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The Llaneros, as the inhabitants are called descendants of the white settlers, with an admixture of Indians and blacks are a hardy, bold race, living almost entirely on horseback, engaged in watching over their herds, and in battling with the spotted jaguar, the savage cayman, the huge boa and anaconda, and occasionally the fierce natives of the surrounding deserts.
The Yaci Reta, or Island of the Moon, is the ideal haunt of the jaguar, and as we passed it a pair of those royal beasts were playing on the shore like two enormous cats. As they caught sight of us, one leapt into the mangrove swamp, out of sight, and the other took a plunge into the river, only to rise a few yards distant and receive an explosive bullet in his head.
"Into the jaguar's house, then!" replied the sailor, dragging after him the body of the animal. While Neb skinned the jaguar, his companions collected an abundant supply of dry wood from the forest, which they heaped up at the cave. Cyrus Harding, seeing the clump of bamboos, cut a quantity, which he mingled with the other fuel.
One old parchment-faced fellow, with a skin the colour of mahogany, seemed to be a capital story-teller; but I was sorry I did not know enough of the language to follow him in all the details which he gave. Amongst other things, he related an adventure he had once had with a jaguar.
They had no difficulty in finding the spoor of the lost jaguar, indeed it was the first thing to attract their attention upon stepping ashore, and as Earle gazed down upon the deep indentations in the plastic mud he execrated the thieving alligator afresh, for the prints were as big as the palm of his hand, indicating that the beast must have been a particularly fine specimen.
I saw three well-known trees; in front, the bark was worn smooth, as if by the breast of the animal, and on each side there were deep scratches, or rather grooves, extending in an oblique line, nearly a yard in length. The scars were of different ages. A common method of ascertaining whether a jaguar is in the neighbourhood is to examine these trees.
Jumbo added his voice to the turmoil, barking furiously; but suddenly he ceased; then again began to howl, and tried to jump into his master's hammock. "He knows that a jaguar is approaching," observed the doctor. "I only hope that the brute will show his ugly nose here." "Take care that he does not leap into your hammock," I remarked. "Not while I keep my weather-eye open," observed the doctor.
Indeed, there are quite a number of animals of the cat genus in the forests of the Montaña; some spotted like the leopard, others striped as the tiger, and still others of uniform colour all over the body. They are, of course, all preying animals, but none of them will attack man, except the jaguar and the puma.
The next morning the doctor accompanied us back to skin the jaguar I had shot, and to bring home the remainder of the venison with the exception of a portion left for Chumbo, which he cut up into strips and dried in the sun, so that it might keep good for some time.
In skirting the forest we were surprised by the sight of an enormous trunk of a tree seventy feet high, and thickly set with branching thorns. It is called by the natives barba de tigre. A female jaguar approached our station whilst taking her young one to drink at the river.