278 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IY. 
shining examples of the superior civilisation of Europe 
in attendance at Catua. The masters kept their In- 
dians well under control ; the young people enjoyed 
themselves upon the whole innocently^ and sociability 
was pretty general amongst all classes and colours. 
Our rancho was a large one, and was erected in a line 
with the others, near the edge of the sandbank which 
sloped rather abruptly to the water. During the first 
week the people were all, more or less, troubled by 
alligators. Some half-dozen full-grown ones were in 
attendance off the praia, floating about on the lazily- 
flowing, muddy water. The dryness of the weather had 
increased since we had left Shimuni, the currents had 
slackened, and the heat in the middle part of the day 
was almost insupportable. But no one could descend 
to bathe without being advanced upon by one or other 
of these hungry monsters. There was much offal cast 
into the river, and this, of course, attracted them to the 
place. One day I amused myself by taking a basketful 
of fragments of meat beyond the line of ranches, and 
drawing the alligators towards me by feeding them. 
They behaved pretty much as dogs do when fed ; 
catching the bones I threw them in their huge jaws, 
and coming nearer and showing increased eagerness 
after every morsel. The enormous gape of their mouths, 
with their blood-red lining and long fringes of teeth, 
and the uncouth shapes of their bodies, made a picture 
of unsurpassable ugliness. I once or twice fired a heavy 
charge of shot at them, aiming at the vulnerable part of 
their bodies, which is a small space situated behind the 
eyes, but this had no other effect than to make them 
