“It was not long before the dogs, which were by this time aroused to a sense of revenge and self-defence, fell in with the track of another tiger, probably the wife of the defunct, as it was evident from the footprints that she was followed by two younger ones. Fearing from past experience that this second hunt might also prove as disastrous as the former, it was agreed that all those who carried lances should enter the wood on foot in order to attack the tigress in a body, should she refuse to come out to open ground. I, of course, was too faint with loss of blood to be able to follow up the trail this time; therefore the dogs had been placed under the guidance of some one else, and shortly after I had the satisfaction of hearing the bark of my chaps resounding through the woods, which was a sure sign they had brought the game to a stand. I was expecting every moment to hear the glad tidings of the destruction of this female marauder, when, instead of the usual cry of victory, I heard a tremendous rush and cracking of sticks, as if a herd of wild hogs were endeavoring to escape. Judge of my disappointment when I beheld the whole troop of men and dogs hurrying out of the wood; and at the head of the fugitives no less a personage than his Reverence the Padre, hotly chased by the enraged tigress, who, having witnessed the slaughter in cold blood of one of her darlings, could not restrain her fury any longer, charging headlong into the midst of the group. In spite of his category, she would in all probability have made short work of Su Señoria, had not the Padre conceived the good idea of dropping his broad-brim behind him, which fortunately was carried away by a strong gust of wind, thus exciting the enraged beast to a pursuit. The tigress, after sporting with the hat like a bird after a butterfly, finding that it was mere chaff, tore it in pieces, and again turned her attention towards the reverend fugitive. In the meantime the Padre had not been very slow in reaching his horse, which was tied at the foot of a caujaro-tree a short distance from the wood. Unfortunately, just as he was in the act of laying hands upon the bridle of his steed, the tigress issued from amongst the high grass, and again charged him. At sight of the dreaded beast, the horse, giving a toss to the halter in the air, broke loose and scampered off, leaving his master to the tender mercies of the tigress.
“Swifter than a monkey, and in spite of his ponderous stomach, the Padre went up the slender tree, which bent like a reed at every effort he made to reach the branches, threatening to drop him between the open jaws of the tigress, which by this time had reached the foot of the tree. Here, again, his patron saint, as it is alleged, saved him once more from the impending danger. The truth, in my opinion, is that the tree was not stout enough for the tigress to embrace it firmly to climb up, otherwise all the good saints in heaven would not have prevented her from tearing him down like a frightened araguato.[40] His Reverence might have remained there until the day of judgment, as the tigress had already crouched beneath the tree, and he had no means at hand for driving her off, not even through the power of excommunication, but for the timely arrival of two enlazadores,[41] who, observing a horse scampering over the plain without a rider, were attracted to the spot; these, unfolding their lazos, threw them at the beast with such precision as to entangle the animal at one and the same moment; she was thus prevented from doing injury to either the Padre or themselves; for, every time she endeavored to spring on the one, the other tighted his lazo to check her movement. Furious with rage and foaming at the mouth, the tigress endeavored to bite the lazos through and through; but finding the hide from which the thong was twisted rather too tough even for her powerful tusks, she rolled over the grass in trepidation and dismay at finding herself so unexpectedly in the power of her captors.
“It was a glorious sight to behold the savage creature thus struggling with the slender lazos that bound her to the ground. Crippled as I was from the effects of my first encounter with the tiger, I had sufficient strength to reach the scene of action in time to take part in the death of his wife also; but ere I dealt the first blow at her, I felt my arm suddenly arrested by the Padre, who contended that the honor of putting an end to her accursed existence belonged to him exclusively as being the aggrieved party on this occasion. I therefore willingly surrendered my lance to him, he having lost his own spear in the hurry of the moment; and then he set to work cutting her up with all the nicety of us folks, as if he had long been trained in the art of wielding a lance. Nevertheless, the tigress would not allow herself to be so easily conquered; at every stroke from the Padre’s lance, she seized the pole with teeth and claws so firmly that we found it difficult to wrench it from her grasp, and it was not until she had been literally cut to pieces that she gave up the ghost—to the devil, I hope.
“It was late in the afternoon when we finished our hunt, and turned our horses’ heads in the direction of the farm-house. We should, no doubt, have succeeded in killing as many more of these ferocious beasts, but for the early mishap to myself and the good zambo Paulino, in consequence of which we both had to be carried—or, rather, we carried ourselves as well as we could—to the pueblo, in order to have our wounds properly dressed. On our arrival at the house, we found our mistress—who had already been acquainted with the facts by my master—awaiting us at the gate of the inclosure, and apparently very much excited with the news; for no sooner did Paulino pass the gate, and without waiting for him to dismount from his horse, than she accosted my companion in the following manner: ‘Well, Paulino, my boy, I declare ... now tell me, how did the tiger scratch you, my poor fellow, and what did you do to the scoundrel?’ with other similar expressions of feminine curiosity. Paulino, who was more matter of fact than we poor slave folks have generally the credit for, very prudently hesitated at first to comply with the train of her requests, excusing himself by saying, ‘Alas! mistress, it was a hard case, indeed; but, to tell you the truth, I shouldn’t like to show you how.’
“This reluctance on the part of my companion only helped to excite her curiosity still more, until she commanded him, in a peremptory manner, to explain to her the circumstances of the case. By this time Paulino had, with some difficulty, extricated himself from the saddle, and falling suddenly upon our mistress with a loud yell, he threw her upon the ground and commenced biting and scratching her just as the tiger had done to him. The yell from zambo and the shrieks from mi Señora soon drew to the spot my master, and some gentlemen who had come to congratulate him on the success of the hunt. Frantic with passion, and in a tone of voice which made me tremble for poor Paulino, he roared out, ‘How, now! Who’s taking such liberties with my wife, here!’ To which Paulino very calmly replied, ‘ ’Tis nothing, master, I was only showing mistress how the tiger scratched me!’ ...”
CHAPTER XXII.
LOS BORALES.
Aware of the importance of a plentiful supply of water for the cattle during the season of drought, we resolved to build a large reservoir in the heart of the savannas before leaving the pampas, and with this object now turned our steps toward the lagoon of Los Borales—so named in honor of a species of water lily very abundant on its borders—which, although quite a lake during the rainy season, often lost its waters by evaporation and other causes when most needed. This required a dam to be raised across one of the many creeks traversing these plains in all directions, to arrest the flow when the floods begin ebbing, thus leaving an artificial reservoir where previously only an extensive bog existed. We installed ourselves within the shelter of a solitary grove, and immediately commenced raising an embankment to several feet above the level of the plain, taking the earth for the purpose from the bed of a creek connecting with the lagoon. Digging to the depth of twelve feet, we came upon a tree with trunk and branches in perfect preservation, which, although it had evidently been thus entombed for ages, a breath of air had power to crumble into dust. As from the time of our arrival it had rained unceasingly, the water rapidly accumulated in the now completed reservoir, though our satisfaction received something of a damper from the fact that the fires were thereby constantly extinguished, until we bethought ourselves of erecting over them a covering of green boughs about three feet from the ground. Upon this we laid large pieces of meat, which, covered with palm leaves, were speedily cooked by the fire beneath.
In that retired and solitary grove, seated on a pack-saddle, and surrounded by lazos, bridles, and other emblems of our peaceful occupation, I wrote under the dictation of our Leader, his emphatic refusal to accept the Presidency of the Republic for a third time. Little did we then dream that this spontaneous act of political abnegation would be hailed with exultation by his enemies, in the hope of working, as it did for a time, his ruin as well as that of the Republic; and that the same plains where occurred this disinterested proof of patriotism, should shortly afterward witness a scene of bloodshed and persecution to him who, not long before, had been the acknowledged guardian of his country’s liberties.
Thunder storms were now of frequent occurrence. One night we were awakened by a fearful clap from the approaching tempest. The prospect was not inviting. Sheltered in our hammocks only by our toldos, and raising among us all but a very small umbrella of philosophy, we awaited the coming storm. In a moment it was upon its with a raging wind that threatened to overthrow and crush us beneath the falling branches of the trees. Then from the heavens descended so continuous a sheet of commingled fire and flood, that these at last appeared to become a part of the atmosphere we breathed. Terrified by this fearful uproar, our madrina of supernumerary horses, which, fearing the snakes, we had quartered in the bed of a dried-up lagoon, dashed madly across the plain, in spite of the combined efforts of their keepers. But no sooner had these refractory animals abandoned the secure pastures for the high grounds, than, attacked by snakes, three of them paid with their lives their insubordination, and one of these unfortunates was afterward brought staggering into the camp, groaning piteously. Unable in the darkness to discover the cause of his sufferings, a light was speedily procured by igniting a rag rolled in fat, when a most revolting spectacle presented itself; the poor beast, so covered with blood that he appeared literally to have been plunged into a bath of gore, had evidently been bitten by a snake, possibly the same which in killing the others had probably nearly exhausted its poison upon them, so that what remained of the venom had not power to produce immediate death, but effected a complete diapedesis or transudation of the blood. A curandero present undertook to restore the poor animal by means of the famous oracion, but on this occasion his skill was vain—the horse in a short time expiring, apparently in great agony. The groans of the dying animal, the thundering of the others along the waste, the shouts and curses of their pursuers, who in the darkness were in danger of being trampled under the feet of more than three hundred frightened animals, mingled with the appalling fury of the elements, until it seemed as though earth and heaven were struggling for the mastery. This fearful scene oh, my unhappy country! shadowed forth but too faithfully thy dark night of despotism; the anarchy, contentions, and wretchedness of thy children; thy ravaged borders, where the “Wise and Good” had formerly scattered plenty over the smiling land, and portrays now to me as faithfully the night when I, with a handful of brave youths from Maracaibo, was surprised upon the borders of its lake by the myrmidons of the tyrant Monagas, and carried prisoners to the capital while endeavoring to save the remnant of constitutional liberty in the republic.
Our men, finding it impossible during the darkness to trace the horses—among them all of those used for the saddle—were obliged to postpone their search until sunrise. At length, as if wearied with its wild orgies, this tumultuous night passed away, and the morning star appeared leading the timid dawn. The earth, so late the dark abode of chaos, now in bloom and beauty, seemed the favored daughter of the spheres, sparkling in liquid gems, and radiant in the gorgeous splendor of tropical spring, while myriads of white lilies, far as eye could reach, mantled the plain, flooding with perfume the pure morning air. Countless flocks of waterfowl, from the tiny güirirí to the soldier-like crane of the pampas, crowded the miniature lakes, which the late storm had left in every hollow of the ground, and made the air resound with their harsh and varied notes. Conspicuous among these last were the several species of garzas—herons—those “Ladies of the waters, delicate in form, beautiful in plumage, and graceful in their movements,” whose slender, arching necks, curving here and there above and through the sprouting grass, reminded one of the deadly snakes lurking about the plain. There, too, the carrao, a bird less prepossessing in appearance, but endowed with keen perception of a coming change of weather, announced by loud cries, from which it derives its name, the near approach of rain with singular precision. Clouds of fluttering gaviotas or scissor-beaks (Rhynchops) skimmed the water in wild, irregular flight, ploughing up the smaller fish with their scissor-like beaks, and vexing the ear with harsh and piercing cries. On all sides bellowing herds of cattle and troops of emaciated deer wandered, panting as they sought for water and fresh food; while, rescued from the torpor into which the protracted summer drought had plunged them, the drowsy crocodiles and sluggish tortoises moved slowly over the plain in search of the reviving element.