162 



ALLIGATORS. 



thus brought to the water's edge, they 

 despatch him with fire-arms and javelins, 

 called by them mattaculebras. 



This account, I confess, has some ap- 

 pearance of the marvellous ; nor should 

 I have given it a place here, had I not 

 been assured of its truth by several persons 

 entitled to implicit credit : it will, however, 

 appear the less extraordinary, when the 

 reader considers the indisputable fact, that 

 in the Indies the largest and most ferocious 

 sharks are sometimes attacked and killed in 

 their native element by negro divers, armed 

 with a knife only ; and that the common 

 method of killing tigers in the neighbour-^ 

 hood of Buenos- Ay res is, for a single hunter 

 to go in search of them, armed with a knife, 

 and carrying a roana wrapped round his 

 left arm. The tiger being roused by small 

 dogs, trained for the purpose, the hunter 

 approaches the cover, and awaits the spring 



