WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 245 



pay, no highways to keep up, no poor to maintain, nor 

 army nor navy to supply ; he lies in his hammock both 

 night and day (for he has no chair or bed, neither does he 

 want them), and in it he forms his bow, and makes his 

 arrows, and repairs his fishing tackle. But as soon as he 

 has consumed his provisions, he then rouses himself, and, 

 like the lion, scours the forest in quest of food. He 

 plunges into the river after the deer and tapir, and swims 

 across it ; passes through swamps and quagmires, and 

 never fails to obtain a sufficient supply of food. Should 

 the approach of night stop his career, while he is hunt- 

 ing the wild boar, he stops for the night, and continues the 

 chase the next morning. ' In my way through the wilds to 

 the Portuguese frontier, I had a proof of this: we were 

 eight in number, six Indians, a negro, and myself. About 

 ten o'clock in the morning, we observed the feet-mark of 

 the wild boars ; we judged by the freshness of the marks 

 that they had passed that way early the same ' morning. 

 As we were not gifted, like the hound, with scent, and as 

 we had no dog with us, we followed their track by the eye. 

 The Indian after game is as sure with his eye as the dog 

 is with his nose. We followed the herd till three in the 

 afternoon, then gave up the chase for the present; made 

 our fires close to a creek where there was plenty of fish, 

 and then arranged the hammocks. In an hour the Indians 

 shot more fish with their arrows than we could consume. 

 The night was beautifully serene and clear, and the moon 

 shone as bright as day. Next morn we rose at dawn, got 

 breakfast, packed up, each took his burden, and then we 

 put ourselves on the track of the wild boars, which we had 

 been following the day before. We supposed that they, 

 too, would sleep that night in the forest, as we had done ; 

 and thus the delay on our part would be no disadvantage 

 to us. This was just the case, for about nine o'clock their 



