CHAP, iv.] WEST INDIES. 99 



Europe, though four times as large, probably proved 

 fatal to the whole race. I am sometimes inclined to 

 suspect, that this animal is the agouti of the larger 

 islands. 





The alco was the native dog of the new hemis- 

 phere, nor does it seem to have differed greatly from 

 that of the old; except that it possessed not the pow- 

 er of barking. f The natives of Hispaniola, like those 

 of Otaheite, fattened them with care, and accounted 

 their flesh a great delicacy. " In St. Domingo" (says 

 Acosta) " the dogs of Europe have multiplied so ex- 

 " ceedingly, that at this time (1587) they are a nui- 

 " sance and a terror to the inhabitants, and a price is 

 f( set on their heads as on wolves in old Spain. At 

 <c first there were no dogs in this island, but a small 

 " mute creature resembling a dog, with a nose like 

 " that of a fox; which the natives called alco. The 

 " Indians were so fond of these little animals, that 

 " they carried them on their shoulders wherever they 

 * ( went, or nourished them in their bosoms." 



The monkey and its varieties require no descrip- 

 tion. 



Thus it appears, that out of eight different species 

 of edible quadrupeds, one only was domestic and se- 

 quacious. Few indeed are the animals that own alle- 

 giance to man in his savage state. Of the beasts of 

 the forest, the strongest dispute his superiority, an4 



f F, Col, c. xxiv. 



