arging black animals, rushing with
wonderful speed towards a common centre, the fort. We in the hammocks
each lighted a coil of wax tapers that were prepared ready for the
occasion.

And what a scene ensued! the fire was rapidly scattered, and partly
extinguished; under and around us was a seething mass of black
peccaries, barely distinguishable in the dim light, but all pushing and
struggling to the front; the men in the fort had discharged their
weapons, and were hard at work, hacking and thrusting at the peccaries
as they endeavored to swarm up the smooth surface of the hides that
covered the sides of the fort. The men in the hammocks, after
discharging their guns, reached down and slashed with their knives at
the swarming animals below them.

The attack was more like the wild, reckless bravery of the Arabs of the
Soudan, for as pig after pig fell squealing and disabled, scores more
struggled for his place. The faint light of the tapers and the partly
extinguished fire served but to dimly illuminate the elements of the
strange, noisy, wildly weird scene; the trunks of the surrounding trees
and their foliage; the swinging hammocks with their occupants reaching
downward, cutting and thrusting with their long, gleaming knives; the
dim figures of the men in the _trincheria_, repelling with shouts and
thrusts the swarming enemy; the wild, rushing, charging forms of the
black bodies of the peccaries, as in great numbers they threw themselves
against the fort, regardless of being struck down one after the other,
and always impelled forward by those in the rear struggling to the
front; others made ineffectual attempts to reach our hammocks or
viciously gashed the trees that gave us support; the extremely
disagreeable and nauseous odors of the animals, their snapping of teeth,
like musketry file-firing, the reports of the firearms, the shouts of
the men, the howling and barking of the dogs, and the dim light, created
an indescribably strange and exciting scene. Every bullet of my revolver
took effect. I shouted to the men to reserve their fire, and fire
volleys, but it was like talking in a gale of wind at sea.

In spite of all efforts, still the battle raged. The animals appeared to
be in immense numbers, for, as far as the faint light would permit, the
ground was seen covered with their moving bodies, rushing, struggling,
the strongest beating down the weakest, grunting, squealing, and
snapping their teeth; and noticeabl