202 



WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



coming fast upon Mm ; he had been an able fellow in 

 his younger days, and a gallant one too, for he had a 

 large sear over his eyebrow, caused by the stroke of a 

 cutlass, from another negro, while the Daddy was 

 engaged in an intrigue. 



The back of ^he back of the cayman may be said to be 

 the Cayman. a i mos t impenetrable to a musket ball, but 

 his sides are not near so strong, and are easily pierced 

 with an arrow ; indeed, were they as strong as the back 

 and the belly, there would be no part of the cayman's 

 body soft and elastic enough to admit of expansion after 

 taking in a supply of food. 



The cayman has no grinders ; his teetli 

 are entirely made for snatch and swallow ; 

 there are thirty-two in each jaw. Perhaps no animal in 

 existence bears more decided marks in his countenance 

 of cruelty and malice than the cayman. He is the 

 scourge and terror of all the large rivers in South 

 America near the line. 



One Sunday evening, some years ago, as I was walk- 

 ing with Don Felipe de Ynciarte, governor 



-A.HGCCl.otjG 



of Angustura, on the bank of the Oroonoque, 

 " Stop here a minute or two, Don Carlos," said he to 

 me, " while I recount a sad accident. One fine evening, 

 last year, as the people of Angustura were sauntering up 

 and down here, in the Alameda, I was within twenty 

 yards of this place, when I saw a large cayman rush out 

 of the river, seize a man, and carry him down, before 

 anybody had it in his power to assist him. The screams 

 of the poor fellow were terrible as the cayman was run- 

 ning off with him. He plunged into the river with his 

 prey ; we instantly lost sight of him, and never saw or 

 heard him more." 



