ht, while
sleeping there, he thought he heard his servant boys (who generally
remained all night in the verandah) dancing outside his bed-room door.
He called to them to be quiet, and for a minute or two the noise ceased;
as this happened several times, he rose, took a large stick, opened his
door a little way, in order to punish them, when, instead of his sable
attendants, he saw two large panthers performing their own dance; and it
is scarcely necessary to say, that he quickly closed his door, and
tolerated the nuisance.

A woman at Annamaboo was very much scarred on one arm and shoulder, in
consequence of a panther having sprung upon her when her child was at
her back, and she was carrying a pitcher of water. The pitcher fell, and
she made so vigorous an attack upon his eyes, that he became bewildered,
and retreated. This is not the only instance I have heard of wild and
ferocious animals being driven away by blows on this part.

A little girl of fourteen, who was to have been my maid as soon as she
was old enough, was not as fortunate as her neighbour; she being
attacked by a panther who sprang upon her through an open window, in a
room where she was sleeping by herself. Her cries brought her family
round her, and the beast made his escape as he had entered, but having
once tasted blood there, he was sure to return, and a trap was made
which caught him the ensuing night; the fine was paid, and the skin was
given to me. The poor child had a piece of her scalp taken off, a
triangular morsel had been bitten from her shoulder; and her throat had
a gash on each side of her windpipe. All these wounds appeared as if
they had been cut with a knife; none of them were mortal, but she had
not strength to encounter the weakness they engendered. Her father
brought her in a canoe to head-quarters for the attendance of an English
surgeon, but she expired as she was carried ashore.

A party of us had gone to St. Mary's near the mouth of the river Gambia;
and in the evening a bright moonlight induced us to take a walk. It was
not very prudent; but we started, the commandant, a quaker lady and
myself, to the outskirts of the forest. My female companion after we had
advanced some distance, began to think of danger, and I, in mischief,
rustled among the branches of the thicket in order to alarm her still
more. We proceeded as far as a spring under a huge Baobab, where we
stood for some time, till the monkeys began to pelt us from the