g6 Travels and Adventures 



to despatch the wounded and gather up the dead. 

 When we were able to collect them together we found 

 seven as the proceeds of the raid. These were 

 shouldered and carried in triumph to the camp. The 

 cooking process was not a long one. The flesh of the 

 young peccary is excellent, but that of the older ones 

 is somewhat inferior ; the largest weigh from thirty to 

 forty pounds, and are very much like small domesti- 

 cated pigs, of a dull black colour and having coarse 

 bristles ; the head and nose are very long in propor- 

 tion to the body, and the feet very small. Herds 

 of peccaries abound in these forests, in such large 

 quantities that the natives can always have fresh 

 meat when they are not too lazy to hunt. 



It being already dark when we returned to the 

 camp, I contented myself here for the night, and we 

 started by daylight next morning, without any break- 

 fast, as the natives would not wait ; so, as a passenger 

 has absolutely no authority over them, I thought it 

 best to let them go when they were in the humour. 

 We took with us a good supply of the flesh of the 

 peccaries, and later, when the boatmen felt inclined, we 

 stopped at a sand-bank, and while one party lighted 

 a fire and prepared breakfast, the others w r ent in 

 search of turtles' eees. The nests of the turtles are 

 discovered in a very curious manner. To an ordinary 

 observer nothing is to be seen but an expanse of flat 



