAPTEE XYIL 



TREED BY WILD PECCARIES. 



How the hunter was hunted — All night in a tree— A perilous ex- 

 periment — A terrible tusker — Man Friday to the rescue — 

 The first human being I had seen for months. 



In the chapter preceding I gave the results of my 

 rainy-day investigations. In this I shall describe my 

 encounter with the largest wild quadrupeds of Tobago, 

 the peccaries. 



One day, during a fine interval in the rainy season, 

 I penetrated the forest much farther than I had done 

 before. I went so far, in fact, that I had difficulty 

 in determining my location, and was in doubt how to 

 reach my camp. At last coming to a cliff which over- 

 hung a stream and gave some shelter, I sat down to 

 think it over. 



Beneath the cliff there was a cave, dry and quite 

 deep, which offered a retreat for the night, if it should 

 chance that I could not reach home. Placing my 

 gun far in, out of the wet, I sat in the cave's mouth 

 and abandoned myself to gloomy reflections. 



I was rudely aroused, however, by a sound quite 

 near me ; and looking up, I saw the animal which, of 

 all four-footed creatures, I dreaded most to meet, at 



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