410 ULLOA's voyage to south AMERICA. 



creeks a great way above Guayaquil, the diftance will not admit their being brought to 

 that city. 



The increafe of fifh in this river is greatly hindered by the prodigious numbers of 

 alligators, an amphibious creature living both in the rivers, and the adjacent plains, 

 though it is not often known to go far from the banks of the river. When tired with 

 fifliing, they leave the water to balk themfelves in the fun, and then appear more like 

 logs of half rotten wood thrown alhore by the current, than living creatures ; but 

 upon perceiving any veffel near them, they immediately throw themfelves into the 

 water. Some are of fo monftrous a lize as to exceed five yards in length. During 

 the time they lie balking on the ihore, they keep their huge mouths wide open, till 

 filled with mofchitos, flies, and other infeds, when they fuddenly fhut their jaws and 

 fwallow their prey. Whatever may have been written with regard to the fiercenefs 

 and rapacity of this animal, I and all our company know, from experience, they avoid 

 a man, and on the approach of any one, immediately plunge into the water. Their 

 whole body is covered with fcales impenetrable to a mufket-ball, unlefs it happens to 

 hit them in the belly near the fore legs ; the only part vulnerable. 



The alligator is an oviparous creature. The female makes a large hole in the fand 

 near the brink of a river, and there depofits her eggs ; which are as white as thofe 

 of a hen, but much more folid. She generally lays about a hundred, continuing in 

 the fame place till they are all depofited, which is about a day or two. She then 

 covers them with the fand ; and the better to conceal them, rolls herfelf, not only over 

 her precious depofitum, but to a confiderable diftance. After this precaution, fhe 

 returns to the water till natural inftind informs her that it is time to deliver her young 

 from their confinement ; when fhe comes to the fpot, followed by the male, and 

 tearing up the fand, begins breaking the eggs, but fo carefully, that fcarce a fingle 

 one is injured ; and a whole fwarm of little alligators are feen crawling about. The 

 female then takes them on her neck and back, in order to remove them into the 

 water ; but the watchful gallinazos make ufe of this opportunity to deprive her of 

 fpme ; and even the male alligator, which indeed comes for no other end, devours 

 what he can, till the female has reached the water with the few remaining ; for all 

 thofe which either fall from her back, or do not fwim, Ihe herfelf eats j fo that of fuch 

 a formidable brood, happily not more than four or five efcape. 



The gallinazos, mentioned in our account of Carthagena, are the moft inveterate 

 enemies of the alligators, or rather extremely fond of their eggs, in finding which they 

 make ufe of uncommon addrels. Thefe birds often make it their whole bufinefs to 

 watch the females during the fummer, the feafon when they lay their eggs, the fands 

 on the fides of the river not being then covered with water. The gallinazo perches 

 on fome tree, where it conceals itfelf among the branches, and there filently watches 

 the female alligator, till Ihe has laid her eggs and retires, pleafed that fhe has con- 

 cealed them beyond difcovery. But fhe is no fooner under the water, than the gallinazo 

 darts down on the repofitory, and with its beak, claws, and wings, tears up the fand, 

 and devours the eggs, leaving only the fhells. This banquet would indeed richly 

 reward its long patience, did not a multitude of gallinazos from all parts, join the 

 fortunate difcoverer and fhare in the fpoil. I have often been entertained with this 

 ftratagem of the gallinazos, in pafTmg from Guayaquil to the cuftom-houfe of 

 Babahoyo ; and my curiofity once led me to take fome of the eggs, which thofe who 

 frequent this river, particularly the Mulattos, make no difficulty of eating, when frefh* 

 Here we muft remark the methods ufed by Providence in dirainifhing the number of 

 thefe deftrudive creatures, not only by the gallinazos, but even by the males them- 



1 1 felves. 



