ioo HISTORY OF THE [BOOK i. 



the weakest avoid his approach. To his conveniency 

 therefore they contribute nothing, and towards his 

 nourishment, the supplies that they afford are casual 

 and uncertain. Nature, however, seems to have dis- 

 played towards the inhabitants of these islands, a 

 bounty, that almost rendered superfluous the labours 

 of an in procuring them sustenance; for, besides the 

 animals that I have mentioned, and those that are 

 furnished by the rivers and the sea, the woods were 

 peopled with two very extraordinary creatures; both 

 of which anciently w r ere, and still are, not only used 

 as food, but accounted superior delicacies. 



These are the iguana and the mountain-crab. The 

 iguana (or, as it is more commonly written, the gua- 

 na) is as pecies of lizard: a class of animals, about 

 which naturalists are not agreed, whether to rank them 

 with quadrupeds, or to degrade them to serpents. 

 They seem therefore to stand aloof from ail establish- 

 ed systems, and indeed justly claim a very distinguished 

 place by themselves. From the aligator, the most 

 formidable of the family, measuring sometimes twenty 

 feet in length, the gradation is regular in diminution of 

 size to the small lizard of three inches; the same 

 figure and conformation nearly (though not wholly) 

 prevailing in each. The iguana is one of the inter- 

 mediate species, and is commonly about three feet 

 ]ong, and proportionably bulky. It lives chiefly among 

 fruit trees, and is perfectly gentle and innoxious. 

 Europeans doubtless learnt to make food of them from 

 the example of the ancient Indians, amongst whom 

 the practice of hunting them was a favourite diver- 



