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Show jo'8 DI6SBllT. lVo L sr-v-aJ .HISTORY QF M~)fl¢0.. that the camels which were tranfported ,to'Peru, d}d not lel\ve:..any poC., terity J for Acofta, who went there Come years after,. found· that th~y had multiplied, though but a 'little (z). t J "I I ' . I' .I Q X ·E N. ,. ,· T H I S is one of thofe .fpecies of animals which <i>ur philofophers imagine to have degenerated in America; which effeCt they attribute to the clime. But if pofiibly in Canada the oxen have' loft part of their corpulence, as count de Butfon affirm~, .and J.if t~~ir fiefh has. be., come fibrous in Hifpaniola, as- lY.{r. de •Paw. would . mfinuat~_, ~h1s at leaft is not the cafe in the greater part of the countries of the t'lew world in which the multitude and fize of ihofe animals, and the good~fs of their fle(h, demonftrate how favourable the climate is .to their propagation. Their prodigious mul~iplication in .d~oJe cpijntrt_e~ is attell:ed by many authors both ancient and ·modem, ••1\poll:a re lates ( z ), that in the fleet in which he returned i.romn New, to 0 ld Spain, in I s87, about fixty years after the firll: buJ:ls and cows had been tranfported to Mexico, they cacried with them· from that country fixty-four thou.fimd· three hundred fixty ox hie\'¢&; and from ,flifpaniola alone, which Mr. de Paw believes Co uofaV(I)UPable to the propagation of thofe quadrupeds; thirty-five thoufan~ fOul; hupdred and forty-four ox hides. We do not doubt, that if the numli>er of bulls and cows carried from the old cG>ntinent to the new, was compared with the number oi" hides returned by .An"lerica to Europe, ·there would be found more than five millions of hides for every one of thofe animals. V aldeobro, a Dominican Spaniard, who lived fome years in Mexico, towards the middle·of the lall: century, relates, <lS a faa which was notorious that th~ cows belonging to D. G. Ordugna, a private gentleman, yielded him in one year thirty-fix thoufand c.alves (a), which produce could not arife from a herd of lefs than two hundred thoufand bulls and cows taken together. At prefent there are many private perfons who are owners of herds of fifty thoufand head of cattle. But nothing can !hew the ail:oniflling multiplication of thofe quadrupeds fo well as the cheapnefs of them in ~hofe coun~ries in which they are_neceifary for the (z) Hillor. Nat. y Mor. lib. iv. cap. 33• (11) In his work entilltd Gohi1rno dt .l111imn!n1 lib. iv. cap. 34• • 5 fubfift- PI I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E 'X I c 0. fubtiil:ence of man, and the ·1abours of the field, and where, on account of the abundance of filver, every thing is fold dear (c). In fhort, oxen have mnhiplied in Mexico, in Paragu:ty, and G>ther countries of the new world more than in more ancient Italy (d). With refpett to the fize of American oxen it is eafy to gain perfed: information, as !hips loaded with their Oc.ins frequently arrive at Li!bon and at Cadiz (e). Let Mr. de Paw, therefore, or any perfon who maintains the degeneracy of European animals in the new world, meaCure' fifty or one hundred of thofe hides, and if they are found fmaller than thofe of the common oxen in Europe, we !hall immediately confefs, th:,1t the climate of America has !hortened their bodies, and there is a fcarcity of matter there; on the contrary, they ought to confefs that their information and intelligence is falfe, their obfervations ill founded, and their fyll:em vifionary and chimerical : but that they may undet·ftnad why we ought not to trufi: to their knowledge, G. Oviedo~ who W<tS · one of the firll: peoplers of the iiland of Hifp:tniola, and fojourned there Come years, difcourfing of the oxen of that iiland, the fle01 of which, Mr. de I aw fays cannot be e~ten becaufe it is fo fibrou , fays thlt " the het·ds there arc more nlimerous, and more bl!autiful, thart any ., in Spain; antt'as the ait in thofe regions is mild and never cold, the t-' oxeh never become meagre, nor is their fleili ever of a bad tafie.'' Count de Buffon affirms that cold countries are more favourable than (t') In the CQUntry round Mexico, the capitRI of New Spnin, altho\li}h-it is well peop:edr a pair of oxen fat· the plough arc fold for, ten fcquins, and buLls by wholefalc at forty-ftvc paolia each. In the country round Guadalaxara, the capiml of New Galicia, a pair of goo&l oxen arc worth from fix to Ieven feq uins, a cow twenty-five paoli. In many other countries o£ that kingdom, thofe animals are fold for le18. In many places of th ~ provinces on the river of Plata a cow is to be had for five paoli. According to an accoont we have obtained from n per·fon of credit, well acquainted with the province. on the above river, the oxen which are ln. herds amount to about five millions in number, and it is computc.:d there are about two millions running wild in the woods. (tl) Time us, a Greek nuthor, and Varro, both cited by Aulus GelJius 'No~t. Attic. lib. ii .. (ap 1 ·) have fnid that Italy Wl\s fo called from the abundu nee o.f oxen in it, which in the ancien; Greek langu:tgc were called IT .. '-o•: whtnce Gellius affirms that italia lignifies nrmtlltoj'if!i11u1~ {t) Ever pcrfon knows that no country has more commerce with Spain in ox-hides than. Par:tg\1ay, from whence vdfels are fent entirely lo11ded with them. We have bec.n informew by Jlerfons of credit who were experienced i.n that country, that the tkins that were carried from, thence to Spain, are at tj:ail threev.,·as (a Spanilh meafurc) long, un.d many ate four, or morethan ten Parilinrt feet. There are not, we conceive~ three countrie» in Europe whor.c oxen• 11row to fuch a fizc. 309 OESs.ERT. IV, '-"'v--1 |