The Manatitlans

al expeditions. He advised us to keep at a safe distance from the shore, and never attempt to hold friendly intercourse with the savages, or endeavor to conciliate them with presents,

y was held with a lease as precarious as his own. The padre's exhibition 46of fear had established him in the belief that in stoical courage we were inferior to his own race. This impression he had evidently found means to convey to his tribe. But Mr. Welson had, by a seemingly chance train of humorous experiment, dissipated his reliance upon the savage hypothesis of instinctive sagacity. The fancied superiority of his exaltation realized to the old chief the attributes of deity, while the padre became reduced, in his estimation, to a kindred caste with his tribe. In train the gyved circlet of his neck, as a talismanic badge of investment, would be likely to afford material evidence in proof of Mr. Welson's deistical power. These impressions, which it would be natural for him to impart, would prove ominous as a prestige of awe, similar in effect to that afforded by Moses to the Israelites. The contrast between the old chief and Waantha di

is duty in opposition to the prospect the adventure offered for the fulfillment of his commission. All, with the exception of Mr. Dow, expressed themselves in terms of discouragement. Dr. Baāhar depicted the horrors of a death from putrefactive poison, which entailed in life the lingering corruption of bodily decomposition, which even the vultures would disdain to hasten. Mr. Dow was obliged to acknowledge that the preoccupation of their thoughts, while engaged in field avocations, would exp

men, whose garments and other indications bespoke an approach to civilized origin, at once enlisted the inclination of our sympathy. The novelty of a scene so unexpected, rendered us for a moment undecided how to act, but the sound of Antonio's Chinese weapon restored our presence of mind. The Indians quickly recovering from the momentary panic, caused by the shriek of the whistle and clangor of the gong, engaged in a renewed charge upon the unfortunates, who were defending their families with the desperation of despair, and in numbers seemed scarcely one to ten of their foes. The charge of the Indians was accompanied with a derisive whoop, this was almost simultaneously echoed back by the bray of the mules opposed in forlorn hope, which revived Mr. Dow's with a realizing perception of the ways and means for the achievement of his ambitious project. His rifle had reported the de

scretion that usually guarded his movements, from fear of imposition, by bestowing a hearty embrace of sympathy upon the careworn guardian of the rescued flock. This act caused, with one exception, a general prostration accompanied with a grateful outburst of tears. The exception to this indicative act of eastern humiliation, bestowed alike in reverence to the tyrant and benefactor, was a maiden who had probably numbered eighteen seasons. Tall and erect in stature, she stood unmindful of the prostrate throng, but not unmoved by the scene enacted between the representative leaders of the rescuers and rescued. The clear transparency of her skin, with the healthy purity of its texture, combined with a graceful form, exceeding in height those with whom she was associated, declared 50her at once alien to them by birth. Seemingly aware that grateful expressions confined to pantomimic enactment would at the close of the introductory scene prove emba

es by the savages in revenge for the wrongs committed against them by our ancestors. Its inhabitants are at the present time in the extremity of distress from pestilence engendered by famine. While en

otectors, for they had been constantly harassed for weeks without an hour's undisturbed sleep. But long before the prepa

tered condition of their clothing. Fortunately, before the evening was far advanced, the captain bethought himself of his trading stock, from which he soon obtained fabrics well adapted for their protection. Mr. Dow, restored to the full vigor of ambitious vitality, busied himself in organizing a guard for the protection of the mules and horses, listening the while to Aabrawa's relation of their owner's source, for he had recognized them as belonging to a colony located far to the eastward of his place of nativity, who were known to his pe

oat to find their "toch," or path to the river, and were successful in securing a supply of game sufficient for several days' consumption. Before his guests awoke the captain had prepared a tent for the recep

gue. After the agreeable confusion, occasioned by Mr. Welson addressing them in Spanish, had subsided, the eldest introduced herself as Cleorita and her sister as Oviata Arcos, daughters of Don Santiago Arcos, a native of Madrid, the chief city of Spain. On hearing this announcement he became joyfully elated, bestowing upon both a fond recognition, as they were the daughters of a personal friend of former years. After a long conversation, in which they gave him an outline history of their people, and the cause that forced them to become

lment, that would lead the savages, on gaining the summit of the embankment, to take a blind leap into it. Fortunately the padre was present to divert the argument, which enabled him to render practical assistance to his Bamboyle aids for the completion of the inclosure in time for the night's occupation. The absence of the doctor and padre from the supper table caused the captain to inquire where they were? Mr. Dow said that he had left them but a short time previous seated on the sods of the embankment engaged in a dogmatic discussion of the feasibility of the various methods adopted by the ancients and moderns for citadel defense, the doctor quoting from "Plutarch's Lives" and the padre from Bunyan's "Holy Wa

ent sad experiences of the Bamboyle women, excited a mirthful inclination; even the more sedate demeanor of Correliana was moved in despite of her efforts to suppress her risible emotions. With his nether bifurcations disappearing, in extremity, within the capacious leg receptacles of boots, a blouse surcoat, or smock frock, elaborately supplied with

n that he had often been indebted to the contributions of his costume for the preservation of his life, while sojourning among 55the natives of the Polynesian and Ladrone Islands. When fairly mounted upon a mule, who seemed to be

, when within the cast of a spear, he seemed to be subject to the restraining influence of the same fear. The mayorong, who had allowed Mr. Dow to overtake him, had twice discharged his rifle in hopes that the report would apprise the doctor of his danger, so that he might use his pistol. But these offensive demonstrations only aggravated his danger, for the band of Indians moved rapidly forward for the rescue of their scout; he at the same time, warned by the rifle reports, cast a calculating glance backward to determine the extent of his own danger. At this juncture the butterfly rose and doubled just without the range of the distracted enthusiast's net, then coquetted backward and forward with all the instinctive blandishments of its human type, showing as little concern for threatened danger as its pursuer. This tack brought the doctor face to face with his foe, who had sprung upright upon the croup of his horse, holding his spear poised ready for the cast. The cool indifference of the doctor to this offensive act, although within reach of the spear's thrust, caused the savage to pause, backing his horse out of the way, as if still doubting the sanity of his meditated victim's self-possession. In this act a bullet with the mayorong's novice aim startled the savage from the close proximity of its whizz, as he started suddenly aside. A quick glance turned toward us determined the doctor's 57fate just as he succeeded in capturing the tantalizing object of his chase. While in the act of lowering the staff of his net to remove his prize, he received the blow from the cast of the spear aimed at the unprotected portion of his head; the point glancing upward upon the skull divided the scalp on the forehead, reflecting it backward over the crown. The blow forced him backward from the saddle to the ground; at this stage Mr. Dow brought his rifle to bear, which caused the savage to bite the dust, just as he was about to finish his victim with a spear thrust. The blow and report brought back the doctor's scattered senses in time to anticipate with his pistol an attempt upon his throat from the teeth of the Indian's no less savage horse, for the comple

liar to the tributary deltas of the large South American rivers, which bear a strong resemblance to kindred growths in India. Among the pendant hybrid limbs, which had taken root in the muddy deposit, there appeared one that seemed to vibrate to and fro, coiling upon itself. With the glass the captain discovered that it was a huge amphibious 59anaconda hanging pendant from one of the horizontal branches by the prehensile attachment of its tail. The waving excitement of its corrugations and swaying reflection of its head from side to side, within circumscribed limits, aroused the spectators' curiosity to learn the nature of

mense snout of the alligator, were exposed to view in sidelong reflection within the umbrageous shadow, proclaiming him the patriarchal champion of his species, and well matched in strength to contend with his ophidian foe, should he, from tantalizing banter, proceed to actual hostilities. Gradually the serpent's curves and retractions grew more energetic in gliding movement as its head darted hither and thither, now disappearing on one side of

ence and chance of advantageous retrieval. At this stage of doubtful emergency the instinctive "wisdom" of the serpent became meditatively apparent in the darting movements of his head and gleam of his watchful eyes, which were engaged in alert study to advantage his position, while guarding his straining body from the frantic strokes of the tail and distended jaws of his antagonist. The anaconda's intention was soon made manifest, for we could plainly see his corkscrew tail traveling with insidious progress toward one of the main trunks of the tree; this once gained the moments of the saurian's existence could be numbered, for it would afford the required resistance for crushing his body in its armor of proof. The "spectators" had watched the conflict with a superlative degree of indifference, inasmuch as favor for either of the contestants was concerned, hoping that both would be fatally disabled. But the moment the alligator began to manifest symptoms of exhaustion in the weakened strokes of its tail, and gasping throes, the human instinct of a guacho fireman sided with the weaker party in the struggle. Yet the object of his championship was scarcely a shade less repulsive than the symbolic cause of man's squirming meanness and disposition to involve in his folds of treachery all that adventure within the reach of his cupidity. The alligator's champion, born and nursed in the saddle with the lariat and bola for his rattle, asked the captain, in an undertone, for the skiff, with permission to terminate the combat. This granted he soon gained a footing upon the mangrove thicket and in a few 62seconds the quick gleam of a machéte was seen, then with the accompaniment of a prolonged hiss the serpent's writhing body fell separated from its tail. Relaxing the portion inclosing his nearly lifeless victim, he strove with instinctive energy to release his folds, but his efforts were vain, for the retractile power of his muscles had departed with his tail. Helplessly retained by the dead weight of the all