148 ALLIGATORS. 



LIB. in. ver y same which Plinie and the Antients call Crocodiles; 

 ~~ they finde them on the sea side, and in hote rivers, for in 

 colde rivers there are none to be found; and, therefore, 

 they finde none vpon all the coast of Peru vnto Payrta, but 

 forward they are commonly seene in the rivers. It is a 

 most fierce and cruell beast, although it be slow and heavie. 

 Hee goes hunting and seekes his prey on the land, and 

 what hee takes alive he drownes it in the water, yet dooth 

 hee not eate it but out of the water, for that his throate is 

 of such a fashion as if there entred any water he should 

 easily be drowned. It is a woonderfull thing to see a 

 combat betwixt a Cayman and a Tiger, whereof there are 

 most cruell at the Indies. A religious man of our Company 

 tolde me that he had seene these beasts fight most cruelly 

 one against the other; vpon the sea shoare the Cayman 

 with his taile gave great blowes vnto the Tiger, striving 

 with his great force to carry him into the water; and the 

 Tiger with his pawes resisted the Caymant, drawing him 

 to land. In the end the Tiger vanquished and opened the 

 Lizard, it seemes by the belly, the which is most tender 

 and penetrable, for in every other parte hee is so hard, 

 that no lance, and scarce a harquebuze, can pierce it. The 

 victory which an Indian had of a Cayman was yet more 

 rare ; the Cayman had carried away his yong childe, and 

 sodainly plunged into the sea; the Indian, mooved with 

 choller, cast himselfe after him, with a knife in his hand, 

 and as they are excellent swimmers and divers, and the 

 Cayman swimineth alwayes on the toppe of the water, hee 

 hurt him in the belly, and in such sort, that the Cayman, 

 feeling himselfe wounded, went to the shoare, leaving the 

 little infant dead. But the combate which the Indians have 

 with Whales is yet more admirable, wherein appeares the 

 power and greatnesse of the Creator to give so base a 

 Nation, as be the Indians, the industry and courage to 

 incounter the most fierce and deformed beast in the worlde, 



