Camden gazette. (Camden, S.C.) 1816-1818, October 06, 1817, Image 4
JJ^oetrjn
EDUCATION.
The Lion o'er his wild domain,
Roles by the terror of his cyc^
The Eagle <j? the rock retains,
By force, his Empire in the sky ;
*The Shark the iy rant of the flood,
Pursues his prey with quenchless rage,
Parent and young, utiwean'd from bkx>d,
Are still the same from age to age.
Of all that live and move and breath,
Man only rises o'er his birth ;
He iooks above, around, beneath-*
At onctrthc heir of Heaven and Earth.
Force, cunning, speed, which nature ga*#,
The various tribes throughout her plan,
Live to preserve, from death to sa>*c ?
These aro the lou-tut powers ot man.
From strength to strength he travels on,
He leaves the lingering brute behina ;
And when a few short vears ure go..e,
He soars a disembodied mind,
Destined his future course sublime
T h rough nobler, better path?1, to run, ?
With him the certain end of time,
Is but eternity begun.
What aids him in this high pursuit.
Opens, illumines, checrs the way,
Discerns the immortal from the brute ?
God's image from the mould of clay ?
*'Tis Knowledge /?Knowledge to the soul
Is power, and Ijbcrty and peace,
And, while celestial ages roll,
The joys of knowledge shall increase.
Aid then the generous plan which spreads, -
The ligfct with universal beams,
And through the human <}esert lrads
Truthrs living, pure, perpetual streams,
Behold ! a new creation rise,
Kew spirit breathed into the clo'd'y
White'er the voice of Wisdom cries ?
k Man knowr thyself, and fear thy God! |
From the Tclrtco/ic*
% A MONSTROUS SERPENT.
An account of the Anaconda, a
monstrous species of serpent in
the East-Indie*, and of the manner j
of its seizing and managing its prey,
in a Utter from an English gentle
man, many years resident there.
Sortie years since the comfnand
of my directors carrying me to
Ceylon, to transact an affair of no
little consequence, I had an apart
ment prepared for me on the skirts
of the principal town facing the
woods : at some distance from my
windows there stood some large
palm tree*, that afforded me a de
lightful prospect. One tnorning
as I wai 'iqgjcir.g at these trees, I
taw, as I tqpight, a large arm of
one of them in strange commotion,
bending and twisting about, though
there was no' wind, and often strik
ing one end to the garth, and then
raising it again, and loosing it
among the leaves. I was gazing
at thi$ wj|i&reat amazement, when a
Ceyloneae coining in, 1 begged
him to look and wonder with nfc i
he looked, sir, and was much more
amazed and terrified than I ; in
shbrt a paleness overspread his face,
and he seemed almost sinking to
the earth with terror He begged
me to bar up all my doors ; then
told me that1 what appeared the arm
of a tree to me, was in reality a ser
pent of that monstrous size, divert
ing* itself there with its various coa
tortions, and ne w and then darting
down tp thc earth, for it* prey. "I
soon found out the truth of what
he told' me and looking more
nearly, saw it seize a small animal
before me, and take it into the
tree* Inquiring after this miracle,
the Ceyloneze told me that the won
der was only that the creature was
so near us, for it was a ser|>eiu but
too well known in the inland parts
and woods, where it often dropped
down from the covert of a large
tree, aittl devoured a traveller alive.
A relation so strange as this could
never have gained credit with me,
but that 1 actually saw ihe creature,
from its size, capablc of doing
more than was related. It contin
ued diverting it. elf till we assembled
? body twelve of u>, to go 0:1
horseback v.cll armed to destroy
him. We rode near- the place, but
nv>t to expose ourselves to danger ;
we rode behind a thicket,, from
nv hence we might unseen level
our fire- arms at him j but when we
arrived there, we found him so much
larger than we had conceived^ that
we wished ourselves at home again,
and for a long time we dared not
tire. ? We had now time to ob
serve the creature * and believe me,
1 sir, all the descriptions of monsters 1
~o[ this kind hitherto given, are tri
fles to what we saw in him. The
- Ceyloneze all declared that he was
- much larger than any they had
ever seen, and such a mixture or
horror and beauty together, no eye
but that which saw it can conceive.
The creature was mcie tn^n as
thick as a slender man's waist, yet
seemed far from fat, and very long
!? proportion to his thickness: of
ten hanging himself by the tail,
from the highest boughs of the
tree, and reaching the ground with
his head. He was surprisingly
nimble, and was now diverting
himself in the heat of the day with
a thousand gambols round the
branches of the tree, and would
sometime come down and twist his
tail ronnd the bottom ot the trunk,
throwing himself to his whole
length all round it. In the midst
of one of these gambols, we were
surprised to see him, all of a sud
den spring up into the tree, but the
cause goon appeared j an animal of
the fox kind, which the serpent had
seen coming towards him, he took
his way to be pic pared for him,
He darted down upon the unwary
creature, and sucked him in a few j
minutes, then licking his chops I
with a irond double tongue of a 1
blackish color, laid himself at his
ea*e at length upon the ground ;
but his tail still twisted round the
tree.
In this posture I had an oppor
tunity with horror yet with admi
ration to b.hold him. He was
covered with scales like a croco
dile 5 his head was green, with a
large black spot in the middle and
a yellow streak round the jiws ; he
had a yellow circle of a gold co
lor round his neck. His sides
were of an olive color, and back
more beautiful than can he describ
ed ; his head was very flat but
extremely broad, and his eyes mon
strously large, and very bright
and terrible. When he moved
about in the sun, he was, if possible,
| a thousand times move beautiful |
than before, the color* according to~j
jhe several shades of ifeht, pre- I
sent.ng a vast variety of hues, in
many places looking like our
changeable color* in silk. We all
aimed our pieces nt him as he lay
and fired at his head once ? but
whether he accidentally moved just
at the time or oin fears made us take
"uud sighr, we either misled him or
sever hurt him* for he took no no
tice of it ; and after a council of war
v e all agreed to make no further
attempt upon him a: that time, i
but to go home and return with a
stronger party next day. TheCey- i
loneze seemed to know the erea- |
ture well -9 they called it Anaconda,
and talked 6f eating its flesh when
they ctoghc it, as the.y hid no
small hope* of this ; for they say
when one of those creature.* c hotel a
tree for his dwelling, he seldom quits
it for along time. K detaintd iny
company to dine with me, and the
afternoon was spent in relating rhe
amazing things which one or other
of th? company hat! seen of these
?ort of monsters ; in short, they
told abundance of things that far out
V. #
went my credulity; but what we saw
the next day as much exceeded all
they had told me, as what they
had tokl me seemed to exceed
truth and probability. It seems
the custom of this en arure is to lie
in wait for its prey, by hiding in
the boughs of lar^e trees, from
which it unexpectedly drops upon
the crcaL^rc uo/ote u sees an ene-*
my ; bu: the instance ue saw of this, '
| I must relate to you. The next
| morning, si assembled ro the
| number of \6o+ it the same thick
et, where we had the pleasure {tf I
ciare call ic so) to .find our enemy
at his old post. He seemed very
fierce and very hungry this morn
Iflg, and wc sOon sa\65$e effect of
it.
Th^re are great plenty of tigers
in that country ; and one of the^g,
of a monstrous size, not less than t
common hciirr, as he went along,
came at length under the serpent's
tree, and swift as thought the ser
pent dropped upon him, seizing
him across the hark a little below
the shoulders, with his horrible
mouth, and taking in a \ iece of his.
back bigger than a man's head ;
the creature roared with agony, and
to our unspeakable terror, was run
ning with his eneipy towards us ;
his court#, however, was soon slop
ped, for his nimble adversary wind
ing hi^ body three or four times
round the boJv of his prey, gird
ed him so violently, that he soon
fell down in agony. The moment
the serpent had fixed his folds, he
let go i he back'^f the creature and
rai mg and twinflk round its head
opened horrid mouth to its full
extern, and seized the whole face
of the ti^er in it, biting and grind
ing him in a horrid manner, and at
once choaking and tearing him in
pieces. The tiger reaied uu again
on this, and words are. too poor to
paint his seeming - agony ; he
writhed and tossed about, but'all
in vain, hisenemy wherever he went
was with him, and a hollow roar
ing from within the devourers
mouth -v as dreadful beyond rxpres
, sion. I was for firing on the creature
in rliis state but they^Jl declared
against-kj. they laid metney kuew.hu ,
customs so welU that they were
now very sure of him without any
trouble or hazard, if they let him
alone ; but if they disturbed him
in this condition, he would be so
outrageous, that several of their
lives would assuredly pay the for
feit.-? Thev, seemed to know" so
well what they were about, that I
readily acquiesced. ? Several of us
spent the whole day in observing
this sight ; and surely the agonies
of the tiger were beyond all that
can be conceived, and his death
more horrid than a thousand other (
deaths with ail their torture put to
gether. The tiger was a strong
and fierce crearure, though unable
to hurt or get rid of his cruel ene
my, yet gave him a world of trou
ble ; a hundred times would he
rear up and run a little way, but
soon fall down again, partly oppo
sed by the weight, and partly by
the wreathid twists of the serpent
round his body j but though he
fell he was far from being con
, que red.
After some hours he seemed
much spent* and lay as if dead ;
and the serpent who had many times
girted himself violently round him,
attempted to break his bone?? ? but
in vain, now Jet go his hold, and
twisting his tail only round the ti
gers urck, who was now in no con
dition either to resist or escape, he
made towards the tree, (Jigging
with some p*ins the ti^cr after him.
Nature, it seems informs this ani
mal, that though it ran conquer f?uch
large creatures a* (hese, it run by
no means devour tH*ein as tney are,
as their bodies are too thick for
bis swallow, and he must therefore
L^^alt their bones, and reduce them
to a toft tnass before lie can manage
them. lTiis he usually does at we
saw him attempt it on the tiger, by
girting hit body very firmly and
hard round them, by this means
crushing them to pieces ; hue when
his method will not do, he has re- I
course to the (We, as we now had I
an opportunity to observe. He
dragged the tyger by degrees after I
him to the tree, and the creature
being almost dead, unable to standi
he seized hiavslightly a second eme
by l e back, .vvi scr K--? M *
Ir-gs agnrjst the trunk of - V trrr
;rStfly v-"din? hody
^ J ^-^rand rhe tree se
veral tnrrs, h, ft;rtcJ M ?
bo p*?l C> tii,d-nbwndoth.
bones began t , give way, ,nd bv
lgP?te J actt-n1{,ts or this kind, he _
or fivt d"P,lC^|la(' m ^0tIr
01 five different places this took
ture all t?'" hoj.r.$' a t!><" poor crea
ture all this while was living, anil .it
j , ?? frack ?f the bones gave i
rhow|, though not so loud, yet ,,itc
natural
at-fclTl '?nn.d ribs' the 2E
? i ' '|,r " 111 theiiinf roani
t, k 1 I pr0Vcd so d.fficulc .
f.ti V, ff nionstt'r' tire.! with
coflV ',::r *""? l is l?V ^ no
^ ; T ?f .fs"I,inS. l<ft him fat
r^.- ' f at.tf'c foot o: the tree, and
t?ed into it himself" to rest; im,n
ass or VVC ",e,U home> and I ?"?!>.
rt 1 could not sleep for the
poor tiger, who was naturally, so
?>trong, that we left him alive, tho*
mangled this miserable manner.
in the morning 1 returned with
| seveiai others to the thicket; but
rL^C rCXiC IJ,>> wc 3aw a str.uigc
I angf ; the body of the tiger which
! bur i!? l Agr< t0 6C knoWn " s"ch/
but looked like a red lump of shape
!f;" mar7' ?? dragged to some
di tance from the tree, and shone
as covered with glue or jelly . whe*
wr arrived, we saw plainly the mean
ig of this, the snake was yctbuiicd
about It. _He had laid, the ]?<>* one
by one close to the body, and was
now placing the head straight before,
?and licking the body (which had
no remaining shape of one,) and co
vered it wiui its slaver, which wa*
what gave n that shining, look ?
o>atnm_? over l,ke a jelly, and ren
deung ic fit for swallowing; and
laving prepared it to his mind,
seized the head, and began to suck
V"? af;e.rwards ^e body, in his
! I u Was ? worlcofso much
i me, that l .cfc him struggling at
The shoulders whenl went home to
dinner, and by the account of those
that stayed to watch him, it wan
nignt before he got it all in.
Next morning we all assembled
tor the last time, and the very women
followed us, saying, that aa the prey
was gorged, there v/as no danger. J
could by ?? means conceive chc
meaning of this, till I came Co the ?
place, but then I found it very true s
tne serpent had so loaded his belly,
tlftt he could not fight nor runaway.
He Attempted on our approach to
climb up the tree, but ia Vain, and
was soon knocked in tfit heii with
staves We measured him, and hi,
length was thirty-three feet four
inches. He was soon cut upt and
I assure; you, sir, afforded a fieafe c
whiter than veal, and as tl.ty said
that eat of it, finer than anf flesh
whatever. ? . .^STw.
' 1 ltol,c t,te curiott nature of this
account will plead 'pardoa for its
kngch.^- - ... .
CHINESE ftmiK ' *
In the late Knglish negotiation
with the Chinese monarch, of which
lord Amherst was the envoy, it ap
pears that the whole plan was de
feated, bccause his lordship refused
to present him elf on his knees, and
bang his head nine time* on the
ground in token of his submission.
If the Englihh minsitry has chosen a
two year old Ram, instead of his
lordship, as an envoy, he would
have accommodated the Chinese
monarch, with a quantum sufficitof
bangs from an head nearly as hard
as his own. ? Fed. Rep .
Melanchly 4cctdent.~?-Ot\ the
morning of tjie ioth inst. a young
man named John Pope, son of Mr,
hJisha Pope, of this county, iiav
ing roue out alone; was thrown by
his horse against a tree with the
most fatal violence. Me died th<
? f ? r y> T
same evening. ? Rale:gh Minerva.