S&; THE BISON. 



commerce, was known as far back as Morton's 

 time; he compares it with that of the beaver and 

 with some truth; we were shown lower down on 

 Red river, hats that appeared to be of a very good 

 quality; they had been made in London with the 

 wool of the buffaloe. An acquaintance on the part 

 of Europeans with the animal itself, can be referred 

 to nearly a century before that: forin 1533, Guzman 

 met with buffalo in the province of Cinaloa.* De 

 Laet says, upon the authority of Gomara, when 

 speaking of the buffalo in Quivira, that they are 

 almost black, and seldom diversified with white 

 spots,f In his history written subsequently to 1684, 

 Hubbard does not enumerate this animal among 

 those of New England. Purchas informs, us that 

 in 1613 the adventurers discovered in Virginia, " a 

 slow kinde of cattell as bigge as kine, which were 

 good meate. ?? J From Lawson, we find that great 

 plenty of buffaloes, elks, &c, existed near Cape 

 Fear river and its tributaries;^ and we know that 

 some of those who first settled the Abbeville dis- 

 trict in South Carolina, in 1756, found the buffaloe 

 there. De Soto's party, who traversed East Florida, 

 Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansa Territory, 

 and Louisiana, from 1539 to 1543, saw no buffaloe, 



* De Laet, Americae utriusque Descriptio, Lugd. Batav. 

 anno 1633, lib. 6. cap. 6. 

 f Idem, lib. 6, cap. 17. | Purchas ut supra, p. 759. 



§ Lawson ut supra, p. 48, 1 1 5 &c. 



