as surprised by one of them, a monster of enormous size. One of my
guards came up at the moment she was being carried off; he fired his
musket at the brute, and hit it under the fore-leg, or arm-pit, which
is the only vulnerable part. But the wound was insufficient to check
the cayman's progress, and it disappeared with its prey. Nevertheless,
this little bullet hole was the cause of its death; and here it is
to be observed, that the slightest wound received by the cayman is
incurable. The shrimps which abound in the lake get into the orifice,
gradually their number increases, until at last they penetrate deep
into the solid flesh, and into the very interior of the body. This
is what happened to the one which devoured my wife's maid. A month
after the frightful occurrence the cayman was found dead upon the
bank, five or six leagues from my house. Some Indians brought back
to me the unfortunate woman's earrings, which they had found in the
monster's stomach.

Upon another occasion, a Chinese was riding onwards in advance
of me. We reached a river, and I let him go on alone, in order to
ascertain whether the river was very deep or not. Suddenly, three or
four caymans which lay in waiting under the water, threw themselves
upon him; horse and rider disappeared, and for some minutes afterwards
the water was tinged with blood.

I was curious to obtain a near view of one of these voracious animals,
and, at the time when they frequented the vicinity of my house, I made
several attempts to accomplish my wishes. One night I baited a huge
hook, secured by a chain and strong cord, with an entire sheep. Next
morning, sheep and chain had disappeared. I lay in wait for the
creatures with my gun, but the bullets rebounded, half flattened
upon their scales, without doing the slightest injury. One evening
that a large dog of mine had died, belonging to a race peculiar to
the Philippines, and exceeding in size any of the canine species of
Europe, I had his carcass dragged to the shore of the lake, and hid
myself in a little thicket, with my gun ready cocked, in the event
of any cayman presenting itself to carry off the bait. Presently
I fell asleep; when I awoke, the dog had disappeared, the cayman,
luckily for me, not mistaking his prey.

In the course of a few years' time, these monsters had disappeared
from the environs of Jala-Jala; but one morning, when out with my
shepherds, at some leagues' distance from my house, we came to a r