Dr. Maturin's Bestiary: Boa
'But Stephen, I have been thinking about you. I must heave the ship down... and it occurred to me, now you are so amazing agile, should you not like to take a week's leave and ride into the interior? Jaguars, ostriches, unicorns--'
'Oh Jack, how truly good of you! I had to put violence upon myself to come away from Cape St. Roque, to abandon that vegetable magnificence. The Brazilian forest is the haunt of the tapir, the boa, the peccary! You may find it hard to credit, Jack, but never yet have I beheld a boa.'
--H.M.S. Surprise