remarked.

"Not while I keep my weather-eye open," observed the doctor.

As a precautionary measure, however, the doctor got out of his hammock
and piled wood on all the fires. These, I suppose, kept the jaguars
from actually attacking us; but the next morning we found the traces of
several which had come down to the river to drink.

Continuing our voyage, the men, after having paddled against a strong
current, begged for a noonday rest, which we were compelled to allow
them. The forest appeared tolerably open, so the doctor proposed that
we should take our guns and shoot any animals we might come across. The
padre, he, and I accordingly landed; and observing that the ground rose
to some height inland, we pushed forward in that direction. In addition
to my gun, I had armed myself with a long spear,--a useful weapon under
most circumstances in that region, although it could not be employed to
much effect in a thick forest.

We shot a paca and several birds, and had got some way up the hill,
which was densely covered with trees to the summit, when the doctor
suggested that it was time to return.

"Gladly, my friends," answered the padre; "hill-climbing does not quite
suit me, unless on the back of a stout mule; and I am, besides, very
hungry. I hope our people will have prepared dinner for us. Hark! what
is that noise?"

We listened, and could distinguish a confused sound of grunting and
squeaking coming from a distance amid the trees.

"Pigs, I suspect," observed the padre. "We may shoot one or two, and
they will prove a welcome addition to our larder."

"Pigs they certainly are; but of a species which I have no wish to
encounter unless I am safe out of their reach," exclaimed the doctor.
"My friends, it is no joke; if they once get up to us, we are as good as
dead men. They are peccaries,--terrible little brutes, with tusks as
sharp as lancets, savage as jaguars, and too stupid to know fear. Were
we to shoot down half-a-dozen of them, the rest would come on as
fiercely as at first. Here, senor padre, let me hoist you up into the
fork of this tree. Don't hesitate, as you value your life."

Saying this, the doctor seized the padre round the legs, and together we
lifted him up till his hands could reach a branch, when by further
efforts we enabled him to seat himself safely in the tree.

We were going to follow, when the doctor remarked that it would be as
well to divide our foes; and observing anothe