A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 719 



e. — Cattle and other Domestic Animals. 



A few cattle, goats, sheep, and English rabbits or coneys were 

 sent over very soon after the settlement, in 1(312, but these first 

 importations were probably mostly, if not all, destroyed during the 

 famine of 1615. Governor Butler, as mentioned above, stated that 

 the lazy people then colonized at Port Royal, rather than to fish, 

 killed for food the few cattle then existing and pretended to the 

 Governor that they ran into the sea and were drowned. But prob- 

 ably other cattle were sent out by nearly every magazine ship, for 

 several years, till they increased naturally and became common. 



Governor Butler mentioned that Governor Tucker, in 1616, was 

 engaged in building fences, to protect his introduced plants against 

 domestic animals, and stated that the cattle had been sent partly by 

 the general Company, but mostly by the Earl of Warwick. 



Governor Butler, in 1619, also wrote as follows: 



"As for the beasts of the field, — cowes and bulls ther are which 

 prosper exceedingly ; hogges (wherof some fewe wilde) in great 

 numbers; Indian and English goates likewise, but of noe great hope, 

 for (like the pigeons) they are also found dead and dieinge in every 

 corner;* and lastly, there are a late great increase of tame conyes, 

 the which, being reserved in certaine empaled places about the 

 houses, are ther fedd with the potatoe slipps and other simples 

 native of the place, the which they eate very greedely ; they fare 

 well withall." 



Sheep do not appear to have been kept in large numbers, at any 

 time. Probably they did not thrive very well, as in most hot 

 climates. But Hughes, in 1615, says : 



" The Calves and Lambes that we brought out of England, did 

 prosper exceedingly, till the hunters met with them." 



f. — Horses. 



I can tind no record of the arrival of horses, mules, or asses in the 

 early years, nor any mention of their presence there for many years 

 later. The narrowness of the highways and of the early streets in 

 St. George's indicates that horses and carriages were not commonly 

 used there till lono: after the settlement. Probably the earliest 

 horses were only used for horseback riding, by the more wealthy 



* Doubtless due to poisonous plants that they ate, including tobacco. (See p. 

 592.) At the present time goats are common enough. 



