'I turned, cocked my gunlocks silently, touched my faithful companion, and lay ready to start up and shoot the first who might attempt my life. The moment was fast approaching, and that night might have been my last in this world, had not Providence made preparations for my rescue. All was ready the infernal hag was advancing slowly, probably contemplating the best way of despatching me whilst her sons should be engaged with the Indian. I was several times on the eve of rising and shooting her on the spot; but she was not to be punished thus. The door was suddenly opened, and there entered two stout travellers, each with a long rifle on his shoulder. I bounced up on my feet, and making them most heartily welcome, told them how well it was for me that they should have arrived at that moment. The tale was told in a minute. The drunken men were secured, and the woman, in spite of her defence and vociferations, shared the same fate. The Indian fairly danced with joy, and gave us to understand that, as he could not sleep for pain, he would watch over us. You may suppose we slept much less than we talked. The two strangers gave me an account of their once having been themselves in a somewhat similar situation. Day came, fair and rosy, and with it the punishment of our captives. 6 They were now quite sobered. Their feet were unbound, but their arms were still securely tied. We marched them into the woods off the road, and having used them as regulators were wont to use such delinquents, we set fire to the cabin, gave all their skins and implements to the young Indian warrior, and proceeded well pleased towards the settlements. 'During upwards of twentyfive years, when my wanderings extended to all parts of our country, this was the only time at which my life was in danger from my fellow-creatures. Indeed, so little risk do travellers run in the United States, that no one born there ever dreams of any to be encountered on the road; and I can only account for the occurrence, by supposing that the inhabitants of the cabin were not Americans.' "TIME and experience have con- of him, without showing the vinced me that there is not least inclination to make a much danger in roving amongst spring at me. He would apsnakes and wild beasts, pro- pear to keep his eye fixed on vided only you have self-com- me, as though suspicious, but mand. You must never ap- that was all. Sometimes I have proach them abruptly; if so, you taken a stick ten feet long, and are sure to pay for your rashness, placed it on the labarri's back. because the idea of self-defence He would then glide away withis predominant in every animal; out offering resistance. But and thus the snake, to defend when I put the end of the stick himself from what he considers abruptly to his head, he immean attack upon him, makes the diately opened his mouth, flew intruder feel the deadly effect at it, and bit it. of his poisonous fangs. The jaguar flies at you, and knocks you senseless with a stroke of his paw; whereas, if you had not come upon him too suddenly, it is ten to one but that he had retired in lieu of disputing the path with you. The labarri snake is very poisonous, and I have often approached within two yards of him without in with safety and effect. To fear. I took care to move very do so, it only required a little softly and gently, without mov-resolution and coolness. I then ing my arms, and he always took a small piece of stick in allowed me to have a fine view the other hand, and pressed it 'One day, wishful to see how the poison comes out of the fang of the snake, I caught a labarri alive. He was about eight feet long. I held him by the neck, and my hand was so near his jaw, that he had not room to move his head to bite it. This was the only position I could have held him against the fang, which is invari- and as often been disappointed. | One Sunday morning I met one of them in the forest, and asked him which way he was going; he said he was going towards Warratilla Creek to hunt an armadillo; and he had his little dog with him. On coming back about noon, the dog began to bark at the root of a large tree, which had been upset by the whirlwind, and was lying there in a gradual state of decay. The negro said he thought his dog was barking at an acouri, which had probably taken refuge under the tree, and he went up with an intention to kill it; he then saw a snake, and hastened back to inform me of it. ably in the upper jaw. Towards the point of the fang, there is a little oblong aperture on the convex side of it. Through this there is a communication down the fang to the root, at which lies a little bag containing the poison. Now, when the point of the fang is pressed, the root of the fang also presses againt the bag, and sends up a portion of the poison therein contained. Thus, when I applied a piece of stick to the point of the fang, there came out of the hole a liquor thick and yellow, like strong camomile tea. This was the poison, which is so dreadful in its effects, as to render the labarri snake one of the most poisonous in the forests Guiana. I once caught. a fine labarri, and made it bite itself. I forced the poisonous fang into its belly. In a few minutes I thought it was going to die, for it appeared dull and heavy. However, in half an hour's time he was as brisk and vigorous as ever, and in the course of the day showed no symptoms of being affected. Is, then, the life of the snake proof against its own poison? of 'The sun had just passed the meridian in a cloudless sky. There was scarce a bird to be seen; for the winged inhabitants of the forest, as though overcome by heat, had retired to the thickest shade: all would have been like midnight silence, were it not that the shrill voice of the pi-pi-yo every now and then resounded from a distant tree. I was sitting, with a little Horace in my hand, on what had once been the steps which formerly led up to the now 'There was a person making mouldering and dismantled shingles, with twenty or thirty building. The negro and his negroes, not far from Mibiri- little dog came down the hill in hill. I had offered a reward to haste, and I was soon informed any of them who would find a that a snake had been disgood-sized snake in the forest, covered; but it was a young and come and let me know one, called the bush-master, and where it was. Often had these a rare and poisonous snake. I negroes looked for a large snake, instantly rose up, and laying hold of my eight-foot lance, which was close by me, "Well, then, Daddy," said I, "we'll go and have a look at the snake." I was barefoot, with an old hat, check shirt, and trousers on, and a pair of braces to keep them up. The negro had his cutlass; and as we ascended the hill, another negro, armed with a cutlass, joined us, judging from our race that there was something to do. The little dog came along with us; and when we had got about half a mile in the forest, the negro stopped, and pointed to the fallen tree. All was still and silent. I told the negroes not to stir from the place where they were, and keep the little dog in, and that I would go in and reconnoitre. 'I advanced up to the place slow and cautious. The snake was well concealed, but at last I made him out; it was a coulacanara, not poisonous, but large enough to have crushed any of us to death. On measuring him afterwards, he was something more than fourteen feet long. This species of snake is very rare, and much thicker in proportion to his length than any other snake in the forest. A coulacanara of fourteen feet in length is as thick as a common boa of twenty-four. After skinning this snake, I could easily get my head into his mouth, as the singular formation of the jaws admits of wonderful extension. 'A Dutch friend of mine, by name Brouwer, killed a boa twenty-two feet long, with a pair of stag's horns in his mouth. | He had swallowed the stag, but could not get the horns down; so he had to wait in patience with that uncomfortable mouthful till his stomach digested the body, and then the horns would drop out. In this plight the Dutchman found him as he was going in his canoe up the river, and sent a ball through his head. 'On ascertaining the size of the serpent the negro had just found, I retired slowly the way I came, and promised four dollars to the negro who had shown it to me, and one to the other who had joined us. Aware that the day was on the decline, and that the approach of night would be detrimental to the dissection, a thought struck me that I could take him alive. I imagined, if I could strike him with the lance behind the head and pin him to the ground, I might succeed in capturing him. When I told this to the negroes, they begged and entreated me to let them go for a gun and bring more force, as they were sure the snake would kill some of us. I had been in search of a large serpent for years, and now, having come up with one, it did not become me to turn soft. So, taking a cutlass from one of the negroes, and then ranging both the sable slaves behind me, I told them to follow, and that I would cut them down if they offered to fly. I smiled as I said this, but they shook their heads in silence, and seemed to have but a bad heart for it. 'When I got up to the place, the serpent had not stirred; but I could see nothing of his head; and I judged by the folds of his body that it must be at the farthest side of his den. A species of woodbine had formed a complete mantle over the branches of the fallen tree, almost impervious to the rain or the rays of the sun. Probably he had resorted to this sequestered place for a length of time, as it bore marks of an ancient settlement. I now took my knife, determining to take away the woodbine and break the twigs in the gentlest manner possible, till I could get a view of his head. One negro stood guard close behind me with the lance, and near him the other with a cutlass. The cutlass which I had taken from the first negro was on the ground, close by me, in case of need. After working in dead silence for a quarter of an hour, with one knee all the time on the ground, I had cleared away enough to see his head. It appeared coming out betwixt the first and second coils of the body, and was flat on the ground. This was the very position I wished it to be in. I rose in silence, and retreated very slowly, making a sign to the negroes to do the same. The dog was sitting at a distance in mute observance. I could now read in the faces of the negroes that they considered this a very unpleasant affair, and they made another attempt to persuade me to let them go for a gun. I smiled in a good-natured manner, and made a feint to cut them down with the weapon I had in my hand. This was all the answer I made to their request, and they looked very uneasy. 'It must be observed we were now twenty yards from the snake's den. I now ranged the negroes behind me, and told him who stood next to me, to lay hold of the lance the moment I struck the snake, and that the other must attend my movements. It now only remained to take their cutlasses from them; for I was sure, if I did not disarm them, they would be tempted to strike the snake in time of danger, and thus for ever spoil his skin. On taking their cutlasses from them, if I might judge from their physiognomy, they seemed to consider it as a most intolerable act of tyranny in me. Probably nothing kept them from bolting, but the consolation that I was to be betwixt them and the snake. Indeed, my own heart, in spite of all I could do, beat quicker than usual, and I felt those sensations which one has on board a merchant vessel in war time, when the captain orders all hands on deck to prepare for action, while a strange vessel is coming down upon us under suspicious colours. |