Equinoctial Regions of America, vol 3 | Page 3

nostrils, and beneath the lower jaw,
where there are two glands of musk. The Guaykeri Indian was less
fortunate than the negro of Mungo Park, and the girl of Uritucu, whom
I mentioned in a former part of this work, for the crocodile did not open
its jaws and lose hold of its prey. The animal, overcome by pain,
plunged to the bottom of the river, and, after having drowned the Indian,
came up to the surface of the water, dragging the dead body to an island
opposite the port. A great number of the inhabitants of Angostura
witnessed this melancholy spectacle.
The crocodile, owing to the structure of its larynx, of the hyoidal bone,
and of the folds of its tongue, can seize, though not swallow, its prey
under water; thus when a man disappears, the animal is usually

perceived some hours after devouring its prey on a neighbouring beach.
The number of individuals who perish annually, the victims of their
own imprudence and of the ferocity of these reptiles, is much greater
than is believed in Europe. 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? I shall mention one example only in
support of this assertion. On the 4th of February, 1797, when 35,000
Indians perished in the space of a few minutes, a young mother saved
herself and her children, crying out to them to extend their arms at the
moment when the cracked ground was ready to swallow them up.
When this courageous woman heard the astonishment that was
expressed at a presence of mind so extraordinary, she answered, with
great simplicity, "I had been told in my infancy: if the earthquake
surprise you in a house,