SHIPWRECK OF THE MEDUSA. 361 
mouth. She instantly called my father, who quickly ran to 
her with his gun, but the wings which the creature seemed to 
have had already disappeared. As his belly was prodigious- 
ly- swelled, my father made the negroes open it, and, to our 
great surprise, found four of the pigeons of our dove-cote. 
The serpent was nearly nine feet in length, and about nine 
inches in circumference in the middle. After it was skinned, 
we gave it to the negroes, who regaled themselves upon it. 
This was not the one, however, which we had heard during 
the night, for in the evening on which it was killed we heard 
the whistlings of its companions. We then resolved to look 
for a more comfortable place to plant our cottage, and to 
abandon the rising ground to the serpents, and the woods to 
the tigers. We chose a spot on the south side of our island, 
pretty near to the banks of the river. 
When this new ground was prepared my father surrounded 
it with a hurdle of reeds, and then transported our cottage 
thither. This manner of removing from one place to another 
is very expeditious ; in less than three days we were fairly 
seated in our new abode. However, as we had not time to 
carry away our poultry, we left them, upon the hill till the 
place we had appropriated for them was completed. It was 
fenced on all sides, and covered with a large net, to prevent 
the birds of prey taking away our little chickens, and we had 
no fear in leaving them during the night. On the evening of 
the next day, my sister, accompanied with the children, went 
to feed the various inhabitants of the poultry-yard; but on 
approaching it she saw the frame of reeds half fallen, the 
net rent, and feathers scattered here and there upon the road. 
Having reached the site of our former cottage, heaps of wor- 
ried ducks and chickens were the only objects which present- 
ed themselves. She instantly sent one of the children to ac- 
quaint us with the disaster, and my father and myself hai^en- 
ed to the scene of carnage, but it was too late to take any pre- 
cautions — all our poultry were destroyed ! Two hens and a 
duck only had escaped the massacre, by having squatted in 
the bottom of an old barrel. We counted the dead which 
were left in the yard, and found that the ferocious beasts had 
eaten the half: about two hundred eggs of ducks and hens, 
nearly hatched, were destroyed at the same time. 
This was a great loss to us, especially as we counted as 
much upon our poultry-yard as upon our plantation. We 
were obliged to resign ourselves to our fate ; for to what pur- 
pose would sorrow serve? The evil was done, and it only re- 
31 
