We secured our camp by dragging some logs of wood round it, and sticking some thick boughs into the ground, so as to break the rush of a jaguar or puma should one take it into its head to make a dash at us, tempted by the savoury smell of the roasted paca and ducks.
I need not again mention the monkeys which came round to look at us, the parrots and other birds which perched in the neighbouring trees, or the brilliant fire-flies which flitted about our heads as soon as darkness set in. I may add the mosquitoes, but they are pests to which no human being can get accustomed. Even the natives look upon them as persecutors; and the whites who live near the banks of the rivers, when asked how long they have resided there, often reply, “I have been food for mosquitoes for so many years.” We had bound thick handkerchiefs round our heads, that the ends, by covering our faces, might assist to guard them.
Covering myself up with my poncho, I had managed to go to sleep, in spite of the stings of the mosquitoes, when I was awakened by hearing some one moving near me; and looking up, I saw the doctor take his gun and steal away out of the camp. I followed him, to render him assistance if necessary, though I could not guess his object.
“Hist!” he whispered; “I saw some creatures coming down to the water to drink. They are tapirs; and if we are cautious we may shoot them.”
We crept along, keeping under cover of a bank, at one end of which we had formed our camp. Presently I saw two large animals, with long snouts somewhat resembling the trunks of elephants, but considerably shorter. They came on slowly, cropping the grass or leaves in their course. The doctor whispered to me to aim at the one on the left, while he took that on the right. Waiting till they came quite close to us,—for their skin is so tough that it can turn a bullet at a distance,—we fired almost together. The animals turned round, and I thought that we had missed and that they were about to escape; but no sooner had they got round than they began to stagger, and presently both came to the ground.
The doctor, uttering a shout of triumph, rushed forward with his hunting-knife and quickly despatched them. The shots and our voices aroused our companions, who leaped up and came rushing towards us. Together we dragged the two carcasses close to the camp, thinking that the doctor would wait till the morning to cut them up; but, in his eagerness, he insisted on commencing operations at once.
“I want their skins,” he said; “and if we don’t secure them, the armadilloes, the ants, and the vultures will have made a feast off them before we awake, if a jaguar has not torn them to pieces.”
Grasping his knife, he commenced his labours, in which we were fain to assist him; and as he cut away, he lectured on the creature.
“You see,” he observed, “this is one of the Pachydermata, or thick-skinned animals. It is a link which connects the elephant and rhinoceros to the swine; indeed, their habits are somewhat similar. It measures about four feet in height and six in length, and is thus the largest animal of this part of the continent. Observe its flexible proboscis—how much it resembles the rudiment of the elephant’s trunk; and it serves for the same purpose—that of twisting round the branches of trees, and tearing off the leaves, on which it partly feeds. In form it is like the hog; while its skin resembles that of the rhinoceros: and like that animal it delights in water, and is a good swimmer and diver; while, as does the hog, it enjoys wallowing in the mud. During the day it remains concealed in the deep recesses of the forest, and,
