

BOLDNESS OP JAGUARS. 195 



IB bordered by mountains. They are very dangerous for 

 boats deeply laden, and without decks. We had escaped 

 as if by miracle. To the reproaches that were heaped on 

 our pilot for having kept too near the wind, he replied with 

 the phlegmatic coolness peculiar to the Indians, observing 

 "that the whites would find sun enough on those banks 

 to dry their papers." We lost only one book the first 

 volume of the ' Genera Plantarum ' of Schreber which had 

 fallen overboard. At nightfall we landed on a barren island 

 in the middle of the river, near the Mission of Uruana. 

 We supped in a clear moonlight, seating ourselves on 

 some large turtle-shells that were found scattered about 

 the beach. What satisfaction we felt on finding ourselves 

 thus comfortably landed! We figured to ourselves the 

 situation of a man who had been saved alone from ship- 

 wreck, wandering on these desert shores, meeting at every 

 step with other rivers which fall into the Orinoco, and which 

 it is dangerous to pass by swimming, on account of the 

 multitude of crocodiles and caribe fishes. We pictured to 

 ourselves such a man, alive to the most tender affections 

 of the soul, ignorant of the fate of his companions, and 

 thinking more of them than of himself. If we love to 

 indulge such melancholy meditations, it is because, when 

 just escaped from danger, we seem to feel as it were the 

 necessity of strong emotions. Our minds were full of what 

 we had just witnessed. There are periods in life when, with- 

 out being discouraged, the future appears more uncertain. 

 It was only three days since we had entered the Orinoco, 

 and there yet remained three months for us to navigate 

 rivers encumbered with rocks, and in boats smaller than that 

 in which we had so nearly perished. 



The night was intensely hot. We lay upon skins spread 

 on the ground, there being no trees to which we could 

 fasten our hammocks. The torments of the mosquitos 

 increased every day; and we were surprised to find that 

 on this spot our fires did not prevent trie approach of the 

 jaguars. They swam across the arm of the river that sepa- 

 rated us from the mainland. Towards morning we heard 

 their cries very near. They had come to the island when 

 we passed the night. The Indians told us that, during the 

 collecting of the turtles' eggs, tigers are always more fre 



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