132 DANGEES OF TRAVELLING. 



filled with dust, she breathed with a rattling jn her throat, 

 and "was unable to answer our questions. A pitcher, over- 

 turned, and half filled with sand, was lying at her side. 

 Happily one of our mules was laden with water ; and we 

 roused the girl from her lethargic state by bathing her face, 

 and forcing her to drink a few drops of wine. She was at 

 first alarmed on seeing herself surrounded by so many per- 

 sons ; but by degrees she took courage, and conversed with 

 our guides. She judged, from the position of the sun, that 

 she must have remained during several hours in that state 

 of lethargy. We could not prevail on her to mount one of 

 our beasts of burden, and she would not return to Uritucu, 

 She had been in service at a neighbouring farm ; and she 

 had been discharged, because at the end of a long sickness 

 she was less able to work than before. Our menaces and 

 prayers were alike fruitless ; insensible to suffering, like the 

 rest of her race, she persisted in her resolution of going to 

 one of the Indian Missions near the city of Calabozo. We 

 removed the sand from her pitcher, and filled it with water. 

 She resumed her way along the steppe, before we had re- 

 mounted our horses, and was soon separated from us by a 

 cloud of dust. During the night we forded the Rio Uritucu, 

 which abounds with a breed of crocodiles remarkable for 

 their ferocity. We were advised to prevent our dogs from 

 going to drink in the rivers, for it often happens that the 

 crocodiles of Uritucu come out of the water, and pursue 

 dogs upon the shore. This intrepidity is so much the more 

 striking, as at eight leagues distance, the crocodiles of the 

 Rio Tisnao are extremely timid, and little dangerous. The 

 manners of animals vary in the same species according to 

 local circumstances difficult to be determined. We were 

 shown a hut, or rather a kind of shed, in which our host of 

 Calabozo, Don Miguel Cousin, had witnessed a very extra- 

 ordinary scene. Sleeping with one of his friends on a bench 

 or couch covered with leather, Don Miguel was awakened 

 early in the morning by a violent shaking and a horrible 

 noise. Clods of earth were thrown into the middle of the 

 hut. Presently a young crocodile two or three feet long 

 issued from under the bed, darted at a dog which lay on the 

 threshold of the door, and, missing him in the impetuosity 

 of his spring, ran towards the beach to gain the river. On 



