128 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
passed from thence into the captain's sleeping-room 
by the door, which was always left open. The 
captain was in the habit of promenading on the 
terrace in front of his house, from the time of 
leaving the dinner -table — that is, from 5 or 6 
o'clock until about 8 — for the sake of the fresh 
breeze up the Amazon ; and this whether the moon 
were shining or not. On that night there was no 
moon, and as it took him some minutes to walk 
from one end of the terrace to the other, at his 
easy pace, and he used never to look behind him, a 
person might enter the house, and even take any- 
thing out of it, without his perceiving it. To 
continue. He put out the light, lay down in his 
hammock, and went to sleep. About half an hour 
afterwards, as he supposed, he was awakened by a 
noise near his hammock, and fancied that cats must 
have got into the room. He had been stabbed 
whilst asleep, but on first waking up he did not 
feel the wound. He rose up in the hammock and 
felt himself in contact with a man's arms ; they 
grappled him and he shook them off. Then he 
felt himself attacked on the opposite side ; he tried 
to cry out, but his assailant held his head down 
and covered his mouth. After a struggle of a few 
moments, he disengaged himself sufficiently to be 
able to call out, whereupon the other released him, 
caught up a trunk which was standing in the 
corner next the hammock, and was making off with 
it when, having nearly reached the door, he fell 
over a chair — trunk and all ; but instantly regaining 
his feet, he escaped through the street door, which 
it seems he had taken the precaution of setting 
wide open before commencing his deadly operations. 
