File:Humbolt's travels and discoveries in South America (1846) (14779997072).jpg

Identifier: humboltstravelsd00humb (find matches)
Title: Humbolt's travels and discoveries in South America
Year: 1846 (1840s)
Authors: Humboldt, Alexander von, 1769-1859
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Publisher: London, John W. Parker
Contributing Library: University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Digitizing Sponsor: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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the Xile, and not that of the cayman or alligatorwhich is more commonly found in the New World,—toAvhich indeed it is peculiar. Our travellers were in-formed by their guides that at San Fernando scarcelya year passed in which several persons, especiallyfemales, were not drowned by these crocodiles. They related to us, says Humboldt, the historyof a young girl of Uritueu, who, by singular intrepidityand presence of mind, saved herself from the jaws of acrocodile. When she felt herself seized, she sought theeyes of the animal, and plunged her fingers into themAvith such violence, that the pain forced the crocodileto let her loose, after having bitten off the lower part ofher left arm. The girl, notwithstanding the enormousquantity of blood she had lost, happily reached theshore, swimming with the hand she had still left. Inthose desert countries where man is ever wrestling withnature, discourse daily turns on the means that may beemployed to escape from a tiger, a boa or traga venado.
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K2 STORT OF AN INDIAN GIRL. 133 or a crocodile; every one prepares himself in somesort for the dangers that await him. 1 knew/ saidthe young girl of Uritucu coolly, that the cayman letsgo his hold, if you push your fingers in his eyes. Longafter my return to Europe, I learned that, in the inte-rior of Africa, the negroes know and practise the samemeans. Who does not recollect, with a lively interest,Isaaco, the guide of the unfortunate Mungo Park,seized twice, near Boolinkoomboo, by a crocodile, andtwice escaping from the jaws of the monster, havingsucceeded in placing his fingers under water inboth his eyes*? The African Isaaco, and the youngAmerican, owed their safety to the same presence ofmind, and the same combination of ideas. Yet thisexpedient is not always attended with success. * The incident referred to occurred in crossing the river Wonda, oneof the affluents of the Senegal, and is thus related in Parks JoumaL There being but one canoe, it was near noon before all the bundl

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