246 INQUIRY CONCERNING 
fo much importance.’ But it muft be recolle%ed that Cla 
vigero only informs us, that this true honey-bee is now 
found in Mexico. He has not attempted to prove that it 
was found there fawo or three hundred years aga. \n order 
to afcertain this point, with more certainty, it is neceflary 
to recur to the more early writers concerning America, 
particularly Mexico. Iam forry that I have it not in my 
power to confult the work* of Hernandez, who was fent 
to Mexico, at the expence of Philip the fecond, king of 
Spain, and who devoted much time to the natural hiftory 
of the animals, végetables, and minerals of that rich coun- 
try. This phyfician, however, does not appear to have 
been a very accurate naturalift; fo that even though he may 
have given an account of the bees of Mexico, it is more 
than probable, that the information which we might de- 
rive from him would not enable us to throw much light 
on the fubje&. The only early author, in my poffeffion, 
who feems to give us any information on the queftion is 
Jofeph Acofta. This learned Jefuit, who has been fiyled, 
by Father Feyho, the Pliny of America, refided for fome 
time in Mexico, in Peru, and in other parts of America, to- 
wards the clofe of the fixteenth century. In his /4foria 
Natural y Moral de las Indias, which was publifhed at Ma~ 
drid, in 1590, a few years after his return from Mexico, 
he tells us that in the Indies, under which general name 
he comprehends the countries of America, “there are few 
fwarmes of Bees, for that their honnie-combes are found 
in trees, or under the ground, and not in hives as in 
Caftille. The honny combes,”’ he continues, ‘ which 
I have feene in the Province of Charcas, which they 
call Chiguanas, are of a grey colour, having little juyce, 
and are more like unto fweete ftrawe, than to honey 
combs. They fay the Bees are little, like unto flies; and 
that 
* Plantarum, Animalium & Mincralium Mexicanorum Hiftoria. Rome : 1651. fel. 
