Year: 1870

Mr.. Barclay, English gentlemen who had


made comfortable independence in the mining


speculations, determined, after some years resi-


dence to settle permanently in the Brazils.
! With this end in view he bought and farmed


tract of almost uncleared land in the extreme


northwest frontier, and pursued his clearing and
| farming with great success and tolerable profit,


and what is more, with certain prospect of


much greater profits to come in time. lie gave


himself, after time, a short leave or absense,


and came back to Scotland, where he married
| his cousin, with whom he again returned to his
plantation in Brazil. During his absence, and


according to his instructions, a neat, light,


wooden residence-such as are built on all plan
tations--had been erected in the midst of the
clearing, with lofty veranda round it to keep
the rooms cool, and French windows leading


straight from the apartments to the ground.
Still young Mrs. Barclay, though surrounded
with every comfort, was very far from being


quite happy; for she was consttutionally


10 terror of the repulsive and tremendous
looking insects and reptiles with which all the


wilder parts of Brazil literary abound. She


could not go to drawer without finding in it


centipede large a little eel, or open cup
board without meeting spider almost as large
as a small crab. Lizards of beautiful coors, but
of repulsive appearance, had to be swept out of


the bedroom at night. These harmless


enough but there are few people who would
care 10 Whke up dUu Huu tnem craving over
their faces, or hear their long tails cattering


along the wooden floor. The climate, :oo told


on Mrs. Barclays health. The reptiles by day
and mosquitoes by night, made her unusually
susceptible of irritation and alarm. But of all
her horrors, the greatest she entertained was
that OF snakes and serpents of all kinds This


was ineradicablc from her nature, and was in


fact much a part of her nature as the over


whelming antpathes some ladies feel at sight
of rat, spider or a bull. Unfortunately, Mr.


Barclay lived in part Of the country which was
infested with snakes some harmless, and some
deadly but whether harmless or deadly, the


unconquerable terror she evinced was the same
to all. Once n toboba, n quick and deadly


snake, was killed in her house. At another time


a coral snake, the most beautiful and most


quickly deadly of all the venomous reptiles God
has created, was found and killed with ease upon


the rough lawn, if we may dignity by such
| term the short, brown, turn-up herbage which


surrounded the house. At another time a small


anaconda, about eleven feet long, was found in


the woods near the house, and killed and, what
was worse, constant rumors were brought in
that two very much larger serpents of the same


class had been seen in the forest not far off.
Poor Mrs. Barclays terrors were not diminished
by the exaggerated tales of her native servants,
till at length they rose to such pitch that 1t


seemed very likely, as she often said, that she
would die If serpent came near her. Her fears
-


venture out at all and actually kept her room.
In this frame of mind it will easily be believed
that her life was misery to herself, and not of
much comfort to her wild fear-naught husband.
Early one swimmer morning the latter went to
look after the progress of some rather distant
clearing he was making; of course he went on
horseback, and of course he carried with him


the heavy, old-fashioned, double-barreled mus
ket, without which, in that time and in those


wild regions, no planter ever stirred FAR abroad
Both of the barrels were loaded with heavy
charge of slugs, sufficient to bring down deer,
if one came near enough, or, better still, enough
to scare away stop the charge OF Jaguar or
tree-panther Mr.. Barclays survey took him
rather late, and 1t was the height of MONDAY


heat before he returned through short belt of


forest which lay between his new clearings and
his home. At that time the tropical forests are


as silent as If they were dead. There is to be


sure, drowsy chirp of the great grasshoppers,


and now and then ahummiDg-bird, whose gaudy
colors are all hidden by the intensely rapid


motions of its wings, passes from flower to
flower with droning buzz, which in such ST.


lence is almost noise. But the great trees


themselves, and their equally thick mass of
tropic underground between, are all as motion


less and still as if they had been carved in stone.
| IL was through such scene as this that Mr..


Barclay rode on his return home, ard IL was


amidst such stiffness that his attention was at


once attracted to large creeper hanging from a


tree in front of him, and which, amidst the


deadly stiffness around, was swinging quickly.


Such signs in the forest are never to be disre-


garded and Mr.. Barclay was too old woods


man not to be at once on the alert. After wait
| ing for some minutes till the oscillation ceased,


and being reassured by the qnietness of his


horse, which would have been the first to scent


a jaguar puma, he rode carefully toward


the tree, and at little distance examined it, but