184 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



different from being exposed to the sun while in 

 motion. 



Suffers much We went ashore in the Essequibo, about 

 li'etVrom ex- three o'clock in the afternoon, to choose a 

 cessivebeat. ^^^^^ night's residence, to collect 



hre-wood, and to set the fish-hooks. It was then that 

 I first began to find my legs very painful : they soon 

 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 

 sleepless night, and for two days after I was disabled 

 from walking. 



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



,r. , . pain, I heard the Indian say, " Massa, massa. 



Visited in the ' «^ ' ' ' 



night by a Ja- you no hear tisfcr " I listened attentively, 



guar Tiger. ® . V 



and heard the softly-sounding 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 

 hiad legs like a dog ; sometimes he moved slowly to 



