244 WANDERINGS IN 



THIRD i n the wilds of Demerara with Mr. Edmonstone 



JOURNEY. 



for many years ; and often amused me with the 



account of the frays his master had had in the 

 woods with snakes, wild beasts, and runaway 

 negroes. Old age was now coming fast upon 

 him; he had been an able fellow in his younger 

 days, and a gallant one too, for he had a large 

 scar over his eyebrow, caused by the stroke of a 

 cutlass, from another negro, while the Daddy was 

 engaged in an intrigue. 



The back of The back of the cayman may be said to be 



man. ay almost impenetrable to a musket ball, but his 

 sides are not near so strong, and are easily pierced 

 with an arrow; indeed, were they as strong as 

 the back and the belly, there would be no part 

 of the cayman's body soft and elastic enough 

 to admit of expansion after taking in a supply 

 of food. 



its teeth. The cayman has no grinders ; his teeth are 

 entirely made for snatch and swallow ; there are 

 thirty-two in each jaw. Perhaps no animal in 

 existence bears more decided marks in his coun- 

 tenance of cruelty and malice than the cayman. 

 He is the scourge and terror of all the large 

 rivers in South America near the line. 



Anecdote. One Sunday evening, some years ago, as I was 

 walking with Don Felipe de Ynciarte, governor 

 of Angustura, on the bank of the Oroonoque, 

 " Stop here a minute or two, Don Carlos," said 

 he to me, " while I recount a sad accident. One 



