Not unfrequently the boatmen (_bogadores_) who navigate the river Magdalena in their _bogas_, or flat boats, drop overboard, and become the prey of the caimans, as sailors on the ocean do of sharks.

These boatmen sometimes carry rifles, for the purpose of shooting the caimans; yet there are but few destroyed in this way, as the bogadores are too much occupied in navigating their crafts; and, moreover, it is a very difficult thing to kill an alligator by a shot.
You can only do it by sending the bullet into his eye, as the rest of his body is impervious even to a musket-ball.

Of course, to hit one in the eye requires a sure aim, and a good opportunity when the animal is lying still upon the bank or on the water.

When out of the water a caiman may be shot in the soft elastic skin behind the fore-shoulder; but this is a very uncertain method of killing one; and several shots fired into his body at this part will often fail to prove fatal.
Sometimes the natives of the Magdalena catch the caimans with lassos; and after dragging them upon the bank, despatch them with axes and spears.

Notwithstanding this, the caimans swarm upon these rivers, and are seldom molested by the inhabitants, except at intervals when some horrid tragedy happens--when some unfortunate victim has been snatched off by them, torn in pieces, and devoured.