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multiplied surprisingly in all the parts of New Spain, and especially in the vast plains of the Provincias Internas. It would be superfluous to refute here the rash assertion of M. de Buffon, as to the pretended degeneracy of the domestic animals introduced into the New Continent. These ideas were easily propagated, because, while they flattered the vanity of Europeans, they were also connected with brilliant hypotheses, relative to the ancient state of our planet. When facts are carefully examined, naturalists perceive nothing but harmony where this eloquent writer announced discordancy.

There is a great abundance of horned cattle all along the eastern coast of Mexico, especially at the mouths of the rivers of Alvarado, Guasacualco, and Panuco, where numerous flocks feed on pastures of perpetual green. However, the capital of Mexico, and the great cities adjoining, draw their animal food from the intendancy of Durango. The natives, like the greatest part of the Asiatic tribes to the east of the Ganges †, care very

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*This refutation is to be found in the excellent work of Mr. Jefferson on Virginia, p. 109. 166. See also Clavigero, t. iv. p. 105. 160.

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+ For example, in the South-east of Asia, the Chinese, and the inhabitants of Cochinchina. The latter never milk their cows, though the milk is excellent under the Tropics, and in the warmest regions of the earth. Travels of

little for milk, butter and cheese. The latter is in great request among the Casts of mixed extraction, and forms a very considerable branch of exterior commerce. In the statistical table drawn up by the Intendant of Guadalaxara, in 1802, which I have frequently had occasion to cite, the annual value of dressed hides is estimated at 419,000 piastres, and that of tallow and soap at 549,000 piastres. The town of Puebla alone manufactures annually 200,000 arrobas of soap, and 82,000 ox hides; but the exportation of these articles at the port of Vera Cruz has hitherto been of very little importance. In 1803, it hardly amounted to the value of 140,000 piastres.

It appears that even in the 16th century, before the interior consumption had been augmented by the number and the luxury of the whites, New Spain supplied Europe with more hides than at the present day. Father Acosta*, relates that a fleet which entered Seville in 1587, carried 64,340 Mexican hides. The horses of the northern provinces, and particularly those of New Mexico, are as celebrated for their excellent qualities as the horses of Chili;

Macartney, vol. ii. p. 153. and vol. iv. p. 59. The Greeks and Romans even only learned to make butter from their communication with the Scythians, Thracians, and the Germanic nations. Beckmann. 1. c. b. iii. p. 289.

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Wool

deficient

both descend, as it is pretended, from the Arab race; and they wander wild in herds, in the Savannahs of the Provincias Internas. The exportation of these horses to Natchez and New Orleans, becomes every year of greater importance. Many Mexican families possess in their Hatos de ganado, from thirty to forty thousand head of horses and oxen. The mules would be still more numerous, if so many of them did not perish on the highways from the excessive fatigues of journeys of several months. It is reckoned that the commerce of Vera Cruz alone, employs annually nearly 70,000 mules. More than 5000 are employed as an object of luxury in the carriages of the city of Mexico.

The rearing of sheep has been wonderfully neglected in New Spain, as well as in all the Spanish Colonies of America. It is probable that the first sheep introduced in the 16th century, were not of the breed of travelling Merinos, and particularly that they were not of the Leon, Segovian, or Sorian breed. Since that time, no care has been employed in the amelioration of the breed; and yet in the part of Mexico, beyond the tropics, it would be easy to introduce the system of manage

* Havannah has 2500 Calashes, called Volantes, which require more than 3000 mules. In 1802, the number of horses in Paris was calculated at 35,000.

Note, Intrinsic prings of value in foot represented in metali ciremiating ser

rediun-gold.

CHAP, X.] KINGDOM OF NEW SPAIN.

ment known in Spain by the name

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Mesta, by which the sheep change their cli-n
mate with the seasons, and are always in har-
mony with them. Nothing is to be feared for
ages from the prejudice which these travelling
flocks might occasion to Mexican agriculture.
At present the finest wool is reckoned to be that
of the Intendancy of Valladolid.

It is worthy of remark, that neither the
common hog*, nor the hens to be found in
all the islands of the South Sea, were known
to the Mexicans. The Picari (Sus tajassu)
to be frequently met with in the cottages of
the natives of South America, might have
easily been reduced to a domestic state; but
this animal is only fit for the region of plains.
Of the two varieties of hog which are now
the most common in Mexico, the one was in-

* Pedro de Cieça, and Garcilasso de la Vega, have preserved in their works the names of the Colonists who first reared in America the domestic animals of Europe. They relate that in the middle of the 16th century, two hogs cost at Peru 8000 livres, a camel 35,000, an ass 7700, a cow 1200, and a sheep 200 livres. Cieça Chronica del Peru (Antwerp 1554) p. 65. Garcilasso, t. i. p. 328. These enormous prices, besides proving the scarcity of the objects sold, prove also the abundance of the precious metals. General Belcalazar, who had purchased at Buza a sow for 4000 francs, could not resist the temptation of eating her at a feast. Such was the luxury which prevailed in the army of the Conquistadores.

troduced from Europe, and the other from the Philippine Islands. They have multiplied amazingly on the Central Table Land, where the valley of Toluca carries on a very lucrative trade in bacon.

Before the conquest there were very few poultry among the natives of the new continent. The maintenance of these birds require particular care in countries recently cleared, where the forests abound in carnivorous quadrupeds of every kind. Besides, the inhabitant of the Tropics does not feel the want of domestic animals so much as the inhabitant of the temperate zone, because he is freed by the fertility of the soil from the necessity of labouring a great extent of ground, and because the lakes and rivers are covered with an innumerable quantity of birds, easily caught, and yielding an abundant nourishment. A European traveller is astonished to see the savages of South America bestowing extreme pains in taming monkeys, Manaviri (Ursus caudivolvula) or squirrels, while they never endeavour to tame a great number of useful animals, contained in the neighbouring forests. However, the most civilized tribes of the new continent reared in their stable-yards, before the arrival of the Spaniards, several gallinaceous birds, as hoccos, (Crax nigra, C. globicera,

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