CHAP, iv.] WEST INDIES. $05 



To these full and particular accounts I will add, of 

 my own knowledge, that many people, in order to 

 eat of this singular animal in the highest perfection, 

 cause them to be dug out of the earth in the moult- 

 ing state; but they are usually taken from the time 

 they begin to move of themselves, till they reach the 

 sea as already related. During all this time they are 

 in spawn, and if my testimony can add weight to that 

 of all who have written, and all who have feasted, on 

 the subject, I pronounce them, without doubt, one 

 of the choicest morsels in nature. The observation 

 therefore of Du Tertre, is neither hyperbolical, nor 

 extravagant. Speaking of the various species of 

 this animal, he terms them " a living and perpetual 

 " supply of manna in the wilderness ; equalled only 

 " by the miraculous bounty of Providence to the chil- 

 " dren of Israel when wandering in the desert* They 

 " are a resource," continues he, " to which the In- 

 " dians have at all times resort; for when all other 

 * f provisons are scarce, this never fails them/ 5 



Such plenty of animal food, had the lavish hand of 

 nature enabled the groves and the forests of these 

 highly favoured islands, to furnish for the use of man. 

 The regions of water and of air were still more 

 copiously gifted. Happily the inhabitants of those 

 elements, less obnoxious to the arts of destruction 

 than the races that I have described, are yet suffici- 

 ently numerous to bear witness themselves to the in- 

 exhaustible liberality of their almighty Creator. We 

 may say in the language of Milton, 



VoL I. o 



