THE PERSONAL ENEMIES OF MAN 335 



were not more than a dozen that I could see, and there were 

 plenty of small pines near by; so I thought that I would just kill 

 the whole herd, provided they showed fight. As they came into 

 the open ground they seemed to wind me, as they began to snuff 

 and paw. I fired at one, and, just as I intended, only crippled 

 him. He set up a great squealing, and, sure enough, here they 

 came! I was just a little excited, and started for a tree, forgetting 

 my coat and turkey. I had scarcely time to get up when they 

 were around the tree, and instead of twelve, they kept coming till 

 there were at least two hundred. I commenced shooting, and 

 killed five with my rifle, that being the number of shells in my 

 gun. It then occurred to me that my rifle-shells were in my coat; 

 so, having no further use for my rifle, and realizing that it would 

 become a burden to me if compelled to stay in the tree several 

 hours, as seemed likely, I threw it down. Fortunately I had both 

 revolvers, and a belt full of cartridges for them ; so I went at them. 

 They were chewing the tree, and climbing over each other trying 

 to get at me. Each shot laid one out, and each shot seemed to 

 make them more and more furious, as they would rush at the 

 tree, and gnaw the bark and wood, while the white flakes of 

 froth fell from their mouths. I tried to count them, and found 

 that there were over two hundred left, and I had killed twenty- 

 three. The position I had was not a comfortable one, but I had 

 to stand it. Then for the first time I thought of the boys. Had 

 they heard my shooting? if so, would they come? Then I 

 remembered I had not fired the signal agreed on, and that I had 

 followed the turkeys up the mountain and down again, and by this 

 time the boys must be four miles up the canon and on the opposite 

 side. The Peccaries showed no signs of leaving. It was now 

 noon, and very warm. They would root around, then come back 

 to the tree, and grunt, and paw, and bite the tree; then they would 

 cool down a little, would go a short distance away, root around 

 awhile, then come back again. I was getting tired of being treed, 

 but it was just what we had planned the night before, only we 

 were not all together. If the boys could only hear my firing, and 

 come over, how quick we would wipe them out! Such thoughts 

 ran through my head; but still the pigs stayed. One o'clock 

 came, then two; still they stayed. Then I thought I would fire a 

 signal with my revolver maybe the boys were hunting for me; 

 so I made a noise, and back to the tree they came. I killed three 



