AN ANACONDA'S REVENGE.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 165, 20 July 1870, Page 2

AN ANACONDA'S REVENGE.

AN ''bf?/BRAZILIAN LIFE. TiiE.passion of revenge seems to be as deeply rooted in the bref sts of some of th'c.animnis of creation as in the human kind.*; The incident which we are about to relate is a true one, and will servo to show the'correctness of this assertion:'

A few months since there moved from the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, to Brazil, couth Americ.i, a gentleman an 1 his wife, by the name of Miller. They were one of several families who, having become tired of .Northern rule, and unable to make any money in the " sunny South," preferred a foreign country to their own native land.

And so, in last February they sallied forth, and in due time arrived at a certain interior town in Brazil. Mr. Miller intended to clear a pieco of land, raise sheep and such farm produce as the climate would admit, and hoped to earn a decent living thereby. He himself was a man of twenty-five years of age, with good prospects of a life of usefulness before him, and his wife, whom he had but lately rnarri. d, a woman of twenty —young, beautiful, and devoted to her lord as all wives should be.

The country round about where the young couple settled was very wild. They fjuilt their own house of logs, rough looking but solid, substantinl and well put together. For miles there was no other habitation. The nights were very lonely, and the days not much leas so. Tlio voice not only of the turtle, but of the lizard, the centipede, tho various monstrous varieties of toads and animals, some four footed, some two footed, and a great many without feet, could be hoard from early morn to dewey eve to early morn again. It was a place well calculated to awaken feelings of the liveliest description in any mind, and cause the strongest minded female to tremble with apprehension. Mrs. Miller, being anything but strong minded, suffered very much from fear, and did not lead, on the whole, a very happy life. She could not go to a drawer without finding in it a ceutipodo a3 large as a little eel, or open a cupboard without mesting with a spider almc st as large as a small crab. Lizards of beautiful colours, but of repulsive appearance, had to be swept out of the bed-room at night. These were harmless enough, but there ai c few peqplo who would care to wake up and iiud them crawling over their faces, or hear their long nails clattering along the wood floor. The climate, too, told on Mrs. Miller's health. The reptiles by day and the mosquitoes by night made-hcr unusually sus ceptiblo of irritation and alarm. But of all her horrors, the greatest she entertained wa3 that against snakes and sei'pents of all kinds. This was ineradicable from her nature, and was, in fact, as much part of her nature as tho overwhelming antipathies some ladies feel to the sight of a rat, a spider, or a bull. Unfortunately, Mvi. Miller lived in a part of the country which was infested with snakes ; some harmless, some deadly; but whether harinlc3s or deadly, the unconquerable terror she evinced was the same to all. Once a , tubobc, a quick and deadly snake, was killed in her house. At another time a coral-snake, the most beautiful and most quickly deadly of ail the venemous reptiles God has created, was found and killed with ease upon the rough lawn if we may dignify by such a term the short, brown, burnt-up herbage which surround the house. A'■■ "neither time a small anaconda, about ele.m i'ec-fc long, was found in the woods near tha house and killed ; and what was much worse, constant rumours were brought in that two very large serpeuts of the samo class had been seen in the forest not far off. Poor Mrs. Miller's terrors were not diminished by the exaggerated tales of her native servants, till at length they roso to such a pitch, that it seemed very likely, as she ofteiJ' said, that she would die if a' Serpent came near her. Her fears got to such a height that at last she would not venture out at all; and actually kept her room. In this frame of mind it will easily be believed that her life was a r- isery Jo herself, and not of much comfort to her wild, fearn; nght hutbind.

All day long her husband wa3 absent, clearing wood, banting, or doing such farm work as might be in hand at the time-.

One morning Mr. Miller went out doublebarrelled musket in hatid, for the purpose of looking to tlio progress of some distant cleat - ings. Ho started early in the morning but did not return until towards mid-day. He was riding along leisurely, being on horseback, no sound being heard in the woods but now and then a cry of some bird, the roar of sor/e monster in the distance, or the falling of a rotten branch. All of sudden his horse started back nearly overthrowing its rider, who, on looking to see the cause of the movement, saw ooiled up on a tree very near by, a huge black anaconda. Of course no time was lost in looking. Mr. Miller levelled his musket and planted a discharge of ammunition in the reptile's head. The animal fell to the ground though " not dead yet," for it writhed in the most horrible manner. In a few moments it became still, and the huntsman planted another discharge in its body, and a few seconds after death ensued. Not content with these two shots and desiring to make assiu'ance doubly siure, ho alighted from his horse, and taking out his Jrnife, cut the Tertabrao of the monster with much difficulty in the centre ©f the back.' The serpent measurad nearly twenty-nine feet in length, and was evidently from its size an.i great thickness, immensely powerful. He then unluckily determined to drag his trophy home, and, in the way of practically joking only, give his wife a scare. On arriving at his house, he found that his wife was sleeping in her bed-room. He went into the sitting-room and coiled the snake up in a corner so as to exhibit it injlthe most effectual way. Before long, Mr?. Miller came down stairs and went into the sittingroom, her husband being outside to hear the effec\ Little expecting to see such a sighf, as soon as she saw the monster she cried out in the most piercing manner, " The serpent, the serpent." So loud did she shriek, that Mr. Miller's calls to her that the reptile was dead, were drowned. Suddenly he hea d struggling going on inside. The servants hastened to the room, and joined in the screaming. On opening the door, Mr. Miller was surprised and horrified to find his wife attacked by a hugo anaconda. It was the mate of the one that hud been killed, and had followed its dead companion as it was dragged through the woods, doubtless for the purpose of revenging the murder.

Mr. Miller's " practical joke" served to be of a more serious and far different nature from what ho thoiight it would be. His wife was badly bruised about the neck and breast, and remained insensible for the day. Restoratiyos

Were given her, but on the succeeding day convulsions set in, and she died in tho most horrible agony, leaving Mr. Miller a widower, and the pareut of a still-born child.