Merchant as a rule have very little acquaintance with the , whose unappeasable ferocity and cunning make him so terrible a neighbour. Had the alligator been a seafarer, it is in my mind that mankind would have heard little of the of the shark, who, to tell the truth fairly, is a much monster; of seven-tenths of the crimes attributed to him, innocent of another two-tenths, and in the small balance of left, a criminal rather from accident than from design. But all the attributed by ignorance to the shark may truthfully be predicated of the alligator, and many more also, seeing that the great is equally at home on land or in the water.  
I speak feelingly, having had painful experience of the ways of the terrible saurian during my visits to one of the few places where sailors are brought into contact with him. Tonala River, which empties itself into the of Mexico, has a notoriety, owing to the number of with which it is ; and through the proverbial carelessness of seamen and their ignorance of the language spoken by the people , many an unrecorded tragedy has occurred there to members of the crews of loading mahogany in the river. Like all the[102] streams which into that Western , Tonala River has a bar across its mouth, but, unlike most of them, there is occasionally water upon the bar deep enough to permit vessels of twelve or thirteen feet to enter with safety. And as the of mahogany in the open roadstead is a series of hair-breadth escapes from death on the part of the crew and attended by much damage to the ship, it is easy to understand why the navigability of Tonala Bar is highly valued by shipmasters fortunate enough to be chartered , since it permits them to take in a goodly portion of their in comparative comfort. Against this benefit, however, is to be set off a long list of disadvantages, not the least of which are the of winged vermin that pass the short space between ship and river-bank, fresh blood. The idea of there being any danger in the river itself, however, rarely occurs to a until he sees, some day, as he listlessly gazes overside at the current silently seaward, a dead log floating deep, just awash in fact. And as he watches it with unspeculating eyes, one end of it will slowly be upreared just a little and the head of an alligator, with its cold, dead-looking eyes, sleepily half unclosed, is revealed. Just a and the thing has gone, sunk stone-like, but with every alert, that ironclad giving no hint to the uninitiated of the potentialities for , swift and , therein contained.
 
In spite of having read much about these creatures[103] and their habits, I confess to having been very sceptical as to their until I was enlightened in such a startling manner that the memory of that scene is branded upon my mind. I was strolling along the smooth sandy bank of the river opposite the straggling rows of huts we called the town one lovely Sunday morning, all eyes and ears for anything interesting. After about an hour’s walk my legs, unaccustomed to such exercise, begged off for a little, and seeing a tree-trunk lying on the beach some little distance ahead, I made towards it for a seat. As I neared it a young bullock came down towards the water from the bush, between me and the log. I, of course, took no notice of him, but held on my way until within, I should say, fifty yards of the log. Suddenly that dead tree sprang into life and round with a movement like the sweep of a . It struck the bullock from his feet, throwing him upon his side in the water. What ensued was so rapid that the eye could not follow it, or make out anything definitely except a stirring up of the sand and a few in the water. The big animal was carried off as noiselessly and easily as if he had been a lamb, nor, although I watched long, did I ever catch sight of him again. Notwithstanding the heat of the sun I felt a cold chill as I thought how easily the fate of the bullock might have been mine. And from thenceforth, until familiarity with the hateful bred a sort of contempt for their powers, I kept a very sharp look-out in every direction for stranded tree-trunks. This care on my part nearly proved fatal,[104] because I forgot that the alligators might possibly be lying hid in the jungly vegetation that flourished thickly just above high-water mark. So that it happened when I neared the spot where I was to hail the boat, as I scanned the beach for any sign of a log, I heard a of dry leaves on my right, and down towards me one of the infernal things with a motion almost like that of a launching ship. I turned and tried to run—I suppose I did run—but to my fancy it seemed as if I had a 56-lb. weight upon each foot. Hardly necessary to say, perhaps, that I escaped, but my walk had lost all its charms for me, and I never to come ashore again there alone.
 
But as if the performances of these ugly beasts were to be manifested before our eyes, on the very next day, a Greek trader came off to the ship accompanied by his son, a boy of about ten years old. Leaving the youngster in the canoe, the father came on board and tried to sell some fruit he had brought. We had a raft of mahogany alongside, about twenty huge logs, upon which a half-breed Spaniard was , ready to such as were out to him by the . The boy must needs get out of the canoe and amuse himself by stepping from log to log, delighted hugely by the way they bobbed and tumbled about beneath him. Presently a yell from the slingsman brought all hands to the rail on the jump, and there, about fifty yards from the raft, was to be seen the white arm of the boy limply waving to and fro, while a ripple beneath it showed only too plainly what horror[105] had overtaken him. The distracted father sprang into his canoe, four men from our ship manned our own boat, and away they went in chase, hopelessly enough to be sure. Yet, strange to say, the monster did not attempt to go down with his . He kept breasting the strong current, easily keeping ahead of his pursuers, that pitiful arm still waving as if them to the rescue of its owner. Boat after boat from ships and shore joined in the pursuit, every man as if by an overmastering energy and to sun or deadening . For five miles the chase continued; one by one the boats............