"I must now inform the reader that about an hour after I had left the
boat, the captain of an American vessel was pulling up the river, and
was hailed by our men in our long boat. Perceiving them on that side of
the river, and that they were in distress, he pulled toward them, and
they told him what had happened, and that an hour previous I had left
the boat to force my way through the cane brakes, and they had heard
nothing of me since. 'Madness!' cried he, 'he is a lost man. Stay till I
come back from the schooner.' He went back to the schooner, and taking
two of his crew, who were negroes, and his two bloodhounds, into the
boat, he returned immediately; and as soon as he landed, he put the
bloodhounds on my track, and sent the negroes on with them. They had
followed me in all my windings--for it appeared that I had traveled in
all directions--and had come up with me just as I had sunk with
exhaustion, and the panther was so close upon me. The bloodhounds had
attacked the panther, and this was the noise which sounded on my ears as
I lay stupefied at the mercy of the wild beast. The panther was not
easily, although eventually overcome, and the black men coming up, had
found me and borne me in a state of insensibility on board my vessel.
The fever had set upon me, and it was not till three weeks afterward
that I recovered my senses, when I learned what I have told to the
reader."




[Illustration: THE ELEPHANT.]

The Elephant.