

BRAZILIAN PLANTER. 



331 



close and bolt the door. This being done he 

 reached his bed with great difficulty, expecting 

 that every minute would be his last. The men 

 tried to gain admittance through some of the 

 doors or windows ; but not succeeding in .this, 

 they rode off. As soon as the slave who was in 

 health heard the report of the gun, and saw his 

 master wounded, he left the house, recollecting 

 (which is somewhat surprising) to lock the door; 

 he made all haste to a neighbouring plantation, 

 distant one league. The owner of the place to 

 which the slave had fled, ordered a hammock 

 to be prepared, and set off with sixteen negroes ; 

 he was accompanied by his chaplain, who 

 brought with him a candle, and all the other 

 necessary appendages to the bed-side of a dying 

 Catholic. They arrived, and found the wounded 

 man in a state which led them to suppose that 

 he could not live many hours ; but he was con- 

 fessed, and anointed with the holy oil, and thus 

 prepared for the worst. Then they put him 

 into the hammock, and his neigbour had him 

 conveyed to his residence. The person who 

 related this story to me, did not fail to add, that 

 a lighted candle was carried in a lantern, that 

 the wounded man should not run the risk of 

 dying without having the light in his hand, as 

 is the custom. A surgeon was sent for to 

 Iguaracu, which is distant several leagues, and 

 he succeeded in extracting almost all the shot. 



