260 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



became much inflamed and red and blistered ; and it 

 required considerable caution not to burst the blisters, 

 otherwise sores would have ensued. I immediately got 

 into the hammock, and there passed a painful and sleep- 

 less night, and for two days after I was disabled from 

 walking. 



About midnight, as I was lying awake, and in great 

 pain, I heard the Indian say, " Massa, massa, you no hear 

 tiger ? " I listened attentively, and heard the softly sound- 

 ing tread of his feet as he approached us. The moon had 

 gone down ; but every now and then we could get a glance 

 of him by the light of our fire : he was the jaguar, for I 

 could see the spots on his body. Had I wished to have 

 fired at him, I was not able to take a sure aim, for I was in 

 such pain that I could not turn myself in my hammock. 

 The Indian would have fired, but I would not allow him to 

 do so, as I wanted to see a little more of our new visitor ; 

 for it is not every day or night that the traveller is favoured 

 with an undisturbed sight of the jaguar in his own forests. 



"Whenever the fire got low, the jaguar came a little 

 nearer, and when the Indian renewed it, he retired 

 abruptly ; sometimes he would come within twenty yards, 

 and then we had a view of him, sitting on his hind legs 

 like a dog; sometimes he moved slowly to and fro, and 

 at other times we could hear him mend his pace, as if 

 impatient. At last the Indian, not relishing the idea of 

 having such company in the neighbourhood, could contain 

 himself no longer, and set up a most tremendous yell. 

 The jaguar bounded off like a racehorse, and returned no 

 more ; it appeared by the print of his feet the next morn- 

 ing that he was a full-grown jaguar. 



In two days after this we got to the first falls in the Es- 

 sequibo. There was a superb barrier of rocks quite across 

 the river. In the rainy season these rocks are for the most 



