Part 27 (1/2)
”The next day I mustered the population of the peninsula, and, surrounded by my new guards, I selected a site for a village, and one for a house for myself. I gave orders to the fathers of families to build their cabins upon a line which I marked out, and I desired my lieutenant to employ all the hands he could procure in extracting stone, cutting timber, and preparing everything for my dwelling. My orders given, I set out for Manila, promising soon to return. On reaching home, I found my friends uneasy on my account; for, not having heard from me, they feared I had fallen victim to the caymans or the pirates. The narrative of my voyage, my description of Jala-Jala, far from making my wife averse to my project of living there, rendered her on the contrary impatient to visit our property, and to settle upon it.”
Dr. de la Gironiere lived many years at Jala-Jala in the peninsula country. He relates many adventures in the primitive forests, one of which is as follows:
A BUFFALO HUNT IN JALA-JALA.
”THE Indians consider the pursuit of the buffalo the most dangerous of all hunts; and my guards told me they would rather place their naked breast at twenty paces from a rifle's muzzle than find themselves at the same distance from a wild buffalo. The difference is, they say, that a rifle bullet may only wound, whereas a buffalo's horn is sure to kill.
”Taking advantage of their fear of the buffalo, I one day informed them, with all the coolness I could a.s.sume, of my intention to hunt that animal. Thereupon they exerted all their eloquence to dissuade me from my project; they drew a most picturesque and intimidating sketch of the dangers and difficulties I should encounter; I, especially, as one unaccustomed to that sort of fight--for such a chase is in fact a life or death contest. I would not listen to them. I had declared my will; I would not discuss the subject, or attend to their advice.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Boats on the River Pasig.]
”It was fortunate that I did not; for these affectionate counsels, these alarming pictures of the dangers I was about to run, were given and drawn by way of snare; they had agreed among themselves to estimate my courage accordingly as I accepted or avoided the combat. My only reply was an order to get everything in readiness for the hunt. I took care that my wife should know nothing of the expedition, and I set out, accompanied by a dozen Indians, almost all armed with guns.
”The buffalo is hunted differently in the plain and in the mountains. In the plain, all that is needed is a good horse, agility, and skill in throwing the la.s.so. In the mountains, an extraordinary degree of coolness is requisite. This is how the thing is done: The hunter takes a gun, upon which he is sure he can depend, and so places himself that the buffalo, on issuing from the forest, must perceive him. The very instant the brute sees you, he rushes upon you with his very utmost speed, breaking, crus.h.i.+ng, trampling under foot, everything that impedes his progress. He thunders down upon you as though he would annihilate you; at a few paces distance, he pauses for a moment, and presents his sharp and menacing horns.
”It is during that brief pause that the hunter must take his shot, and send a bullet into the center of his enemy's brow. If unfortunately the gun misses fire, or if his hand trembles and his ball goes askew, he is lost--Providence alone can save him! Such, perhaps, was the fate that awaited me; but I was determined to run the chance. We reached the edge of a large wood, in which we felt sure that buffaloes were; and there we halted. I was sure of my gun; I thought myself tolerably sure of my coolness, and I desired that the hunt should take place as if I had been a common Indian. I stationed myself on a spot over which everything made it probable that the animal would pa.s.s, and I suffered no one to remain near me. I sent every man to his post, and remained alone on the open ground, two hundred paces from the edge of the forest, awaiting a foe who would a.s.suredly show me no mercy if I missed him.
”That is certainly a solemn moment in which one finds himself placed thus between life and death, all depending on the goodness of a gun, and on the steadiness of the hand that grasps it. I quietly waited. When all had taken up their positions, two men entered the forest, having previously stripped off a part of their clothes, the better to climb the trees in case of need. They were armed only with cutla.s.ses, and accompanied by dogs. For more than half an hour a mournful silence reigned. We listened with all our ears, but no sound was heard.
”The buffalo is often very long before giving sign of life. At last the reiterated barking of the dogs, and the cries of the p.r.i.c.kers, warned us that the beast was afoot. Soon I heard the cracking of the branches and young trees, which broke before him as he threaded the forest with frightful rapidity. The noise of his headlong career was to be compared only to the gallop of several horses, or to the rush of some monstrous and fantastical creature; it was like the approach of an avalanche. At that moment, I confess, my emotion was so great that my heart beat with extraordinary rapidity. Was it death, a terrible death, that thus approached me? Suddenly the buffalo appeared. He stood for a moment, glared wildly about him, snuffed the air of the plain, and then, his nostrils elevated, his horns thrown back upon his shoulders, charged down upon me with terrible fury.
”The decisive moment had come. A victim there must be--either the buffalo or myself--and we were both disposed to defend ourselves stoutly. I should be puzzled to describe what pa.s.sed within me during the short time the animal took to traverse the interval between us. My heart, which had beat so violently when I heard him tearing through the forest, no longer throbbed. My eyes were fixed upon his forehead with such intensity that I saw nothing else. There was a sort of deep silence within me. I was too much absorbed to hear anything--even the baying of the dogs as they followed their prey at a short distance.
”At last the buffalo stopped, lowered his head, and presented his horns; just as he gave a spring I fired. My bullet pierced his skull--I was half saved. He fell to the ground, just a pace in front of me, with the ponderous noise of a ma.s.s of rock. I put my foot between his horns and was about to fire my second barrel, when a hollow and prolonged roar informed me that my victory was complete. The buffalo was dead. My Indians came up. Their joy turned to admiration; they were delighted; I was all that they wished me to be.
”Their doubts had been dissipated with the smoke of my gun; I was brave, I had proved it, and they had now entire confidence in me. My victim was cut up, and carried in triumph to the village. In right of conquest I took his horns; they were six feet in length; I have since deposited them in the Nantes museum. The Indians, those lovers of metaphor, those givers of surnames, thenceforward called me _Malamit Oulou_--Tagal words, signifying 'cool head.'”
The traveler describes the cayman, which is of enormous size--the whale of the oozy lagoon. He relates the following adventure with a boa:
THE BOA OF LUZON.
”THE other monster of which I have promised a description, the boa, is common in the Philippines, but it is rare to meet with a very large specimen. It is possible, even probable, that centuries (?) are necessary for this reptile to attain its largest size; and to such an age the various accidents to which animals are exposed rarely suffer it to attain. Full-sized boas are met with only in the gloomiest, most remote, and most solitary forests.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A boa.]
”I have seen many boas of ordinary size, such as are found in our European collections. There were some, indeed, that inhabited my house; and one night I found one, two yards long, in possession of my bed.
”Several times, pa.s.sing through the woods with my Indians, I heard the piercing cries of a wild boar. On approaching the spot whence they proceeded we almost invariably found a wild boar, about whose body a boa had twisted its folds, and was gradually hoisting him up into the tree round which it had coiled itself. (See book for ill.u.s.tration.)
”When the wild boar had reached a certain height the snake pressed him against the tree with a force that crushed his bones and stifled him.
Then the boa let its prey fall, descended the tree, and prepared to swallow what it had slain. This last operation was much too lengthy for us to await its end.
”To simplify matters, I sent a ball into the boa's head. Then my Indian took the flesh to dry (bucanier) it, and the skin for dagger sheaths. It is unnecessary to say that the wild boar was not forgotten. It was a prey that had cost us little pains.
”One day an Indian surprised one of these reptiles asleep, after it had swallowed an enormous doe deer. Its size was such that a buffalo cart would have been required to transport it to the village.
”The Indian cut it in pieces, and contented himself with as much as he could carry off. I sent for the remainder. They brought me a piece about eight feet long, and so large that the skin, when dried, enveloped the tallest man like a cloak. I gave it to my friend Lindsay.
”I had not yet seen one of the full-grown reptiles, of which the Indians spoke to me so much (always with some exaggeration), when one afternoon, crossing the mountains with two shepherds, our attention was attracted by the sustained barking of my dogs, who seemed a.s.sailing some animal that stood upon its defense. We at first thought it was a buffalo which they had brought to bay, and approached the spot with precaution.