much ease as I could lift a kitten, tearing him through 
the thickest bushes and trees, every thing yielding to his 
monstrous strength. The agonies of horror, regret, and 
I must say, fear, (for there were two tygers, male and 
female) rushed upon me at once. The only effort I could 
make, was to fire at him, though the poor youth was still 
in his mouth. I relied partly on providence, partly on 
my own aim, and fired a musket. I saw the tyger stag- 
ger and agitated, and I cried out so immediately. Mr 
Downey then fired two shots, and I one more. We re- 
tired from the jungle, and a few minutes after, Mr Mun- 
ro came up to us all over blood, and fell. We took 
him on our backs to the boat, and got every medical as- 
sistance for him from the Valentine East Indiaman, which 
lay at anchor near the island, but in vain. He lived 24 
hours in the extreme of torture , his head and skull were 
torn, and broke to pieces, and lie was wounded by the 
claws all over the neck and shoulders ; but it was better 
to take him away, though irrecoverable, than leave him 
to be devoured limb by limb. We have just read the fu- 
neral service over the body, and committed it to the deep. 
He was an amiable and promising youth. I must observe, 
there was a large fire blazing close to us, composed of ten 
or a dozen whole trees ; I made it myself, on purpose to 
keep the tygers off, as I had always heard it would. There 
were eight or ten of the natives about us ; many shots 
had been fired at the place, and much noise and laughing 
at the time \ but this ferocious animal disregarded all. 
The human mind cannot form an idea of the scene ; it 
turned my very soul within me. The beast was about 
four and a half feet high, and nine long. His head appear- 
ed as an ox’s, his eyes darting fire, and his roar, when he 
first seized his prey, will never be out of my recollection* 
We had scarcely pushed our boat from that cursed shore, 
when the tygress made her appeal ance, raging mad almost, 
and remained on the sand as long as the distance would al- 
low me to see her.” 
2 
