180 A VISIT TO CANNEY CREEK. 



from the first to the last, to encounter the peril. They 

 never throw themselves upon any enemy they cannot see. 

 Their instinct will not guide them, unless the hunter 

 stirs the branches behind which he is concealed, or they 

 hear any sound indicating his place of ambuscade. 



However incredible may seem the foregoing details, I 

 solemnly declare that such is the mode of hunting adopted 

 by the inhabitants of Texas at. Canney Creek and Brazos 

 Bottom, where, some years ago, the country was impass- 

 able from the hosts of peccaries which infested it. At the 

 present day, owing to the indefatigable exertions of the 

 planters and their friends, the Texan wild boars have 

 become almost as rare as those of Europe in the northern 

 forests. If need were, they could be counted. 



I shall never forget my first experiment in peccary- 

 hunting. I was enjoying the hospitality of a planter of 

 Canney Creek, to whom I had carried letters of recom- 

 mendation from his brother, a resident at New York, 

 and one of my warmest friends. Mr. John Morgan had 

 emigrated to Texas in 1837, with another brother, the 

 youngest of the three ; and his plantation, when I visited 

 it, was unquestionably the finest in the whole country. 

 Compared with these hardy pioneers, I was but a poor 

 hunter ; so they took a pleasure in initiating me in the 

 dangers of a trapper's life in this primitive region. I 

 listened with a pleasure indescribable to their numerous 

 sporting narratives, which, round the evening fire, are 

 the favourite themes of conversation with the inhabitants 

 of the frontiers. 



For some time the peccaries had been committing 



