Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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I Continued To Walk On Without Running, Avoided Moving My Arms,
And I Thought I Observed That The Jaguar's Attention Was Fixed On A
Herd Of Capybaras Which Was Crossing The River.
I then began to
return, making a large circuit toward the edge of the water.
As the
distance increased, I thought I might accelerate my pace. How often
was I tempted to look back in order to assure myself that I was not
pursued! Happily I yielded very tardily to this desire. The jaguar had
remained motionless. These enormous cats with spotted robes are so
well fed in countries abounding in capybaras, pecaries, and deer, that
they rarely attack men. I arrived at the boat out of breath, and
related my adventure to the Indians. They appeared very little
interested by my story; yet, after having loaded our guns, they
accompanied us to the ceiba beneath which the jaguar had lain. He was
there no longer, and it would have been imprudent to have pursued him
into the forest, where we must have dispersed, or advanced in single
file, amidst the intertwining lianas.
In the evening we passed the mouth of the Cano del Manati, thus named
on account of the immense quantity of manatees caught there every
year. This herbivorous animal of the cetaceous family, is called by
the Indians apcia and avia,* and it attains here generally ten or
twelve feet in length. (* The first of these words belongs to the
Tamanac language, and the second to the Ottomac.
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