238 WANDERINGS IN 



THIRD T^ Indian then took the empty shell of a land 



JOURNEY. l J 



tortoise, and gave it some heavy blows with an 



axe. I asked why he did that. He said, it was 

 to let the cayman hear that something was going 

 on. In fact, the Indian meant it as the cayman's 

 dinner bell. 



Having done this, we went back to the ham- 

 mocks, not intending to visit it again till morning. 

 During the night, the jaguars roared and grum- 

 bled in the forest, as though the world was going 

 wrong with them, and at intervals we could hear 

 the distant cayman. The roaring of the jaguars 

 was awful; but it was music to the dismal noise 

 of these hideous and malicious reptiles. 

 Succeed in About half-past five in the morning, the Indian 

 cayman, stole off silently to take a look at the bait. On 

 arriving at the place, he set up a tremendous 

 shout. We all jumped out of our hammocks, 

 and ran to him. The Indians got there before 

 me, for they had no clothes to put on, and I lost 

 two minutes in looking for my trowsers and in 

 slipping into them. 



We found a cayman, ten feet and a half long, 

 fast to the end of the rope. Nothing now re- 

 mained to do, but to get him out of the water 

 without injuring his scales, " hoc opus, hie labor." 

 We mustered strong : there were three Indians 

 from the creek, there was my own Indian Yan, 

 Daddy Quashi, the negro from Mrs. Peterson's, 

 James, Mr. R. Edmonstone's man, whom I was 



