atter of
their arms frightens the beasts."

While the Dutchman was speaking we came in sight of the river. It was
fordable, though rather deep, and as the leading men on their small
horses plunged in the water was up to their saddle-girths. I naturally
looked out on either side for our expected enemies. Three or four large
animals sprang off just as the leading horses reached the opposite bank.
I thought they were tigers.

"Oh, no, they are only wild cats," said Van Deck. "Rather unpleasant to
be caught by one of them asleep, but they are easily frightened."

I thought to myself, If those creatures are Java wild cats, what must
Java tigers be like? We all passed across the stream without any
accident, a small body of half-clad natives bringing up the rear. They
were climbing up the somewhat steep bank, when a fearful shriek,
followed by loud shouts and cries, made me turn my head, and I caught
sight of a monster bounding along the bank, with the writhing,
struggling body of a human being between his huge jaws. The poor
wretch's _sarong_, or plaid, had become loose, and dragged after him.
Already several natives were setting off in chase, while others were
discharging their firearms at the animal, though at the risk of killing
the man. The French officer called out to them to desist, and seizing a
lance from one of the people, gallantly dashed after the tiger. I
naturally wished to join in the chase, but Van Deck entreated me to
stop, telling me that I should very likely, if I went, be picked off by
another tiger on my return. As it would have been folly to disregard
his advice, we pushed on as fast as we could to get out of the narrow
defile. We could for several minutes hear the shouts of the natives
still in pursuit of the tiger. After some time they rejoined us, but
they had not saved the poor man, and had, moreover, lost another of
their number, who had been carried off by a tiger just as the first
leaped over a cliff fifty feet above the valley, with the man still in
its mouth. It was followed triumphantly by its companion.

"This is not the country I should choose to travel in, still less to
live in," I said.

"It cannot be helped," observed the Dutchman. "I am well off here, a
great man among small people. I should be a beggar elsewhere. This is
not, however, the country in which a man of education and mind would
choose to pitch his tent."

Torches were lit for the latter part of our journe