HOW LEASTS REACHED THE NEW WORLD. 59 



maine Land, arid in many Ilandes, seeing wee must not LlB - s - 

 rogarde the naturall order of creation but the bountie of the 

 Creator. On the other part, I will not hold it for a thing 

 incredible that they have carried some of these beastes for 

 the pleasure of hunting, for that we often see Princes and 

 great men keepe and nourish in their cages (onely for their 

 pleasure and greatnesse) both Lyons, Beares, and other 

 savage beastes, especially when they are brought from farre 

 Countries; but to speake that of Woolves, Foxes, and other 

 beasts which yeeld no profite, and have nothing rare and 

 excellent in them but to hurt the cattell; and to say also 

 that they have carried them by sea for hunting, truely it is 

 a thing that hath no sense. Who can imagine that in so 

 long a voyage men would take the paynes to carrie Foxes to 

 Peru, especially of that kind which they call Anas, 1 which is 

 the filthiest that I have seene ? Who woould likewise say 

 that they have carried Tygers and Lyons ? Truely it were a 

 thing worthy the laughing at to thinke so. It was suffi 

 cient, yea, very much, for men, driven against their willes 

 by tempest, in so long and vnknowne a voyage, to escape 

 the danger of the Sea with theyr own lives without busy 

 ing themselves to carrie Woolves and Foxes, and to nourish 

 them at Sea. If these beasts then came by Sea, wee must 

 beleeve it was by swimming, which may happen in some 

 Hands not farre distant from others, or from the mayne 

 Land, the which wee cannot denie, seeing the experience 

 wee have, and that wee see these beasts, beeing prest to 

 swimme day and night without wearinesse, and so to escape. 

 But this is to be vnderstood in smal Straights and passages, 

 for in our Ocean they would mocke at such swimmers, when 

 as birds faile in their flight, yea, those of the greatest wing, 

 vpon the passage of so great a Gulph. And although we 

 finde small birdes, which flie above one hundred leagues, as 



1 Anas, the Quichua for a small fox. A toe is another word for a fox 

 (Cants Azcinv). 



