172 INDIAN GIRL — CROCODILES. 



want of fisli in tlie pools of the Llanos. All the inha- 

 bitants of the waters avoid them ; and the Indians 

 asserted, that when they take young alligators and these 

 animals in tlie same net, tiie latter never display any 

 appearance of wounds, because they disable their ene- 

 mies before they are attacked Jiy them. It became 

 nece^sary to change tiie direction of a road near Urituco, 

 solely because they were so numerous in a river that 

 they killed many mules in the course of fording it. 



On the 2J:th March the travellers left Calabozo, and 

 advanced southward. As they proceeded they found 

 the country more dusty and destitute of herbage. The 

 palm-trees gradually disappeared. From eleven in the 

 morning till sunset the thermometer kept at 03° or 95-'. 

 Although the air was calm at the height of eight or ten 

 feet, the ground was swept by little currents which 

 raised clouds of dust. About four in the afternoon 

 they observed in the savannah a young Indian girl, 

 twelve or thirteen years of age, quite naked, lying on 

 her back, exhausted with fatigue and thirst, and with 

 her eyes, nostrils, and mouth, filled with dust. Her 

 breathing was stertorous, and she was unable to answer 

 the questions put to her. Happily one of the mules 

 was laden with water, the application of which to her 

 face aroused her. She was at first frightened, but by 

 degrees took courage, and conversed with the guides. 

 As she could not be prevailed upon to mount the beasts 

 of liurden, nor to return to Urituco, she Avas furnished 

 with some water ; upon which she resumed her way, 

 and was soon separated from her preservers by a cloud 

 of dust. 



In the night they forded the Rio Urituco, which is 

 filled with crocodiles remarkable for their ferocit\', 

 although those of the Rio Tisnao in the neighbourhood 

 are not at all dangerous. They were shown a hut or 

 shed, in wliich a singular scene had been witnessed by 

 their host of Calabozo, who, having slept in it upon a 

 bench covered with leather was awakened carlv in the 



