where we arrived about sunset.

Here we learned that a negro man had lately been employed in cutting up
a large green turtle on the shore near that place, and while stooping
down to accomplish his undertaking, a tiger sallied out of a thicket of
bushes, sprang upon his back and struck one of his claws into the back
of his neck, inflicting a mortal wound which caused his death the third
day after.

I was joyfully received by Mrs. Peggy, my countrywoman, and all her
family: also received invitations to visit most of the families of the
town. A good supper was provided for me, and I was treated with the best
food and fruits that the country afforded. The usual lodgings in this
country is hammocks, suspended across the house, in which a person
accustomed to them can sleep very comfortably. Mrs. Peggy wishing to
treat me with extraordinary kindness, I being a kinsman of hers,
furnished me with what she called a crawl, fitted up in a spare bedroom,
for my lodging.

A crawl is made by cutting four small crotched sticks of wood, three or
four feet in length, which are driven into the ground, (the house having
no floor,) and two sticks some three feet in length, placed across the
ends, then a number of round sticks, much resembling hoop-poles roughly
trimmed with the bark on them, are laid closely together, resting on the
cross-poles and covered over with a piece of Indian cloth, which forms
the sacking of the bedstead. I retired to my lodging at an early hour,
as I had not enjoyed much sleep the preceding night, and laying myself
down on the crawl thought to take some repose, but I soon found the
knots in the poles were harder than my flesh. "So coy a dame was sleep
to me, with all the weary courtship of my care-tried thoughts, I could
not win her to my bed," and I was glad to _crawl_ off the crawl and take
up my lodgings on the ground under it.

The next day Mrs. Peggy wishing to treat me with the best food the
country afforded, procured a large fat monkey, had it neatly dressed,
and roasted in good style for dinner. As it was roasting before the fire
it looked so much like a human being that I felt my appetite crawl off,
and told my good countrywoman that I had made an engagement to meet an
Indian at a village about two miles from that place, at 12 o'clock, to
purchase a quantity of shell, and wished to be punctual in my promise.
This excuse for absence obtained her reluctant consent to let me go, and
I lost my dinner. I