323 



which we heard on the opposite bank, made us 

 leave the water precipitately. It was an alli- 

 gator plunging into the mud. It would have 

 been imprudent, to pass the night in this marshy 

 spot. 



We were only at the distance of a quarter of 

 a league from the farm, yet we continued walk- 

 ing more than an hour without reaching it. 

 We perceived too late, that we had taken a 

 false direction. Having left it at the decline of 

 day, before the stars were visible, we had gone 

 forward in the plain as by chance. We were, 

 . as usual, provided with a compass ; and it was 

 even easy for us to steer our course from the 

 position of Canopus and the Southern Cross ; 

 but all these means became useless, because we 

 were uncertain whether, on leaving the farm? 

 we had gone toward the .East or the South. 

 We attempted to return to the spot where we 

 had bathed, and we again walked three quarters 

 of an hour, without finding the pool. We some- 

 times thought we saw fire at the horizon ; but; 

 it was the stars that were rising, and of which 

 the image was enlarged by the vapours. After 

 having wandered a long time in the savannah, 

 we resolved to seat ourselves beneath the trunk 

 of a palm-tree, in a spot perfectly dry, sur- 

 rounded by short grass ; for the fear of water- 

 serpents is always greater than that of jaguars 

 in Europeans recently disembarked. We could 



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