THE PECCARY. 127 



the planters and their friends, these Texan wihl 

 boars have become as rare as the Euroi^ean ones in 

 the forests of the Okl World. 



I shall never forget the first adventure which 

 happened to me in hunting for peccaries. I waB 

 staying at Canney Creek with a planter, whose 

 brother was one of my best friends in New York. 

 Mr. John Morgan had emigrated to Texas in 1837, 

 with another brother, the youngest of the three, 

 and his plantation was certainly the finest in the 

 neighbourhood. I was a mere tyro in comparison 

 with these hardy pioneers, and they took a pleasure 

 in initiating me into the life of a trapper in that 

 primitive country'. I listened with a delight which 

 I should find it impossible to describe to their 

 stories of hunting adventure, the favourite theme of 

 conversation with these dwellers in the backwoods. 



The peccaries had lately dqne a vast amount of 

 damage in the wheat and maize fields of the 

 jMorgans, who had vowed war to the knife. I must 

 say that I entertained good hopes of sport when I 

 heard them cursing and swearing as they pointed 

 out the wounds which their dogs had accidentally 

 received from the peccaries. I say accidentall}-, 

 because no dog, if he knows it, will willingly en- 

 counter the Texan wild boar. One morning Mr. John 

 Morgan, coming home to breakfast, told us that he 

 had been that morning to examine the damage 

 which had been done to a field of maize b}^ a bear 



