We saw several snakes as we
continued our walk, and I must own that I felt very uncomfortable when
they appeared hanging from the boughs of the trees or crawling along
among the thick grass. Many of them were perfectly harmless, but
others, we were told, were fearfully venomous. Once we very narrowly
escaped a rattlesnake which appeared close to us, but Providence has
ordered it that most of these creatures should be more afraid of man
than man need be of them, and they make off rapidly at his approach.
If, however, they are trodden on, or are disturbed waiting for their
prey, they become savage, and revenge themselves on the intruders. In
most instances, the only chance of saving the life of a person bitten is
at once to suck the wound.

At length it was time for us to go back to the egaritea, that we might
return to the schooner. We found, on rejoining the passenger canoe,
that she would not be ready to start till the next morning. We were
doubting what to do with ourselves in the meantime, when Pedro informed
us that he had heard of some amusing sport to take place that night, and
that he could obtain leave for us to join in it if we wished. A party
of natives were going a little way down the river to a sandbank on which
turtles wore accustomed, at this season of the year, to come on shore in
order to deposit their eggs. The natives hide themselves near the spot,
and as soon as the unsuspecting turtles have performed the operation,
they rush out and turn as many as they can catch on their backs. There
they lie helpless till they are dispatched by the hungry aborigines. We
started in our own canoe, in company with twenty or thirty others, late
in the evening. On reaching the neighbourhood of the sandbank all the
canoes put to shore, and were drawn up on the beach. The natives, one
acting as a leader, whom we followed close after, proceeded along in
single file till a number of bushes and trees close to the bank was
reached. Behind these the party were soon concealed. It was a great
trial of patience waiting for the turtle. I thought at last that they
would not appear, and regretted having lost our night's rest for
nothing. At last, however, a low whistle from our leader aroused the
attention of the whole party, and a number of black objects were seen
moving over the white sands, till the bank seemed literally covered with
them. They remained for some time scraping holes in the sand, and, as I
supposed,