Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1853-05-26
THE STORY TELLER.
A Fight with a Cayman.

Wetake the following interesting extract
from work entitled Twenty Years in the
PHILIPPINE Islands, The scene of the combat
with the cayman is in the interior of one of
the PHILIPPINE Islands, where the author had
taken mp his abode.
AT the period at which first occupied my
habitatiOn and began to colonize the village of
Jala-Jala, caymans abounded upon that side of
the lake. From nv windows saw them gam
boiling in the water, and waylaying and snap
ping at the dogs that yentured too near to the
brink. One day female servant Of my wife's,
having been so imprudent as to bathe at the
edge of the lake, was surprised by one Of them
monster of enormous size. One of our
guards came up at the very moment she was
being carried off; he fired his carbine at the
brute, and hit it under the fore leg, (the arm
pit,) which is the only vulnerable place. But
the wound was insufficient to check the cay
mans progress, and it disappeared with its
prey. Nevertheless, this little bullet hole was
the cause of its death and here it is 10 be
noted that the slightest wound received by the
cayman is incurable. The shrimps, which
abound in the lake, get into the hurt little by
little their number increases, until at last they
penetrate deep into the solid flesh, and into the
very interior of the body. This is what hap
pened to the one that devoured my wife's maid
A month after that accident, the monster was
nd ,bo =,
from my house. Indians brought me back the
unfortunate woman's earrings, which they had
! found in its stomach.
Upon another occasion, Chinese was rid
ing before me. We reached river, and let
him 60 on alone, in order to ascertain whether
the river was very deep or not. On sudden,
three or four caymans which lay in waiting
under the water, threw themselves npon him
horse and Chinese disappeared, and for some
minutes the water was tinged with blood.
M. de la Gironiere was very curious to OBJ
tain a near sight of one of these voracious
monsters. AT the time that they frequented
the vicinity of my house, he quietly says,
pheasant fellows TO have walking about the
poultry-yard, or looking in at the pantry-win-
dow,) Il made several attempts TO attain that
end One night he baited huge hook, Sc
cured by chain and strong cord with an en-
tire sheep. Next morning sheep and chain
had disappeared. He lay in wait for the
creatures with a gun, but the bullets resounded
from their scales. A large dog belonging to
him, (ofa a race peculiar to the PHILIPPINES, and
exceeding in size any European dog,) hap
pened to die; he had his carcass dragged to
the shore of the lake, and hid himself in luIe
thicket, where he presently fell asleep. Cay
mans came and carried off the dog, fortunately
overlooking the dogs master. When the col
ony of JaIa- ala had been for few years found
ed, the eaymans disappeared from its neighbor-
hood. Out one morning with his shepherds,
at few leagues from his house, M. de la Gil
roniere came to a river which must be swum
across. One Of the shepherds advised him to
ascend to a shallow place, because it was full
Of caymans and the advice was about to be
followed, when another man rasher than his
companions, spurred his horse into the stream.
Midway a monstrous cayman advanced to meet
him. His companions uttered a warning
shout. The Indian himself perceiving the
danger, threw himself from his horse, and
made for the bank. On reaching it be imme-
ately paused behind fallen tree-trunk where
he mad water to his knees, and where, believ-
ing himself in perfect safety, he drew his cut
lass and waited. Meanwhile the cayman
threw himself upon the horse, and seized him
by the saddle. The horse made an effort, the
girths broke, and whilst the cayman crushed
the leather, the steed reached dry land. Per
ceiving the saddle was not what he wanted,
the cayman dropped it, and advanced upon the
Indian, whose master and comrades shouted to
him to run. The poor fellow would not stir,
but waited calmly, cutlass in hand, and on the
alligator's near approach, dealt him blow
upon the head. He might as well have tapped
an anvil. The next instant he was writhing
in the monsters jaws. For more than
minute we beheld my poor shepherd, his body
erect above the surface of the water, 1.-THE cay
pan had seized him by the thigh,) his hands
joined, his eyes turned to heaven, in the atti-
tude of man imploring divine mercy, dragged
in the direction of the lake. He soon disap-
peared. The drama was over-the cayman's
stomach was his tomb
Unable to save the Indian, the spectators of
his horrible end swore at least to avenge him.
The account Of the measures they took, and of
the fight with the cayman, is one of the most
startling passages in the book, and we trans
late it without abridgement
i had made,' says M. de la GirOniere,
three nets of strong cords, each of which nets
was large enough to form complete barrier
across the river. l also had hut built, and
put an Indian to live in it, whose duty was to
keep constant watch, and to let me know as
soon as the cayman returned to the river. He
watched in vain for upwards Of two months
but at the end of that time he came and told
me that the monster had seized a horse, and
hao dragged it into the river to deyour at leis-
ure' Immediately repaired to the spot, ac
comPanied by my guards, by my priest, (by
this time M. de la Gironere had built church
and got priest from ManilIa) who positively
would see cayman hunt, and by an American
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