Though the creatures fled, yet we heard a frightful roaring all night
at the place where they stood, which we supposed was from some that were
wounded, and as soon as day came we went out to see what execution we
had done. And indeed it was a strange sight; there were three tigers and
two wolves quite killed, besides the creature I had killed within our
palisade, which seemed to be of an ill-gendered kind, between a tiger
and a leopard. Besides this there was a noble old lion alive, but with
both his fore-legs broke, so that he could not stir away, and he had
almost beat himself to death with struggling all night, and we found
that this was the wounded soldier that had roared so loud and given us
so much disturbance. Our surgeon, looking at him, smiled. "Now," says
he, "if I could be sure this lion would be as grateful to me as one
of his majesty's ancestors was to Androcles, the Roman slave, I would
certainly set both his legs again and cure him." I had not heard the
story of Androcles, so he told it me at large; but as to the surgeon, we
told him he had no way to know whether the lion would do so or not, but
to cure him first and trust to his honour; but he had no faith, so to
despatch him and put him out of his torment, he shot him in the head and
killed him, for which we called him the king-killer ever after.
Our negroes found no less than five of these ravenous creatures wounded
and dropped at a distance from our quarters; whereof, one was a wolf,
one a fine spotted young leopard, and the other were creatures that we
knew not what to call them.
We had several more of these gentlefolks about after that, but no such
general rendezvous of them as that was any more; but this ill effect
it had to us, that it frighted the deer and other creatures from our
neighbourhood, of whose company we were much more desirous, and which
were necessary for our subsistence. However, our negroes went out every
day a-hunting, as they called it, with bow and arrow, and they scarce
ever failed of bringing us home something or other; and particularly we
found in this part of the country, after the rains had fallen some time,
abundance of wild fowl, such as we have in England, duck, teal, widgeon,
etc.; some geese, and some kinds that we had never seen before; and we
frequently killed them. Also we catched a great deal of fresh fish out
of the river, so that we wanted no provision. If we wanted anything, it
was salt to eat with our fresh meat; but we had a little left, and we
used it sparingly; for as to our negroes, they could not taste it, nor
did they care to eat any meat that was seasoned with it.
The weather began now to clear up, the rains were down, and the floods
abated, and the sun, which had passed our zenith, was gone to the
southward a good way; so we prepared to go on our way.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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