Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-07-23
Salt gake genrotrat,
HARPOONING HOGS.
A Central American Sport which
Gives Plenty Of Excitement.

! a man who has been engaged in the
novel sport OF happening hogs in Central
America tells the Cincinnati Enquirer
about it.in this way: All the members of
our party were at peace with themselves
and all the world until the ubiquitous
guide made discovery which turned his
yellow face to an ashen hue and brought
him from the stream, where he had gone
for water, yelling: "Chanca del monte !
Chanca del monteI'
A slender-legged hog was trotting about
fifty PAGES in the frightened mans rear
1t had a couple of glittering white tusks
on either side of its jaw which it proceed
ed to whet on the roots of a walnut tree
in which Rafael took shelter.
"Climb, climb, senors % he exclaimed
as soon as he was safely out of reach;
'there is plenty of them coming. Take
up much powder and much shots, or they
will keep us freed until we starve.
But the senors did not mean to be
freed at all. They recognized in the ami
NAL the hog against which the harpoons
were to be used, and, instead of leaping
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 OF little feet in the forest told
that Rafael's ''plenty of them" were
coming, and DAVIS spuwed at once
toward the brute, which was still grunting
at the foot of the walnut tree.
When it saw me coming it tottered to-
ward me, and it took all the strength in
my left hand to keep my mule from turn
ing tail and boiling, but l kept her head
10 ,,,,l ho hno,, o1Acn1 NTH
my blade caught him close at the base of
the skull and shaved away the skin along
his spine clear to the tail 1t was awk-
ward work for a green hand, and if my
mule had not SHE'D violently to one side
the rush of the pig would have certainly
broken his fore leg. The first taste of
the harpoon seemed to make the brute
furious, and with blood streaming down
his side he came back at me crashing
his tusks with noise like the rattle of a
pair of bones at the minstrels. 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 1 gave him the harpoon
square in the eye. He reared upon his
launches and fell over backwards, taking
the lance out of my hand in his fall
BY this time Smith had closed with the |
leaders of the drove, which had broken |
cover when they heard the struggle going /
on, and | saw there was no time to get |
out of the saddle and pick up my spear,
so | tore my gun out of the fasteningS /
which held it in the saddle behind me,
and put load of buckshot INTO the throat |
Of a bristly boar who was goring Smiths |
mule in the rear After that | had all / |
could do to take care of myself. The lit .
tie beasts, none of them bigger than an
ordinary bulldog, came at me like !
and for the next ten minutes
expected to be thrown into the middle
If them The mule was doing her level
best to upset me, and all the indications
pointed TO her being brought to the
ground with broken legs. The skin was
orn from her shanBs into ribbons, and if
had gone down it would have been all
lay for me.
Smith soon saw that the case was too
serious to trust to the harpoons any longer,
ind after sticking one through the neck,
lie threw the spear away and joined in
thinning the drove out with his rife.
This was much quicker work, and after
We had bOwled over six and wounded
several more, the whole party became
,anic-stricken, and raced away in the
woods like so many deer.
When the coast was clear, Rafael came
Town from his perch. He looked at the
lead hogs and then at us with an express
ion of reverence on his face. 'El Norte
sta diabolo,' was all he said.
For a man who knows how to handle
ance or a harpoon, pig sticking may be
,ood sport; but for my part [ would not
,enture into the midst OF drove OF Cen
raj American hogs with harpoon as my
My weapon for clean title deed to the
Whole country.