BcQ;iuniiigs of Natural History in America. 371 



Garcilasso de la Vega was not the only descendant of the al)original 

 Americans who has written npon their history. Among the authors of 

 works upon Mexican archaeology published in the seventeenth and 

 eighteenth centuries were Taddeo de Niza and Gabriel d'Ayala, "noble 

 Indians" of Tlazcala and Tezcuco, the three named Ixtlilxochitl, and 

 ten or twelve more. Gongora, a native Mexican, professor of mathe- 

 matics in the University of Mexico, was one of the earliest American 

 astronomers, the author of the Mexican Cyclography, printed two 

 centuries ago. Herrera, Martinez, Garcia, Torquemada, Castillejo, De 

 Betancourt, De Solis, Del Pulgar, and Beneducci have done what they 

 could to preserv^e a portion of this ancient American lore, and it seems 

 almost incredible that, sometime in the future when American archae- 

 ology shall have gained a firmer footing, some of the treasures of fact 

 which these men garnered up are not to have an important function in 

 elucidating anthropological problems which are as yet entirely unsolved. 



IV. 



The colony on Roanoke Island having been abandoned by the English, 

 twenty years elapsed before their next effort toward peopling America. 

 Then came the adventurers to Jamestown in 1606, and with them that 

 |)icturesque personage, Captain John vSmith, who, though unversed in 

 the mathematics and astronomy which made up to a great extent the 

 science of the daj^ was a keen obser\'er and an enterprising explorer. 

 His contributions to geography were important, and his descriptions of 

 the animals and plants of Virginia and New England supplement well 

 those of his predecessor, Harriot. 



Captain Smith was the first to describe the raccoon, the nmsquash, and 

 the flying squirrel : 



There is a beast they call Arotighcuti (raccoon), much like a badger, but useth to 

 live on trees, as Sqiiirrels doe. Their Squirrels some are neare as great as our smallest 

 .sort of wilde Rabbets, some blackish, or blacke and white, but most are gray. A 

 small beast they have they call Assapaiiictc, but we call them flying Squirrels, 

 because, spreading their legs, and so stretching the largenesse of their skins that 

 they have been scene to fly 30 or 40 yards. An Oposstun hath a head like a Swine, 

 and-a taile like a Rat, and is of the bignesse of a Cat. Vnder her belly she hath a 

 bagge, wherein she lodgeth, carrieth, and suckleth her young. A Miissascus (nms- 

 quash) is a beast of the forme and nature of our water Rats, but many of them smell 

 exceedingly strongly of Muske. 



And in the same strain he goes on to mention a score of manunals, 

 identifying them with those of Europe with surprising accuracy. 



His " Utchun qiioycs, which is like a Wild Cat," is evidently the bay 

 lynx. With the birds he was less familiar, but he mentions a number 

 which resemble those of Europe, and states that many of them were 



