CHAP. XVIII.
A Tyger taken in the Camp—Fatal Rencounter of a Party with the Rebels, who killed several of the Troops, and forced the rest back—Description of a Planter of Surinam—Contagious Distempers—Suicide—Scene of primitive Nature.
I have just mentioned that several officers kept poultry, numbers of which were now taken away every night by some unknown marauder; when a Captain Bolts (suspecting the coati-mondi, or crabbo-dago) made a trap of an empty wine-chest, only by supporting the lid with a stick fixed to a long cord, into which (having first secured all the other poultry) he put a couple of live fowls, the whole guarded by two negroes at some distance. They had not been many hours on their post, when hearing the fowls shriek, one negro pulled the rope, and the other ran to secure the invader by sitting on the lid: when this proved to be actually a young tyger, who would yet have cleared his way by beating against the box, but that it was immediately secured by strong ropes, and drawn along, with the prisoner in it, to the river; where, being held under water, he was drowned, under the most vigorous efforts, by beating against the chest to effect his escape. Captain Bolts ordered the skin to be taken off, which he kept in remembrance of so very strange a circumstance.
The Count de Buffon asserts, that there are no tygers [[49]]in America, but animals much resembling them, which go by that name. I shall however describe them, from actual observation, as I found them, and leave the reader to determine whether they are tygers or not.
The first and largest is that called the jaguar of Guiana. This animal, which has by some been represented as a despiseable little creature, not larger than a greyhound, is, on the contrary, very fierce, strong, and dangerous; some of them measuring, from the nose to the root of the tail, not less than six feet: and let us not forget the print of that enormous tyger’s foot, seen by myself in the sand, near Patamaca; though it may be allowed, that creature was of an extraordinary size, and the sand very loose.—The jaguar is of a tawny orange colour, and the belly white; on the back it is spotted with longitudinal black bars; on the sides with irregular rings, light-coloured in the center; and all over the rest of the body, and the tail, the spots are smaller, and perfectly black: its shape is in every sense like that of the African tyger, and being all of the cat kind, they need no particular description; but their size and strength being so much greater than that little domestic animal, they devour a sheep, or a goat, with the same facility as a cat would kill a mouse or a rat; nay, cows and horses are not protected from their attacks, for these they frequently kill on the plantations; and though they cannot carry them off into the forest on account of their weight, they tear and mangle them in a dreadful manner, only for the sake of the blood, with [[50]]which this ferocious animal is never glutted. It has even happened that the jaguar has carried off young negro women at work in the field, and too frequently their children. This contemptible animal, as it is called and misrepresented by some authors, will beat down a wild boar with a single stroke of its paw, and even seize by the throat the strongest stallion that ever was mounted in Guiana; while its savage nature, and thirst after blood, is such that it cannot be tamed: it will, on the contrary, bite the very hand that feeds it, and very often devours its own offspring; still this creature is not a match for the aboma-snake, which, when it comes within its reach, has the power of crushing it to a jelly in but few moments.
The next is the couguar, called in Surinam the red tyger.—This indeed may, with more propriety, be compared to a greyhound, for its shape, though not for its size; being much larger than the dog which it resembles in make, but it is not in general so large and heavy as the jaguar. The colour of this animal is a reddish brown; the breast and belly are a dirty white, with long hair, and not spotted; the tail an earthy colour, the extremity black; the head is small, the body thin, the limbs long, with tremendous whitish claws; the teeth are also very large, the eyes prominent, and sparkling like stars. This creature is equally ferocious with the former.
The Jaguar, or Tiger of Terra-Firma.
The Tiger-Cat of Surinam.
London, Published Decr. 2nd, 1793, by J. Johnson, St. Pauls Church Yard.