Page:Voyage from France to Cochin-China- in the Ship Henry.djvu/25

122 paper. These were monuments of the gratitude of porters employed in carrying heavy burthens across the mountain, in consequence of vows to the guardian spirits of the place, who had assisted them in accomplishing their task. Halting to take some refreshment in the guard-house on the summit, we there enjoyed a magnificent view of the bay of Tourane under our feet, where our ships looked like walnut-shells.

Resting for an hour and a-half we began to descend, advancing at times faster than we intended; and the road being much obstructed by rocks and stones, we were more fatigued in going down than we had been in going up. At five o'clock we arrived at the guard-house on the sea-shore, where our dinner was ready prepared. When the sun began to disappear behind the hills, we began to shoot the peacocks which are there very numerous. We fell in with very recent tracks of tigers; and we learned from the people of a neighbouring village, that for some time past those animals frequently appeared in that quarter. Snares had been set for them, and three had been sent to the emperor. Fortunately we received this information; otherwise our surgeon would have been caught in a tiger-trap, being drawn towards it by the barking of a dog placed in it to inveigle the tigers. In constructing this trap a double hut is erected, open on all sides, having one entrance closed by a swing-gate, which shuts of itself from within. When the tiger hears the barking of the dog he enters the outer hut, and the gate closes behind him: but he finds the dog in the centre to be still cut off from him by an inner inclosure. The dog trained for this business keeps up a continual noise, until the tiger be within the trap, and then holds his tongue: then the people assemble to kill or secure the ferocious intruder. The tiger of Cochin-China is of the same kind with the royal tiger of Bengal. The forests shelter many different animals, in particular the wild bull, the object of grand hunting parties for the court. Deer, white-horned goats, the rhinoceros, wild-boar, and the elephant, are also very numerous: but the most formidable of all is the tiger, which attacks both man and beast. The only animal he fears, it is said, is the rhinoceros; and in the battles between them, sometimes exhibited in the capital, the rhinoceros is almost always the conqueror. Once a-year a general tiger-hunt takes place, in which more men are killed and wounded, as I was told, than in some of their late battles. The emperor maintains a large body of elephants, to be employed in these hunts as well as in war. Our peacock-shooting was not very successful, for we killed but one; and next morning renewing our operations, we fell in with very fresh marks of tigers: