TWO NIGHTS IN SOUTHEKN MEXICO. 71 



less, though I have seen Negroes who had scarcely 

 better ones ; the tendons of the hands stood out like 

 whipcords ; the nails were as long as a tiger's claws. 

 No wonder that we had been overmatched in our 

 struggle with the brutes. No man could have with- 

 stood them. The arms of this one were like packets 

 of cordage, all muscle, nerve, and sinew; and the 

 hands were clasped together with such force, that the 

 efforts of eight or ten Mexicans and Indians were 

 insufficient to disunite them. 



Whatever remained to be cleared up in our night's 

 adventures was now soon explained. Our guide, 

 through ignorance or thoughtlessness, had allowed us 

 to take up our bivouac within a very unsafe distance 

 of one of the most pestiferous swamps in the whole 

 province. Shortly after we had fallen asleep, a party 

 of Mexican travellers had arrived, and established 

 themselves within a few hundred yards of us, but on 

 a rising ground, where they avoided the mephitic 

 vapours and the mosquitoes which had so tortured 

 Rowley and myself. In the night two of the women, 

 having ventured a short distance from the encamp- 

 ment, were surprised by the zambos, or huge man- 

 apes, common in some parts of Southern Mexico ; 

 and finding themselves cut off from their friends, had 

 fled they knew not whither, fortunately for them 

 taking the direction of our bivouac. Their screams, 

 our shouts, and the yellings and diabolical laughter 

 of the zambos, had brought the Mexicans to our 



