VENOMOUS SNAKE. 215 



mat while my blankets were dried. One morn- 

 ing, on calling my boys, they discovered a small 

 black snake coiled up beneath my hammock, 

 and, telling me of it, and that it was exceeding- 

 ly venomous, off they scampered to fetch some of 

 the natives. I looked over the side of my ham- 

 mock, and about three feet below me lay the crea- 

 ture, about a yard long, with his head in the cen- 

 tre of the coil, his eyes peering about, evidently 

 bent on mischief. For two hours we remain- 

 ed in this enviable position, while about twenty 

 of the natives were grouped in the court-yard, 

 chattering, and pointing to the snake, and I not 

 in the best of humours alternately entreating 

 and threatening them for not removing it. 

 My good genius, however, appeared at last in 

 the shape of an old woman, who killed it, by 

 piercing it to the ground with a forked stick. 

 The natives assured me it was most venomous, 

 and, from their dread of it, I fully believed it 

 was the case. It was the first and only venom- 

 ous creature I met with in the country. 



I had begun to be seriously alarmed about 

 Sarsfield, when to my great relief, he arrived on 

 the fourteenth day after his departure. To my 

 utter astonishment, I learnt from him that Mr. 



