94 ' NARRATIVE OF AN 



CHAP, -v^rhat refembling a ftar upon it. This monfter has five 

 > pair of thick legs, with four joints in each ; is entirely 



black or dark brown, and covered over, legs and all, 

 with thick and long black hair, like fome caterpillars, 

 while each leg is armed with a crooked yellow nail, and 

 from the head project two long teeth with inverted pin- 

 cers, refembling the claw of a crab, v/ith which it feizes 

 its prey ; while its bite, if not fatal by the venoraotis It- 

 quid infufed into the wound, always occafions a fcvex. 

 It has eight eyes Hke moft fpiders, and feeds on inic-cts 

 of every fpecies; nay, it is even affertedj that yo nng 

 . birds do not efcape it, out of which this fpider lucks the 

 blood : its web is fmall but very llrong. Upon the 

 whole, it is fuch a hideous creature, that the very fight 

 of it is fufiicient to occafion a tremor of abhorrence, even 

 in perfons moft accuftomed to infpedt the deformities of 

 nature* Innumerable indeed are the pefts and dangers 

 to which one is hourly expoled in the woods of this 

 tropical climate ; and though it is my prefent bufinefs 

 only to make mention of fuch as I met with in this 

 march, and which mull appear new to the reader, yet 

 a recapitulation of the names only of our numerous 

 plagues may not be improper to refrefh the memory of 

 thofe who have a heart to fympathize vath our fufFer- 

 ings. I have already mentioned the mi//quitoes, mon- 

 pieras^ patat and Jerapat lice, chigoes, cock - roaches, 

 common ants, f re-ants, horfe-flies, wild bees, and fpi' 

 ders; be fides the prickly heat, ring-worm, dry-gripes, 

 putrid fevers^ boils^ conjaca, hloody-flux, thorns, briars, 



alligators. 



