The Young Llanero Part 4

The dog barked, and then bounded off close to where the doctor and I lay hid. Once more Jumbo showed his nose among the weeds; when the alligator, opening his immense jaws, made a dash at him. At the same moment the doctor, starting up, fired down the creature's throat, and stopped him in mid career. His head and shoulders rose above the surface, and then he rolled over dead. I shouted with satisfaction, and Jumbo barked his approval.

"We have not yet finished our sport," said the doctor; "we must kill half-a-dozen before breakfast. Go, good Jumbo, and entice a few more up here."

Jumbo understood his master, and was proceeding to execute his orders, when we heard my uncle's voice shouting to us to return, in tones which showed that he had good reason for doing so. Making our way through the tangled forest, we soon reached the camp, where we found every one astir, our mosquito-curtains and sleeping-rugs packed up, and the men busy loading the boat.

"Jump on board, and I'll tell you all about it afterwards," said my uncle.

We obeyed him, Jumbo leaping in after us; when the men, shoving the boat off with their poles, began to paddle rapidly across the lake.

"I will now tell you the reason why I was in a hurry to be off," said my uncle. "One of our crew, Choco, a quick-witted fellow, going to the further end of yonder point, observed a canoe with several Indians in her coming along the ca.n.a.l. As soon as they saw him, they paddled back at a rapid rate; but he was convinced that the canoe was one of several in pursuit of us, and that the Indians have gone back to summon their companions, believing that they will find us sitting at breakfast. He may have been mistaken; but discretion is the better part of valour, and though we might beat them off, it would be unwise to run the risk of a fight when it can be avoided."

"You are a wise man, Mr Concannan," observed the doctor. "Why should people spend their lives in fighting, when they would be so much happier living at peace with each other? It appears to me that the world is full of great fools, and that they are its rulers."

"I hope you don't include us in the category?" said my uncle. "If one set of people will attack another, what are the peaceably disposed to do?"

"They must fight to defend themselves, I own," answered the doctor; "and that proves to me that the fools rule the world, for they compel the wise, who must of necessity love peace, to go to war. The world will never be at rest till not only the great majority, but the whole have become wise; and as I never expect to see that, I believe it will continue to the end the same troublous, unhappy world it is."

The doctor, I thought, took matters very coolly.

I very frequently looked out astern, expecting to see a fleet of canoes full of Indian warriors emerging from the ca.n.a.l; but as none appeared, I began to suppose that Senor Choco had made a mistake.

We had still another narrow pa.s.sage or ca.n.a.l to pa.s.s through before we could enter the main branch of the river; and the doctor urged the men to make good speed across the lake, as he was excessively hungry, and wanted his breakfast. He amused us in the meantime by recounting some of his adventures with alligators. He had the most unbounded antipathy towards the monsters; which arose, he said, from once seeing a poor girl, who was stooping down to fill her pitcher with water at a river's brink, seized by one of them. The horrible saurian, darting out of the water and grasping her arm, dragged her off before he could go to her rescue. He fired, but his bullet glanced off the scaly head of the creature, which in an instant carried the unfortunate female, who was shrieking loudly, under the surface. "There lay her pitcher on the river's brink," said the doctor; "but she whom I had just before seen full of health and strength, and singing gleefully, was nowhere visible.

I thereupon vowed vengeance against the whole race, and have never lost an opportunity of slaughtering them."

The alligators and jaguars, the doctor told us, are mortal enemies. The latter wages perpetual war against the former. Whenever a jaguar can find an alligator asleep on a hot sand-bank, it attacks the saurian under the tail, which, being soft and fat, is the most vulnerable part; and such is the alligator's alarm, that it will scarcely move or make the slightest resistance. If, however, it gets its enemy into the water, its more peculiar element, then the tables are turned, and the jaguar is in most instances drowned and devoured. The jaguar being well aware of its inferiority to the saurian in the proper element of the latter, when it has to cross a river it sets up a tremendous howl on the bank previous to entering the water, in the hope of scaring the alligator to a distance.

The native villages on the banks of a river in which alligators abound are guarded by strong palisades, to prevent the monsters from creeping on sh.o.r.e; which they will frequently do when pressed by hunger, and will carry off any persons or animals they may encounter. An alligator has been known to dash into the midst of a crowd collected on the sh.o.r.e and carry off a strong man, in spite of every effort made to rescue the poor fellow. Scarcely a year pa.s.ses in the neighbourhood of places frequented by them without two or three women being thus destroyed. The doctor mentioned a remarkable instance of intrepidity and presence of mind exhibited by a young girl, who, on going to the margin of the river to fetch water, felt one of her hands suddenly seized in the jaws of a huge alligator. Knowing that death must be her inevitable fate should she not find means to rescue herself, she plunged her fingers into the eyes of the animal with such violence that the pain compelled it to let her go; though not, however, till it had bitten off the lower part of her arm. Notwithstanding the enormous quant.i.ty of blood which flowed from the fearful wound, the girl struck out, swimming with the hand that still remained to her, and happily reached the sh.o.r.e, where her friends received her; and her wound being bound up and the flow of blood stopped, she ultimately recovered.

Alligators swim rapidly against the strongest current; and when they reach the sh.o.r.e they dart forward with the quickness of an arrow towards the object at which they aim, when excited either by rage or hunger.

Under ordinary circ.u.mstances the creature moves with the slowness of a salamander; but it frequently runs,--when it makes a rustling noise, which proceeds from the rubbing of the scales of its skin one against another. In this movement it bends its back and appears higher on its legs than when at rest. Though it generally moves in a straight line, it can change its direction, both in the water and on sh.o.r.e.

"Jumbo, there, hates alligators as much as I do," continued the doctor.

"He was once very nearly caught by one; but he knows the ways of the hateful creatures. I was crossing a river in a canoe, when he unwisely took to the water. I had reached the sh.o.r.e, when I saw a huge alligator swimming towards him. Jumbo saw it too, and made way down the stream, the alligator following and rapidly gaining on him. In an instant I thought my poor dog would be in the creature's jaws, when Jumbo suddenly turned and made way up the stream. It took the alligator a considerable time to come about, and before it was able to dart forward towards its expected prey Jumbo had safely reached the sh.o.r.e."

The doctor declared that the female alligator, at the period of hatching her eggs, devours all her young ones which do not run into the river; the immediate use of their legs being the only means of saving their lives.

"I cannot fancy such monsters having any maternal affection," I exclaimed.

These and similar anecdotes occupied the time we took in crossing the lake. We now entered the last channel, which was to conduct us into the Magdalena. Lofty trees grew on both sides of the channel, among which we saw numerous large green parrots and several kinds of monkeys, the howling species being the most numerous. There were also some large birds which stood looking at us, and which the doctor called "vultures of the lake." They had long, red, and very strong legs, with their backs and b.r.e.a.s.t.s black and grey, and curved spurs, sharp at the point, and about an inch in length, on the first joint of each wing.

As we had seen nothing of our supposed enemies, the Indians, the crew declared that they were too hungry to proceed farther without breakfasting; and a tolerably open s.p.a.ce between the trees affording us room to light a fire, we landed, and having cleared the ground, soon had our pots boiling. Our crew put all their food, consisting of rice, plantain, and salt beef, into one large pot, and boiled them together.

The mess was then emptied out into wooden basins, from which they fed themselves with their fingers, long cakes of sugar serving as dessert.

By the doctor's advice, we imitated their example in one respect,--by boiling fowls, ham, vegetables, and flour together, which, when well seasoned, made an excellent dish; only, we made use of spoons and knives and forks to eat it.

After the meal was finished the men lay on the ground to rest, while the doctor produced his huge meerschaum and commenced smoking, surrounding his visage with such dense clouds that not a mosquito ventured to approach him, while my uncle and I had to keep our handkerchiefs moving rapidly to drive off the detestable little insects. We were thus enjoying ourselves, if enjoyment it could be called, when, looking along the channel in the direction we had come, I caught sight of the bow of a canoe just rounding a point.

"On board, on board!" shouted the padrone, or captain; and the men, jumping up, tumbled the cooking things, pots and pans, into the boat-- Tim following with our breakfast set, which he had just before packed up.

On our taking our seats, the crew shoved off and began to paddle at a rapid rate up the stream. The canoe we had seen had now come full into view, and at first appeared to be gaining on us. This made our padrone excite his men to fresh exertions. Should our pursuer be an enemy, and overtake us, they would as certainly be put to death as we should, supposing that we were unable effectually to defend ourselves. We got our firearms ready, however, having no intention of yielding as long as we were able to resist; and the doctor, having put fresh powder into the pan of his rifle, now knelt down in the stern of the boat, prepared to take good aim should our pursuers exhibit any hostile intentions.

"Why, doctor, I thought you said just now that only fools were eager to fight," I could not help observing.

"And you are right, young gentleman," he answered. "I am only preparing to defend myself; and I hope that the people in yonder canoe will have the wisdom not to attack us. Still, in case they should do so, we should lack wisdom if we were not prepared for their reception."

While the doctor was speaking I was watching the canoe, which was now joined by several others; but for some reason or other the fastest remained for the slower ones, and thus we managed to keep well ahead.

The water hissed and bubbled under the bows as our boat clove her way through it. My uncle sat as calm as usual, and had I judged by his countenance I should not have supposed that we were in the slightest danger. The captain and crew, however, showed by their eagerness that they were very unwilling to be overtaken; while the doctor, in spite of his professed pacific feelings, was full of fight, and prepared for the worst. Such good use did the crew make of their paddles, however, that on seeing that we were distancing them our pursuers began to shout and shriek--from disappointment, as we supposed. But their cries only made our men redouble their efforts, and utter every now and then a derisive shout in return. It was echoed by the chattering of the monkeys and the loud squalls of the parrots from the neighbouring woods, Jumbo occasionally adding to the chorus by barking furiously.

At length, on rounding a point, we lost sight of the hostile canoes; but our men did not relax their efforts, for we expected them every instant to reappear. I kept watching the point, but no canoe could be discovered coming round it, so I began to hope that the Indians had given up the chase. Our men behaved admirably, and not for a moment did they complain of the severe exertion they were going through. Still, we were too well acquainted with the treacherous character of the Indians not to know that they might very possibly keep out of sight to deceive us, and then come on during the night, in the expectation of finding us encamped on sh.o.r.e, and thus take us by surprise. This neither my uncle nor the doctor had any intention of allowing them to do; and by promising a reward to the crew, my uncle induced them to continue paddling on as fast as at first. They shouted after their fashion when, emerging from the narrow channel, we entered the broad waters of the Magdalena. A breeze was setting up the stream; the mast was now stepped and the sail hoisted, and along we flew at a rapid rate.

We had no longer any fear of being overtaken, though we knew that we had many dangers to encounter on the voyage. The inhabitants of the banks were generally in favour of the Republican cause, but we might possibly, unless we took care, land at a spot occupied by Spanish troops or by Indians fighting for the King of Spain.

I must pa.s.s rapidly over our river-voyage, interesting as it was. The banks were, in numerous places, exceedingly beautiful, from the profusion of scarlet and lilac coloured flowers of the convolvulus kind which covered the trees and bushes, some growing on them, others the produce of the numberless creepers which hang to the boughs. In some places we saw the wild cotton-tree hanging over the banks of the river, with pods full of cotton ripe and bursting. Among other creepers was the vanilla, entwining itself round the trees and producing a pleasing effect. The doctor told me that it is used as a spice to flavour chocolate and various dishes.

After sailing on for some days, we came to a part of the river full of islands covered with lofty trees and a variety of shrubs, the mimosa being among the most beautiful. Of the many creepers we observed, one, called the bejuco, is so strong and tough that the natives use it to fasten together the rafters of their houses, and the bamboos forming the covering of the long flat-bottomed boats, called champans, with which they navigate the upper part of the river Magdalena. Birds of all kinds, of the most gorgeous plumage, flitted among the trees or flew over our heads; large scarlet macaws in great numbers, two-and-two, went squalling by, their brilliant plumage shining in the bright sun; large black wild turkeys occupied the lower branches of the trees. We frequently saw the scarlet heads of the macaws peeping out of holes in the trees in which they make their nests; while flights of gaily-coloured parrots and green parrakeets were flying backwards and forwards across the river. Small fish, too, were in such vast shoals in the shallows that the bongo appeared in one place to cut through them.

The finny tribe must, however, enjoy a hazardous existence, for close to the spot we counted no less than thirty alligators swimming within a few hundred yards of our boat, their heads generally appearing only above water; and we frequently saw the fish leaping above the surface, evidently endeavouring to escape from their persecutors. On several occasions we saw the monsters' carca.s.ses lying on the banks, probably killed by the jaguars. Some were reduced to perfect skeletons, every particle of flesh having been eaten off by armadilloes or ants.

At one of the villages where we landed, we found a poor mulatto woman in great tribulation; and on our inquiring what was the matter, she told us that her daughter had that morning been seized by an alligator, while in the act of filling her pitcher in the river, and carried away. The rest of the villagers were also in a state of alarm, as they declared that the alligators, when once they have tasted human flesh, become particularly fond of it, and are especially bold and fierce in their attacks on people approaching their haunts.

"I will try what I can do for you," said the doctor. "I have been sent opportunely to your relief. Know me as the renowned slayer of caymans!"

The villagers on this gazed on him with great respect, and eagerly showed him the part of the river frequented by their foe.

Obtaining a bar of iron about a foot and a half in length, the ends sharply pointed, he fixed it in a float, which he surrounded with a large ma.s.s of putrid pork. This he fastened to a long rope, the part nearest the bait being of an open texture which the alligator's teeth could not bite through.

The bait was allowed to float off into the river, while the end of the rope was secured to the trunk of a tree. Jumbo was then sent to bark along the bank of the river, in order to attract the monster. Its snout before long appeared above the surface, when Jumbo, aware of the rush it would make, scampered off up the steep bank to a safe distance. The sagacious dog knew well the danger of manoeuvring on ground raised only a little above the level of the water; for the alligator could easily land and make its way over it with great speed. The monster, disappointed in obtaining the delicate morsel Jumbo would have afforded, at last caught sight of the bait; and making a dash at it, immediately found its jaws pierced by the iron spike, and began to haul away at the rope with a force which threatened to snap it, if it did not pull down the tree.

The doctor now called the villagers, and ordered them to haul away at the rope. At first they seemed very unwilling to undertake the task; but we setting them the example, they laid hold of it, and casting the end loose from the tree, hauled away l.u.s.tily. In spite of its struggles, the vast monster was dragged up to the bank; and feeling its feet touch the sh.o.r.e, it made the most terrific efforts to back off.

The men hauled away with such good-will, that it was compelled to move along the ground for some distance on its knees. Suddenly getting on its feet, however, it made a desperate rush at its captors. "Pull away!

pull away!" shouted the doctor, who was prepared for the emergency; and the villagers pulled with all their might, till two or three tumbling down, the rest scampered off. My uncle, Tim, and I had sprung on one side and got ready our rifles, but before we could fire the monster would have been upon the fallen men, when the doctor, stepping forward, fired his rifle almost down its throat. It instantly stopped, and after another attempt to dash forward fell over on its side.

The villagers on this slackened the rope, when the creature, recovering, made another desperate attempt to reach them. "Pull, ye villains, pull!" shouted Tim; his words being echoed by the doctor, who, in his excitement, as another great naturalist a.s.serts that he himself did, leaped on the alligator's back, and flourished his rifle, which he had reloaded, above his head; then quickly lowering it, he presented it towards the creature's ear.

The natives, now emboldened by witnessing his performance, hauled away as he directed them. The wounded alligator was evidently becoming weaker; and the doctor, fearing that it might roll over him, and finding his seat not the most comfortable in the world, leaped off; then running some way ahead, he again fired into the creature's mouth. The last shot proved an effectual quietus to the saurian, which, after making a few convulsive struggles, rolled over and lay perfectly still.

The natives, on seeing their enemy dead, shouted and danced with delight, and insisted on carrying us all back on their shoulders to the village in triumph. They told us that the monster had already carried off several dogs which had gone down to the water to drink. They urged us to remain, that we might kill a few more alligators; and were much disappointed when we told them that we were compelled to continue our voyage.

As we frequently had to bring up, sometimes before dark, we had opportunities of shooting a variety of birds and animals in the forest.

The doctor killed several monkeys, one a large red fellow with a beard as long and rough as that of a capuchin friar, and several others of a smaller species--one called the t.i.tti, a pretty little creature with a grey back and chocolate-coloured breast, the face without any hair. I was sorry to see the small creature put to death--it seemed like unnecessary cruelty; but the doctor did not partic.i.p.ate in my feelings, and I must confess that the monkey made an excellent frica.s.see.

We generally spent our nights on the dry sandbanks. At first I was under the unpleasant apprehension that we might be attacked by alligators; but we were a.s.sured that they seldom come out of the water at night, and unless very hungry are not likely to carry anybody off.

Among other valuable vegetable productions of the country, we saw the guava-tree, from the fruit of which the jelly of that name is made.

At last we arrived at the town of Mompox, which we happily found in the hands of the Republicans. We had here to exchange our bongo for a flat-bottomed boat called a champan, with which alone the upper part of the river can, from its numerous shallows, be navigated. It is exactly the same in shape and construction as the boats made by the Indians before the conquest of the country by the Spaniards. They are of all sizes. A large one costs a considerable sum--as much, we were told, as three thousand dollars. The larger are about sixty feet in length, by seven feet in beam, and the gunwale is two feet from the water's edge.

In the centre is a cabin with a convex roof, between six and seven feet high, made of strong and flexible bamboos covered with palm-leaves, and fastened together with the bejuco, the creeper I have before described.

The crew consists of a padrone or captain, a pilot (who steers with a large paddle), and about twenty-two men, who urge the boat on with long poles, some standing in the bow and others on the top of the cabin.

The champan we engaged, however, was of a much smaller size.