TREED BY WILD PECCARIES. 163 



advancing incautiously. My warning was not heeded, 

 for there suddenly burst into view a man with a dog, 

 on the cliff above me. The man, who saw the pec- 

 caries ahnost simultaneously with his appearance, lev- 

 eled his gun and fired. At the same time the dog 

 barked vociferously ; and after a moment's hesitation 

 my enemies turned tail and scurried away. It must 

 have been a dreadful disappointment to them, after 

 their long vigil, but they didn't wait for a farewell. 



As the last one of them disappeared in the forest 

 gloom I realized that my deliverance had come, and 

 tried to descend from my perch. This, however, I 

 found impossible without the assistance of my deliv- 

 erer, a negro, whose kindly black face was the most 

 welcome thing I had seen in a long time. He made 

 a fire and a cup of coffee for me, while I was striving 

 to regain the use of my limljs ; and as soon as I was 

 able to walk, guided me to camp, which we reached 

 without further adventure. 



My companion did his best to cheer me, but my 

 reflections on the way home were not at all consola- 

 tory, for I felt the humiliation of the affair and that 

 my dignity as a man, hitherto sole monarch of this 

 realm, had been compromised. Still, there was no 

 blinking the fact : I had been treed by " wild hogs." 

 The hunter had been hunted ; the doctor treated to a 

 taste of his own medicine. I could not, after all, but 

 acknowledge the justice of it, and would not have 

 minded a small dose of my own medicine ; but this 

 had been a bolus, when a mere pill might have suf- 

 ficed. 



