132 
DANGERS OF TRAVELLING. 
filled with dust, slie breathed with a rattling m ter throat, 
and was unable to answer our questions. A pitcher, over- 
turned, and half filled with sand, was lying at her side. 
Happily one of our mules was laden with water ; and we 
roused the girl from her lethargic state by bathing her face, 
and forcing her to drink a few drops of wane. She was at 
first alarmed on seeing herself surrounded by so many per- 
sons ; but by degrees she took courage, and conversed with 
our guides. She judged, from the position of the sun, that 
she must have remained during several hours in that state 
of lethargy. We could not prevail on her to mount one of 
our beasts of burden, and she would not return to Uritucu. 
She had been in service at a neighbouring farm ; and she 
had been discharged, because at the end ot a long sickness 
she was less able to work than before. Our menaces and 
prayers were alike fruitless ; insensible to suffering, like the 
rest of her race, she persisted in her resolution ot going to 
one of the Indian Missions near the city of Calabozo. We 
removed the sand from her pitcher, and filled it with water. 
She resumed her way along the steppe, before we had re- 
mounted our horses, and was soon separated from us by a 
cloud of dust. During the night we forded the Eio Uritucu, 
which abounds with a breed of crocodiles remarkable for 
their ferocity. We were advised to prevent our dogs from 
going to drink in the rivers, for it often happens that the 
crocodiles of Uritucu come out of the water, and pursue 
dogs upon the shore. This intrepidity is so much the more 
striking, as at eight leagues distance, the crocodiles of the 
ltio Tisnao arc extremely timid, and little dangerous. The 
manners of animals vary in the same species according to 
local circumstances difficult to be determined. We were; 
shown a hut, or rather a kind of shed, in which our host of 
Calabozo, Don Miguel Cousin, had witnessed a very extra- 
ordinary scene. Sleeping with one of his friends on a beucli 
or couch covered with leather, Don Miguel was awakened 
early in the morning by a violent shaking and a horrible 
nois*e. Clods of earth were thrown into the middle of the 
hut. Presently a young crocodile two or three feet long 
issued from under the bed, darted at a dog which lay on the 
threshold of the door, and, missing him ui the impetuosity 
of his spring, ran towards the beach to gain the river. 
