466 Dr. Bancroft on the Sea-Devil of Jamaica. 



In the East Indian Seas, in which several species of very large Rays 

 have been seen, and the Manta itself is very probably to be found, it 

 does not appear from the most authentic accounts that have been given 

 of the Great Pearl Fisheries near Ceylon, particularly Mr. Le Beck's 

 in the 5th Volume of the Asiatic Researches, and Captain Percival's in 

 his account of Ceylon, that the divers entertain a dread of any fish, ex- 

 cept the Shark. But so great is their apprehension of this animal, that 

 even the British government has been compelled to yield to the supersti- 

 tions of the natives, and to maintain shark-conjurors in their pay to avert 

 danger from this enemy. On this head I shall only add, that the result 

 of the enquiries which I have made on the subject in question from 

 several ancient fishermen in this harbour, is, that not one of them has 

 heard of any injury having been done to men by the Sea Devil, and that 

 they have rather thought it a timid animal, as it always moves quickly 

 .out of the way of even the smallest canoe it approaches. Yet they had, 

 it appears, a superstitious dread of it, and believed that whoever should 

 attack and kill it, would himself shortly be visited with death, and were 

 therefore extremely loth to assist in the act. Lieutenant St. John also 

 tells me, that on one occasion, when a Sea Devil accidentally upset a 

 boat at anchor fishing in deep water, by entangling its flappers with the 

 cable, which it had dragged under the bows, it made no attack on the 

 crew ; and that he has himself been bathing in the midst of three, when 

 they seemed to avoid his presence, by moving away, as he advanced or 

 swam towards them. 



While the Shark has generally been observed to be a sohtary animal, 

 the Sea Devil on the contrary appears to be a gregarious one ; in this 

 harbour it has almost always been seen in company, to the number in one 

 instance of eleven, the greater part of which were probably females, as 

 may be presumed from this circumstance, that out of six of these fishes 

 which Lieutenant St. John has assisted in killing, the last was the only 

 male one. I am likewise informed by my estimable friend Don Antonio 

 San Hemeterio, that, in one of his voyages from Campeche hither, a shoal 

 of not less than a hundred Mantas crossed his vessel, some of them now 

 and then leaping two or three yards out of the water and coming down 

 flat on their bellies with a loud noise ; and Mr. Smith, first mate of the 

 brig Mars, now loading here for London, tells me that when employed 



