FIGHT WITH AN ALLIGATOR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 32, 7 February 1881, Page 4

FIGHT WITH AN ALLIGATOR.

The following particulars related in a Manilla newspaper (Oceania),, hare been translated for the Straits Times : " Our correspond &ht in Sorsogon describes in a letter to us, dat«d the 14th September, one of the most terrible struggles which any man has been able to maintain in fighting for his life with an exceedingly strong and implacable enemy* On the 9th September, a native, tke father of a family, named Pablo Jimenez, went to a certain spot in seajr.li of Vegetables and on passing a small marsh, be put his foot on an object which he believed to be the trunk of a tree lying there .half hidden by bushes. But the trunk ofthe tree was an alligator, whicb, when measured afterwards, proved to be eight varas (22*25 English feet) long. Irritated at its sleep being disturbed by having been trodden upoto, it advanced with its enormous find dreadful jaws open to devout the intruder, Who was but a mouthful fot* ifc. i^abi'o, bri seeing himself pursued closely by the voracious reptile, and fiuding flight difficult, determined to defend his life, although with unequal weapons, and laid hold of a small gollok which he wore in his girdle. Being more quick in his movements than the reptile!, He gave it a cut in the stomach, and afterwards others without the wild beast ceasing to turn hither and thither with the utmost fury to seize him with its teeth. This struggle, truly heroic ori tHe pai. t on the m'&to, lasted more than an hour, according to the letter which is now before us. Pablo twice was felled to the ground by blows from the reptile's tail. Whilst advancing and retreating during this desperate struggle, Pablo drew Dear a tree, and in the runs he made round it to withstand the furious attacks of the alligator, he seized the reptile's tail, and keeping hold of it he repeatedly ran round the tree, and at the same time uttered loud cries for assistance, .which drew to the spot an old mau, also brave. With his assistance he killed the alligator. When Pablo saw it dead, he felt what he did not feel when it was alive — j. terror which made him fall into a swoon. After coming to himself, he helped to cut it up. It being a female, search Was then made for it brood, with the assistance of other persons, and 20 young ones were found."