Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-11-13
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 TROM among the many strange inci- dents of his long residence in Hon. duraa. related by my old comrade In arms. Henry Dacres. select the follow ing as evincing wonderful presence of mind in moment of deadly peril.y One day." satd he. ttI came down out of the hills for the purpose of exploring
 some bottom lands. where was told number of unusally fine mahogany trees might be found in certain valley! supposed to be about F miles from my, camp. After tedious search I finally. discovered the place. and seeing at glance that 1t really contained many, grand trees. I disnounted, tied my mule to sapling, and began a close inspec- ton on foot
 ''As the weather was very hot, and every extra ounce of weight burden, left my repeating rife slung to the sad- de and my heavy reyolvers In the hols- ters. This was a very foolish thing for an old woodsman and hunter to do. but no suspicion of possible danger crossed
 my mind at the moment, and was soon so deeply immersed in my estimates that never gave the matter thoughts
 "The valley where now found myself
 was strangely damp, gloomy and lone- ly spot, looking as if it had never been trodden by the foot of civilized man; and although saw there was plenty of money in 1t for me. I felt an unaccount- able depression of spirits while explor- ing it.
 By and by began to realize that \ was much fatigued and very hungry. aud as 1t was now long past noon sat down on a log to eat light lunch, which had brought in my pockets. This con- sisted merely of bread and meat and a flask of cold coffee, and was muaching away, when was aroused by a great commotion among number of monkeys perched in the tops of some adjacent palms.
 Being thoroughly conversant with the habits of these gagacious little crea- turee, knew at once from their alarmed chatterings and cries of rage that some dangerous animal-probably puma was in the vicinity. However, had no great fears for my own safety, knowing
 
 tack even single man in daylight. l
 But did fear that the beast, what ever it was, might scent the mule, now about 300 yards distant, and either bounce upon 1t or cause it to break away. As this mule was the very best owned, an invaluable saddle beast, lost no time in attempting to reach it. So far had seen no signs of a wild animal; but all the same was convinced that the mon-. keys had given no fasle alarm, and that danger of some kind was near. i 'T was making my way through ths Mndergrowth as fast as possible, and keeping a sharp lookout, when caught sight of something gave me a thrill of terror. and caused me bitterly to re- gret the folly of leaving my arms be- hind; for, crouched low upon his belly. directly in my patch and not more than 20 paces ahead, a full-grown male jaguar lay beside bush, intently watching ne!
 At this sight stood for moment or two stock-etill. and could plainly dis ,tinguish the beautiful, ringlike spots upon the animals glossIy hide, the cruel gleam of his greenish yellow eyes, and ALs twitching of bis slowly moving tail. N
 ''I had not thought of such foe as this, the jaguar being the largest and fiercest of all the.American FeIidae. He. In common with the panther, is much dreaded by the natives of Honduras, but there Is no comparison between the hrutes, the jaguar being much larger than the latter and much more foFmid- able.
 ''E1e is, indeed, not far below the tiger of India in size, and is quite his equal in ferocity; and although generally of al like snealing and cowardly nature, he will, on occasion, display the same reclx- Jess courage which at times inspires his >Asiatic congener,
 Honduras people call both these great cats el tigre, although the true tiger is. mot found in America. However, the Jaguar is pretty fair substitute; and ic is said that he, too, after once tasting human blood, becomes confirmed man. eater Certainly the very fine specimen now blocking my path looked as if about ito begin this role by making meal of me.
 . q had no weapons about me except a pocket knife and one of those three-inch, single barrel. large bore Derringer pis- tois. designed especially for defense when one is closely grappled by foe. This was lin my waistcoat pocket, and loaded, but I had not second cartridge, and at best the diminutive, though powerful weapon would be, from ths difficulty of taking aim with it, of no use at 8 greater dis tance than a foot or two.
 Nevertheless, as in this particular case. the extreme of rashness might prove the height of prudence, and knowing full we'll that if remained long motionless the jaguar would spring upon me and bear me to the earth, took the pistol in my right hand, and with a loud yell, rushed straight at him!
 "The beast was so astonished by this maneuver that he actually bounded clear over the bush and out of my way, l and ran on with all my might toward the