Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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It Is Particularly So In
Villages Where The Neighbouring Grounds Are Often Inundated.
The same
crocodiles remain long in the same places.
They become from year to
year more daring, especially, as the Indians assert, if they have once
tasted of human flesh. These animals are so wary, that they are killed
with difficulty. A ball does not pierce their skin; and the shot is
only mortal when it penetrates the throat or a part beneath the
shoulder. The Indians, who know little of the use of fire-arms, attack
the crocodile with lances, after the animal has been caught with large
pointed iron hooks, baited with pieces of meat, and fastened by a
chain to the trunk of a tree. They do not approach the animal till it
has struggled a long time to disengage itself from the iron fixed in
the upper jaw. There is little probability that a country in which a
labyrinth of rivers without number brings every day new bands of
crocodiles from the eastern back of the Andes, by the Meta and the
Apure, toward the coast of Spanish Guiana, should ever be delivered
from these reptiles. All that will be gained by civilization will be
to render them more timid and more easily put to flight.
Affecting instances are related of African slaves, who have exposed
their lives to save those of their masters, who had fallen into the
jaws of a crocodile. A few years ago, between Uritucu and the Mission
de Abaxo, a negro, hearing the cries of his master, flew to the spot,
armed with a long knife (machete), and plunged into the river. He
forced the crocodile, by putting out his eyes, to let go his prey and
to plunge under the water. The slave bore his expiring master to the
shore; but all succour was unavailing to restore him to life. He had
died of suffocation, for his wounds were not deep. The crocodile, like
the dog, appears not to close its jaws firmly while swimming.
The inhabitants of the banks of the Orinoco and its tributary streams
discourse continually on the dangers to which they are exposed. They
have marked the manners of the crocodile, as the torero has studied
the manners of the bull. When they are assailed, they put in practice,
with that presence of mind and that resignation which characterize the
Indians, the Zamboes, and copper-coloured men in general, the counsels
they have heard from their infancy. In countries where nature is so
powerful and so terrible, man is constantly prepared for danger. We
have mentioned before the answer of the young Indian girl, who
delivered herself from the jaws of the crocodile: "I knew he would let
me go if I thrust my fingers into his eyes." This girl belonged to the
indigent class of the people, in whom the habits of physical want
augment energy of character; but how can we avoid being surprised to
observe in the countries convulsed by terrible earthquakes, on the
table-land of the province of Quito, women belonging to the highest
classes of society display in the moment of peril, the same calm, the
same reflecting intrepidity?
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