Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-08-02
A WILD BOAR HUNT.
HARPOONING PIGS FROM THE BACK
OF A MULE, IN HONDURAS.

cincinnati Enquirer Interview.1


The ubiquitous guide made discovery
which turned his yellow face to an sShen
hue, and brought him from the stream,
where he had gone for water, yelling:
"Chanca del monte! Chanca del monte!"
slender-lezged hog was trotting about
fifty PAGES in the frightened mans rear It
had couple OF gitterag white tusks on
either side of its jaw, which it proceeded to
whet on the roots of walnut tree in which
Rafael took shelter.
"Climb, climb, senorsi" he exclaimed, as
soon as he was safely out of reach there is
a-plenty of them coming Take up much
powder and much shots, or they will keep
us treei until we starve"
But the senors did not mean to be treed
at all. They recognized in the animal the
hog against which the harpoons were to be
used, and inStea of leapng into tree they
got into the saddle and unstrapped the
spears which were beside the guns on the
mules backs ready for the march.
A patter little feet in the foresH told
that Rafael's plenty of them" were C, ming,
and Davys spurred at once toward the
brute, which was still grunting at the foot
of the walnut tree.
"When it saw me coming" said Mr..
Davys, as he told the story in the Gibson
house lobby one afternoon, ait trotted
my left hand to keep my mule from turning
tail and boiling but kept her head well to
it, and as the boar closed with Us my blade
caught him at the base of the skull and
shaved away the skin along his spine clean
to the tail. 1t was awkward work for q
green hand, and if the mule had not SHE'D
violently to Cue side the rush of the pig
would havs certainly broken his
foreleg. The first taste of the harpoon
seemed to make the brute furious,
and with the blood stream.
ing down his sile he came back at me,
gnashing his tusks with noise like the rat
tie of pair OF bones at the Ministries. This
time | missed him altogether, and his sharp
teeth took a couple Of square inches Of skin
from my mules Off fore leg. But at the
third charge ] gave him the harpoon square
in the eye. He reared up on his launches
and fell over backward, taking the lance
out of my hand in his fell
by this time Smith had closed with the
leaders of the drove, which had broken
cover when they heard the stru gle going
on, AMI l saw there wa no time to get out
Of the saddle and pick up my spear,
so l tore my gun out Of the fasten-
ings which held it to the saddle be.
hind me, and put . charge Of buck
shot into the throat of a bristly boar who
was pOIlHE EpiHltu Huie III tue TthT, AIUbT
that had all could do to take care Of my
self. The little beasts-none of them bigger
than an ordinary bull-dog-came at ma
like whirlwind, and for tho next ten
minutes expected to be thrown into the
middle of them. The mule was doing her
level best to hiseat me, and all the indica-
tions pointed to her being broug ht to the
ground with broken legs. The skin was
torn from her shanks in ribbons, and II
had gone down it would have been all day
with me.
"Smith soon saw that the case was too
serious to trust to the harpoons any longer,
and, after sticking one through the neck.
he threw the spear away and joined me in
thinning the drove out with his rife This
was much quicker work, and alter we had
bowled over six, and wounded several more,
the whole party became panic-stricksn and
raced away in the woods like many
deer
"When the coast was clear Rafael came
down from his perch, He looked at the
dead hog and then at U.S. with an expires.
sion Of reverence on his face. 'El norts ssta
dia blo,' was all he said.
"For IA man who knows how to handle q
lane or harpoon, pig sticking may be
good sport; hut, for my part, l would not
venture into the midst of drove Of Central
American hogs with a harpoon as my weapon
for clean title deed to the whole country"