How to deal with a snake

British explorers in the 19th century were a tough breed. The Saturday Magazine, of March 8, 1834, recorded how one traveler encountered a snake in South America.

“Waterton, in his Wanderings in South America, gives the following account of his catching a snake. He had sent his Indian servant, Daddy Quashi, to look for something he had lost in the forest, and during his absence, he says, I observed a young Coulacanara, ten feet long, slowly moving onwards, I saw he was not thick enough to break my arm, in case he got twisted round it. There was not a moment to be lost. I laid hold of his tail with the left hand, one knee being on the ground; with the right hand I took off my hat, and held it as you would hold a shield for defence.

“The snake instantly turned, and came on at me, with his head about a yard from the ground, as if to ask me, what business I had to take liberties with his tail. I let him come, hissing and open-mouthed, within two feet of my face, and then, with all the force I was master of, I drove my fist, shielded by my hat, full into his jaws. He was stunned and confounded by the blow, and ere he could recover himself, I had seized his throat with both hands, in such a position that he could not bite me; I then allowed himself to coil himself round my body, and marched off with him as my lawful prize. He pressed me hard, but not alarmingly so.

“In the mean time, Daddy Quashi having returned, and hearing the noise which the fray occasioned, was coming cautiously up. As soon as he saw me, and in what company I was, he turned about and ran off home, I after him, and shouting to increase his fear. On scolding him for his cowardice, the old rogue begged I would forgive him, for the sight of the snake had positively turned him sick.”

Charles Waterton, who was born in 1782, was one of Britain´s great naturalists and spent much of his early life in South America. In 1825 he published his “Wanderings in South America, the North-west of the United States and the Antiles in the years 1812, 1816, 1820 and 1824.” A large octavo edition was published in 1828. The book was very popular. He climbed a tree at his home at Walton Hall, Yorkshire, on his 80th birthday. He died after being injured carrying a log in 1862.

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©Phillip Bruce 2009