LARGE ALLIGATOR. 157 



length obliged to desist ; giving, however, his 

 description to the Alcalde of the place, who 

 promised to put him in prison if he caught 

 him. Narie is a very bad place to procure 

 stock at; only one fowl could be found for 

 sale in the whole town, and not an egg was 

 to be had. Passed several cocoa plantations 

 in very good order, and a newly formed 

 farming establishment, which I trust will be 

 the forerunner of many others, that will tend 

 to draw this country from the barbarous 

 and uncultivated state in which it remains 

 at present. We slept at a cottage, and 

 rising at daylight on 



Wednesday, 14th, soon got under weigh. 

 Breakfasted on a sand-bank, where a very 

 large alligator, from twenty to twenty-five 

 fe^t long, came and laid down. I ap- 

 proatrh^d within twenty yards of him, and 

 fired a pistol, which, missing him, he took 

 no notice of: my companion approached 



