f iguana and bats before we could proceed with the repast.

When it was in my power, I would accompany my guests in their
excursions, and then the chase was abundant and full of interest,
because I ever took care to guide them towards places abounding
in game and very picturesque. Sometimes I would take them to
the isle of Socolme, a still more curious place indeed than
the bat islands. Socolme is a circular lake--being one league in
circumference--in the midst of the great lake of Bay, from which it
is separated by a cordon or ribbon of land; or, to express myself
better, by a mountain which rises to an elevation of from twelve to
fifteen hundred feet; the centre of the mountain at the summit is
occupied by the lake of Socolme, and is evidently the crater of an
extinct volcano. Both sides are completely covered with large trees
of luxuriant growth. It is on the border of the small lake--where
the Indians never go, through fear of the caymans--that almost all
the aquatic birds of the grand lake resort to lay their eggs. Every
tree, white with the guano which they deposit there, is covered with
birds'-nests, full of eggs and birds of every size and age.

One day, in company of my brother and Mr. Hamilton Lindsay, [20] an
Englishman, who was as fearless an explorer as ourselves, I started
from the plantation, with the intention of having some light canoes
carried across the high ground which separates the Socolme lake from
the lake of Bay, and of using them on the lake; and, after overcoming
many difficulties, we, by the assistance of our Indians, carried out
this project.

We were the first tourists that ever ventured to expose our lives
on this Socolme lake. The Indians who had come with us refused most
decidedly to enter the boats, and exerted all their eloquence to
prevent us from going on the water. They spoke to us thus:--

"You are going, for no good purpose, to expose yourselves to very
great dangers, against which you have no means of defence, for
before you have gone far you will see thousands of caymans rising
out of the deep water; they will come to attack you, and what can
you oppose to those ferocious and invulnerable monsters? Your guns
and bullets cannot wound them. And as for escape by rowing quickly,
that is not possible. In their own element they swim much faster
than your canoes, and when they come up to you they will turn your
boats up-side-down with far more ease than you can drive it along;
and