LETTER LI.

W. P. R. to GENERAL MILLER.

Don Ysidoro and his Capataz in the Country-Don Ysidoro likes to talk about Tigers-His Adventures with them-Camalotes-A Tiger from one of them pays a visit to Don Ysidoro in his Town House The Capataz attacked-The Assaulter shot dead-Results -Ball and Supper in Corrientes-Stealing no robbery at a Ball— Effect of English dishes upon the Correntinas-Costume-Leave Corrientes for good, and arrive in Buenos Ayres.

London, 1842.

DON Ysidoro Martinez y Cires passed some years of his life in an estancia which he possessed in the interior of the province; and being well wooded, it was a favourite haunt of the tigers. Our friend's capataz, an old and faithful servant, was born in San Paulo, a province of Brazil, lying contiguous to the Banda Oriental, and, like many other Paulistas, he was a capital tiger hunter.

In the course of his country life, Don Ysidoro had many tiger adventures in company with his Paulista capataz; and when he sold his estancia, bought his town house, and thenceforward resided

in the city, he delighted in going over his hard fought fields, and in recounting many a strange adventure and hair-breadth 'scape, connected with his and his capataz's tiger hunts. By degrees Don Ysidoro's tiger tales gradually assumed the form of a hobby, an amusing and innocent one, which, when we knew him, he was fond of riding; and of course everything relating to tigers possessed an interest for our friend far exceeding that which he took in the generality of subjects which came before him. Thus imbued with the romance of tigers, an incident occurred, during my second visit to Corrientes which reached the very climax of Don Ysidoro's adventures in this line.

In great swellings and risings of the Paraná, as we have had occasion to remark,* masses of vegetable matter get detached from the islands, and come floating down the stream; while it sometimes happens on these masses, or camalotes, that tigers descend, confused and frightened on finding the island going down the river with them.

Such a camalote in June 1817 came down the Paraná, and was thrown by the current upon the river side, close to the port of Corrientes. An im

*Letters on Paraguay, vol. ii. p. 221.

THE CAPATAZ ATTACKED.

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mense tiger descended with the mass, and on being brought up by the river bank, the frightened animal walked on shore, and directed its footsteps towards the town. Fortunately the occurrence took place just at the dawn of day, when no one was astir, otherwise the consequences might have been disastrous.

In the tiger's proceeding to the town there was nothing extraordinary; such a thing had happened before; but it was somewhat singular that the tiger passed many other houses, and advanced to the very heart of the city. The animal's course was interrupted by a low wall which ran round the garden at the back of Don Ysidoro's house; and accordingly, springing over the wall, the tiger made the premises of Don Ysidoro the termination of its journey!

Walking up the centre of the garden, towards the family mansion, the fearful visitor came to some small out-houses, of which the gables formed one side of a small inner court belonging to the house. In one of these out-houses slept the unfortunate Paulista capataz. His door was standing open; he had just got up, and was sitting on the side of his bed in

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THE ASSAULTER SHOT DEAD.

the act of dressing; the tiger looked in, glared, and in an instant sprung upon his victim.

In the meantime it luckily happened that a man had seen the tiger just as it was vaulting over the garden wall, and he instantly ran to the front of Don Ysidoro's house, and thundered at the door. The word "Tiger," vociferated by the informant, instantly caught Don Ysidoro's ear. He sprung from bed, heard of the fatal entrance, and now surrounded by his servants, hastened to the court which I have already mentioned. Through a crevice in the gable wall of the room where the capataz lay, his master distinctly saw the unfortunate man stretched on his bed, motionless and covered with blood, while the tiger, with glaring eyes, stood over him. To open the door into the out-houses, and to give the tiger an opportunity of rushing upon them would have been madness. Don Ysidoro, therefore, sent a messenger to the guard-house in the Plaza mayor to bring over instantly three or four soldiers with loaded muskets. In the meantime he made an aperture in the wall as nearly as possible on a level with the tiger's head. It heard the noise, gazed on the spot, but moved not. Don Ysidoro gently

called to the capataz, who just moved one finger to show that he was alive, and again lay with the stillness and stiffness of death. All was right; Don Ysidoro took one of the muskets, the best; assured himself that it was loaded; got the muzzle in at the aperture; and with his old and wonted precision he sent the ball right into the head of the animal, which instantly fell dead on the body of the Paulista tiger hunter.

The poor fellow was dreadfully lacerated; but his wounds being dressed, the doctor expressed his hope that they would not prove fatal.

The news soon spread through Corrientes that Don Ysidoro had killed a tiger, and at an early hour Mr. Postlethwaite and I hastened to the scene of action. There stood Don Ysidoro, in the centre. of his front patio or court, surrounded by his friends, and the huge tiger lying stretched at his feet. Our friend glowed with excitement and animation, another Wellington with the laurels of Waterloo fresh about his brows.

The particulars which I have given we obtained from Don Ysidoro himself. Happily the Paulista recovered; and the tiger's skin, one of the most magnificent I ever saw, having been stuffed to the