364 LEAVES FROM THE 



found an infant all whole.'* Europe is separated from 



Africa by no very wide gulf, — 



It is a narrow strait. 



You may see the blue hills over; 



and the character of some of the vegetation of the south 

 reminds the observer of that of Africa. 



But to see the true boss in their native forests we 

 must cross the Atlantic ; and those who are not familiar 

 with the story may have no objection to learn how Cap- 

 tain Stedman fared in an encounter with one twenty- 

 two feet and some inches in length, during his residence 

 in Surinam. 



Captain Stedman was lying in his hammock, as his 

 vessel floated down the river, when the sentinel told him 

 that he had seen and challenged something black moving 

 in the brushwood on the beach, which gave no answer. 

 Up rose the captain, manned the canoe that accompanied 

 his vessel, and rowed to the shore to ascertain what it 

 Avas. One of his slaves cried out that it was no negro, but 

 a great snake, that the captain might shoot if he pleased. 

 The captain having no such inclination, ordered all hands 

 to return on board. The slave, David, who had first 

 challenged the snake, then begged leave to step forward 



but, above all, there came a beast bigger than an elephant, black, 

 with a head like a horse, and its forehead armed with three horns, 

 called by the Indians ' odonta.' This odonta, having drunk at the 

 lake, espied the camp, and immediately charged it, notwithstanding 

 the fires. In this last encounter six-and-thirty soldiers were slain, 

 and fifty-three faulchions rendered useless. At length the monster 

 died, transfixed by spears. ^Vhile the men were thus employed, 

 the quadrupeds were attacked and killed by an army of Indian 

 rats. Those who would see what the hippodami were like, as well 

 as the scorpions, serpents, crabs (which, by the way, have the form 

 of lobsters or craj'fish), white lions, panthers, bats, and, above all, 

 the odonta that figm'ed in this night attack, let them turn to the 

 delectable woodcuts in the Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon, 

 — Basileae, 1557. 



* Holland's Pliny. 



