10 Some Account of the 



WOLF-DOGS. 



We know not whether the Techichi and the Itzcu- 

 intepotzotli were found in any of the countries consi- 

 derably to the north of Mexico. We are well as- 

 sured, however, that different kinds of dogs were 

 very common in many of the countries of North- 

 America, when this continent was first discovered by 

 the Europeans, in the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- 

 turies. I am even inclined to think, that North-Ame- 

 rica was much better supplied with dogs (I mean 

 these animals in the domesticated state) than South- 

 America and Mexico. There seems to be little 

 doubt, that in the northern countries there was a 

 greater variety than in the southern countries. Flo- 

 rida abounded in these animals. When Fernando 

 de Soto marched his army through that country, in 

 the year 1540, the Indians supplied him with great 

 numbers of dogs. On one occasion, an Indian ca- 

 cique sent the Spanish general no less than three hun- 

 dred dogs*. These were eaten by the Spaniards, 

 who deemed them not inferior to the best of sheepf. 

 But we are informed, that the Indians did not eat 

 themj. It would seem, that the Spaniards did not 



* This was the cacique of Quaxule, which, if we can depend 

 upon the old maps of Florida, was in the country of the Chikkasah- 

 Indians. A Relation of the Invasion and Conquest of Florida? 

 Etc., &c. p. 71. 



t See a Relation, &c. p. 55. 



t A Relation, kc. p. 71. I do not think it certain, that the In- 

 dian* did not eat their dogs. The present which Soto received 



