336 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 154. 



GUANO AND THE liOBOS ISLANDS. 



P. C. S. S. presumes that at a time when the 

 Lobos Islands and their product are so much the 

 subject of discussion, it may not be altogether 

 uninteresting to the readers of " N. & Q." to 

 ascertain the date when the knowledge of Guano 

 and its fertilising properties was first introduced 

 to the English public. He believes that the earliest 

 English mention of that substance was in 1670 ; 

 and that it is to be found in a little work then 

 printed, called the Art of Metalls, translated from 

 the Spanish. Although the title-page of that edition 

 does not mention the name of the translator, he is 

 known to have been Edward Montagu, Earl of 

 Sandwich. The title was thus : 



" The First Book of the Art of Metalls ; written in 

 Spanish by Alhano Alonzo Barba, Master of Art, born 

 in the Town of Lepe in Andalusia, Curate of St. Ber- 

 nard's Parish in the Imperial City of Potosi, in the 

 Kingdom of Peru in the W. I., in the Year 1640. 

 Translated into English in the Year 1 669 : Lond., 

 sra. 8vo., 1670." 



At p. 16. is the passage to which P. C. S. S. 

 alludes, viz. : 



" Cardanus, amongst his curiosities, makes mention 

 of another kinde of earth, anciently called Britannica 

 (from the country where it is found) ; they were fain 

 to dig very deep mines to come at it. It was white ; 

 and after they had separated the plate it contained, 

 they manured their tilth-fields with the earth, which 

 were put iu heart thereby for 100 years after. Out of 

 islands in the South Sea, not far from the city of 

 Arica, they fetch earth that doth the same effect as 

 the last afore-mentioned. It is called Guano (i, e. 

 dung) ; not because it is the dung of sea-fowls (as 

 many would have it), but because of its admirable 

 virtue in making ploughed ground fertile. And that 

 which is brought from the island oi Iqtieyque. is of a 

 dark gray colour, like unto tobacco ground small. 

 Although from other islands nearer Arica they get a 

 white earth, inclining to sallow, of the same virtue. 

 It instantly colours water whereinto it is put, as if it 

 was the best ley, and smells very strong. The quali- 

 ties and virtues of this, and of many other simples of 

 the new world, are a large field for ingenious persons 

 to discourse philosophically upon, when they shall 

 bend their minds to the searching out of truth, rather 

 than riches." 



P. C. S. S. would be glad of any further inform- 

 ation respecting the Terra Britannica to which, in 

 the above passage, Cardanus is said to refer. 



P. c. s. s. 



INEDITED LETTER OF JOHN FINCH, 



As I promised on a former occasion, I send you 

 the letter of Finch preserved among the Addi- 

 tional JISS. of the British Museum, and num- 

 bered 17,301. I find that it was described in 

 Thorpe's Catalogue, Part I., 1835, No. 522. It 



was presented to the British Museum by Captala 

 W. H. Smythe, R.N., on the 9th day of February, 

 1848, and was transcribed by me ibr your paper 

 some months ago. 



The letter is written on two folios of thick paper, 

 in a rough, close, thougli shambling hand. Occa- 

 sionally, as you will perceive, a word has been left 

 out, and the date is partly mutilated, so that it is 

 impossible to tell the precise year in which it was 

 written. 



The subject of the communication is very in- 

 teresting, and might lead to the inquiry as to where 

 the medals are now preserved. Perhaps they may- 

 yet turn up ; and in that case the letter will not- 

 only be interesting but valuable, as a history of the 

 coins in question. I shall therefore ask whether 

 the subsequent history of tliese medals is at all 

 traceable ? and whether it should not be given to- 

 the world iu your pages ? 



Kenneth 11. H. Mackenzie. 



" Sir, 



" Wye, October the ... 170 , 



" I had not heard of your indisposition till by tlic 

 return of my servant last Thursday, and indeed I 

 should have been extremely concern'd for itt, had 

 he not inforra'd me tliat you are recouer'd again ; 

 I most heartily wish'd you a re-establishment of 

 your good health. I have for some-time design'd 

 communicating to you a surprizing account (at 

 least it is so to me) of some medalls which my Lord 

 Weymouth purchased last winter in town. Not 

 knowing what credit to give to what I had heard 

 of them, I wrote to my lord, and had the following 

 account : — Two amongst them, the most remark- 

 able, are these : A medal of gold (weighing aboue 

 twenty-two ounces, the gold worth 5 lb. per ounce) 

 of Joannes Paljeologus, Emp. of Constantinople. 

 On the Reverse is written : 'Opus Pisani pictoris.' 

 This I believe you will allow may probably be a 

 true one, Pisani being famous for hauing engraued 

 very large * .... of seueral great persons, and 

 particularly one of that Empereur; besides that 

 my lord assures me itt is not cast, and is of the 

 finest gold, and not being very ancient itt might 

 easily be preserued. But that which startled me 

 was the account of an Antoninus, whose diameter 

 is four inches, half an inch, and a twentieth part of 

 an inch ; weighing twenty-one ounces, twelve 

 pennyweights, at 4 lbs. 105. per ounce. On one 

 side are the heads of Antoninus and his Empresse 

 Faustina ; on the other Cybele in a chariot drawn 

 by lyons. In the Exergue ' ^ternitas.' My 

 lord says, that beside their being of so extraordi- 

 nary a size, and of the finest gold, that of Anto- 

 ninus and Faustina is most exquisitely stamp'd : 

 the other by Pisani, rude in comparison of the 

 former. He said that my Lord Pembrook, who is 



* Here a word seems to have been accidentally 

 omitted. 



