110 SOME SCRAPS BY THE 



of any kind from being covered with infinite swarms of small 

 black ants ; and had it continued much longer thus, it would 

 not have been surprising had it happened to this island as to a 

 city of Spain." Now it appears, from the Alcayde's statement, 

 that this city was deserted by its inhabitants because the 

 rabbits round about had multiplied so much that they burrowed 

 under the town until the inhabitants, fearing lest their houses 

 (the foundations being destroyed,) should tumble down about 

 their ears, thought fit to run away. Moreover, he informs us, 

 that in Thessaly a like misconduct on the part of the moles 

 caused another city to be abandoned. In Franco another city 

 was deserted on account of — of what, thinkest thou, kind 

 reader? — the frogs. Another in Africa shared the same fate 

 from the swarms of locusts; one in Italy from the vipers. 

 Thus much sayeth the Capitan Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo 

 y Valdez, Alcayde de la fortaleza de la ciudad de S*°. Do- 

 mingo, &c. Turn we now to the Coronista mayor. 



From him we learn that some tried to thin them by digging 

 trenches round the trees, and filling them with water; others tried 

 fire ; but nothing availed them in the least. If millions were 

 destroyed, tens of millions replaced them. " The Franciscans 

 of the Vega placed a lump of corrosive sublimate, weighing three 

 or four pounds, on the flat roof of the monastery ; all the ants 

 in the building at once ran to it, and, biting it, fell down dead; 

 and as though messengers had been sent to invite all within half 

 a league to a banquet, the roads were filled with them. They 

 scaled the walls, and tasting the poison, fell dead like their 

 companions, until the roof was blackened with them. This 

 continued as long as the lump of sublimate lasted." Then 

 the friars having found that they gained nothing by this expe- 

 riment save the bringing fresh swarms of ants, did not care 

 to renew it. It seems that they were much puzzled at two 

 things, first, to ascertain what instinctive knowledge the ants 

 possessed to guide them to the sublimate ; secondly, consider- 

 ing how hard the sublimate was, to account for their being 

 able to bite it, they being so small and weak. 



The Spaniards were now, by the continuance of this plague, 

 reduced to the greatest tribulation. It seemed as though an 

 avenging Providence was punishing them for their atrocities ; 

 and, the more to humble them, had chosen these small creatures 

 as the instruments of his wrath. At last they resolved to choose 



