ear but
in the night; and in the second place, we found the people terribly
frightened, especially the women. The man that had the lance or dart did
not fly from them, but the rest did; however, as the two creatures ran
directly into the water, they did not seem to offer to fall upon any of
the Negroes, but plunged themselves into the sea, and swam about, as if
they had come for their diversion: at last, one of them began to come
nearer our boat than I at first expected; but I lay ready for him, for I
had loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and bade Xury load both
the others. As soon as he came fairly within my reach, I fired, and shot
him directly in the head: immediately he sunk down into the water, but
rose instantly, and plunged up and down, as if he was struggling for
life, and so indeed he was: he immediately made to the shore; but
between the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the
water, he died just before he reached the shore.

It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor creatures, at
the noise and fire of my gun; some of them were even ready to die for
fear, and fell down as dead with the very terror; but when they saw the
creature dead, and sunk in the water, and that I made signs to them to
come to the shore, they took heart and came to the shore, and began to
search for the creature. I found him by his blood staining the water;
and by the help of a rope, which I slung round him, and gave the Negroes
to haul, they dragged him on shore, and found that it was a most curious
leopard, spotted, and fine to an admirable degree; and the Negroes held
up their hands with admiration, to think what it was I had killed
him with.

The other creature, frightened with the flash of fire and the noise of
the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly to the mountains from
whence they came; nor could I, at that distance, know what it was. I
found quickly the Negroes were for eating the flesh of this creature, so
I was willing to have them take it as a favour from me; which, when I
made signs to them that they might take him, they were very thankful
for. Immediately they fell to work with him; and though they had no
knife, yet, with a sharpened piece of wood, they took off his skin as
readily, and much more readily, than we could have done with a knife.
They offered me some of the flesh, which I declined, making as if I
would give it them, but made signs for the skin, which they gave m