OF AMERICA. 207 



their indigo, whic"h was then in grass, was like to be eaten up; from 

 the Ingenios of sugar the like moan was made, that the young and 

 tender sugar-canes would be destroyed; but, above all, grievous was 

 the cry of the husbandmen of the valley where I lived, who feared 

 that their corn would in one night be swallowed up by that devouring 

 legion. The care of the magistrate was that the towns of Indians 

 should all go out into the fields with trumpets, and what other 

 instruments they had, to make a noise and to affright them from 

 those places which are most considerable and profitable to the com- 

 monwealth; and strange it was to see how the loud noise of the 

 Indians and sounding of the trumpets defended some fields from the 

 fear and danger of them. Where they lighted in the mountains and 

 highways, there they left behind them their young ones, which were 

 found creeping upon the ground, ready to threaten such a second 

 year's plague if not prevented; wherefore all the towns were called, 

 with spades, mattocks, and shovels to dig long trenches^, and therein 

 to bury all the young ones. Thus, with much trouble to the poor 

 Indians and their great pains, (yet after much hurt and loss in many 

 places,) was that flying pestilence chased away out of the country to 

 the South sea, where it was thought to be consumed by the ocean, 

 and to have found a grave in the waters, whilst the young ones found 

 it in the land. Yet they were not all so buried; but that shortly some 

 appeared, which, being not so many in number as before, were, with 

 the former diligence, soon overcome." 



Clavigero, in his history of Mexico, says of the Locusta of 

 Mexico, that no animal or insect in that country "can compare in 

 numbers or ravages with the locusts which, sometimes darkening the 

 air like thick clouds, lay waste all the vegetation of the country, as I 

 have myself witnessed in the year 1738 or 1739 upon the coasts of 

 Xicayan, in Oaxuaca. From this cause a great famine was lately 

 occasioned in the province of Yucatan; but no country in America has 

 been visited by this dreadful scourge so often as the wretched Cali- 

 fornia, as related by Father Michael del Barco, who lived thirty years 

 in that country as one of the missionaries of our society." 



The same author gives the following interesting account in his 

 History of California: 



" For the reason that this plague does not afiect the countries 

 where naturalists may carefully observe them with minuteness and 

 exactness, we herein relate the account of one of our missionaries,, 

 kept for thirty years, during his residence in the missions of old Cali- 

 fornia. 



"There are three species of California grasshoppers, which are 

 similar in form, but distinct in size, color, and mode of living. The 

 first species, which is well known and the best observed, is small; it 

 flies short, but is constantly jumping. The second species is larger, 

 and of a gray color. These two kinds are not found in such numbers 

 as to make them of such note or anxiety as the third, which is the 

 largest, and causes the most destruction in its flights over the lands 

 of the peninsula. 



"The grasshoppers of this third species, famous for tlieir ravages 

 among the lands of the missions, is of the size of a little finger ; the 



