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Show 310 'DISSERT. IV. '--v---' H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. hot to oxep. but this is not the cafe it1 New Spain: as although the oxen of ~old and temperate countries may be excellent,. yet tl:e oxen of warm countries are better. The fle!h of thefe anunals 111 maritime lands is fo admired, that it is fent to the capital by way of Jlrefent £rom places at two and three hundred miles difi:ance. . ' . • • I 1 S H E E P. COUNT de Buffon confefics (e) that q1ccp h~vc not fucceed -; cJ fo well in the hot as in the cold countries of the new conttnent; but he adds, that although they have multiplied confiderably, they arc, notwith!\:anding, more meagre, and their flclh is lefs juicy, and Jcfs tender than it is in Europe, from which it appears that he has not bct;11 well informed. In the hot countries of the new world fhecp in general do not thrive, and the fle01 of weth~rs is _not good ; at this, howe11e,r, .we need not wonder, as the hot chme~ m. the old continent are fo pernicious to fheep that, as count de Buffon himfelf tlys, they become clothed with hair infiead of woo~. . In the ~old 1111d temperate countries of New Spain they have muluphed fupenorly ~o hulls, their wool in many places is as fine a . the wool of the lheep 111 Spain, and their fie!h as well tafied asj any.in Europ1e;. w~.icl~ a~~ ~hofc who have vifited thofe countries can teltify. The mulpphcat1on of fi1eep in America has been furprifing. Acoibt relates (f) that before he went to America, there were in that ·country individuals po1Teffing .fcventy, and f~metimes one hundred thoura,1d lh,eep; and at prcfent there are perfons in New Spain who own four and five and even {even ]lllndred thoufand fhcep (g). Valdebro fays (h) that D. Diego Munoz Camargo, a Tlafcalan noble, of whom we have made m~ntion in our account of the writers of the ancient Hi!\:ory of Mexico, .obtained from ten fheep an increafe of forty thoufand in the fpace ( f ) HiO:. Nat. tom. :Jcvii. (j) Stor. Nat. e Mor. ftb. iv. 33• . (g ) The Europeans who have not been in America are extremely npt to be incredulous ':'th ~gard to what we iny of the number of oxen, horfes, fheep, and goats, which m~my Amencan farmers have upon their eftntes; but h:lving been long in that country, we afi'crt no moro thnn we know to be tr~;~th. (h) In hia work of Gobicmo de .111imnlc.<, lib. iv. Ctlp. 34• of ' H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. of ten years. How therefo~e could the climate be pernicious to their propagation, if they multiplied fo exceffively? With refpeCl: to fize, we declare fincerely, we have feen no rams in Europe larger than thofe of Mexico. G 0 A T S . THE count de Buffon, although fo much difpofed to revile the animals of America, confe1Tes, notwithfi:anding, that the goats have p{ofpered well in the cljmes of America, and that their multiplication is .greater there than in Europe (.h); for whereas in Europe they bring l;>ut ,a fingle kid, or two at moil:, at a birth, in America they bring three, four, and fo~Vetimes five. Mr. de Paw, who very jufi:ly gives to the count de Buffon the titJe of the PHny of France, and refers to his authority on the fubjec.t of animals, as to one who has made a review of all the ~nimals· of the earth, ought to have G~mfidered and weighed thefe and other confeffions of that learned philofopher, before he undertook to write or fpecu~ate conc~rning the animals or the produCtions of America. . . . H 0 G s. 0 U R philofophers are not agreed upon this fubjetl; . for whereas the count de Buffon places hogs among the animals which have degenerated in America, Mr. de Paw on the contrary affirms, that thefe are the only animals which have acquired in the new world an extraordinary corpulerice, and whofe flelh has been improved. This con! t-adic.tion a'rofe without doubt from the not difi:ingui.lhing as they ought to have done the differ·ent countries of America. It may be, there are feme places ~nkown to us where the hogs have lofi fomething of their fize: but it. is certain that in New Spain, the Antilles, Terra-firma, and other places of America ~h~y ' a.re ,as la~ge as thofe ofEumpe; and in •the ifland of Cuba there is a breed of hogs twice as large as thofe of Europe; which all who hdve beep in thofe countries m~fi: have witnefr. ed . . Our philofophers may, if they pleafe, have information from many European 'attthors, who have feen the hogs of Toluca, of Angelopoli (b) H.ifi, Nat, tom x.viii. lU 3II DISSERT. IV. ~; • |