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VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEAS.
From one of them I had a very fortunate eſcape. As I was walking along the ſea coaſt, with a gun, and very attentive to the woods, in expectation of ſeeing ſome kind of fowl or game proceed from the thickets, ſuddenly my danger was diſcovered, of having paſſed over a large alligator, laying aſleep under a ledge of the rock, and appeared to be a part of it; and being in a deep hollow I could not have eſcaped, if a little boy, the nephew of Captain Marſhall, who accompanied me, had not alarmed me with his out-cry. I had juſt time enough to put a ball in my gun, the noiſe having rouſed the hideous animal, and he was in the act of ſpringing at me when I diſcharged my piece at him, its contents entering beſide his eye, and lodging in his brain, inſtantly killed him; it was then taken on board, where part of him was eaten. In the ſtomachs of ſeveral of the ſnakes which we took, there were fiſh in an undigeſted ſtate, and of a ſize that credulity itſelf would almoſt refuſe to believe. Theſe voracious animals, appear to have greatly leſſened the quantity of fiſh on the ſhores of this iſland, which afforded ſuch an abundant ſupply of delicious and ſalutary food to former navigators. The woods alſo abound with ſnakes of different kinds, the largeſt we ſaw were the hooded ſnakes. As I was ſitting on a bank at the ſide of a rivulet, one of the ſmaller bit me by the left knee, which
