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I kept my position firmly, with my eye fixed steadfast on him. By the time the cayman was within two yards of me I saw he was in a state of fear and perturbation. I instantly dropped the mast, sprung up and jumped on his back, turning half round as I vaulted, so that I gained my seat with my face in a right position.
Aquatic birds spring upon the trees to avoid the cayman and serpents that infest the temporary lakes. The fish forsake their ordinary food, and live on the fruits and berries of the shrubs through which they swim, the crab is found upon trees, and the oyster multiplies in the forest.
The demesne is a sylvan sanctuary for the wild creatures of the air and the wood, and they congregate here almost as they did at Walton Hall in the days of that most delightful of naturalists and travellers, whose adventurous gallop on the back of a cayman was the delight of all English-reading children forty years ago, or as they do now at Gosford.
"Well then, either the lake is enchanted or I'll draw up something." Leon then dropped the pole into the water and instantly astonishment was pictured on his countenance. Silently he looked off toward the mountain and moved the pole about in the water, then without raising it murmured in a low voice: "A cayman!"
No sooner was it seen than a cayman, slowly and cautiously approaching without even rippling the surface of the water and then curving its back, hurled its prey by a stroke of its tail into its wide-extended jaws. It makes also a loud sound, by clacking its teeth, and lashing its tail on the water. It has a voice not readily to be distinguished from that of the animals of the forest.
The rain was circumscribed by the limits of the bank of which we could distinguish the form from afar by the mass of vapour with which it was covered. On the 9th of December, as we advanced towards the Cayman Islands,* the north-east wind again blew with violence. The weather continued bad and the sea extremely rough. The wind at length fell as we neared Cape St. Antonio.
Scarcely had they done so, when at one bound it jumped into the river and disappeared. They could never afterwards be persuaded to touch a cayman. Both the Amazon and the Orinoco, with their tributaries, are frequented by several species of turtles. The mode employed for capturing the animals, as well as collecting the eggs, applies equally to both rivers.
It is supposed that when once they have tasted human flesh they will always endeavour again to procure it. Humboldt mentions another instance, where an Indian, landing on the banks of a shallow lagoon, was seized by a cayman. With wonderful presence of mind the Indian searched for a knife, but not finding it, he pressed his fingers into its eyes.
The cayman has no grinders; his teeth are entirely made for snatch and swallow: there are thirty-two in each jaw. Perhaps no animal in existence bears more decided marks in his countenance of cruelty and malice than the cayman. He is the scourge and terror of all the large rivers in South America near the line.
I stayed one day in Georgetown, and then set off the next morning for headquarters in Mibiri Creek, where I finished the cayman. Here the remaining time was spent in collecting birds and in paying particular attention to their haunts and economy.
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