r TAPIRS, ARMADILLOS, CHINCHILLAS, 283 



they call them Guadatinajas. I am in doubt whether there LlB - Iv - 

 were any swine at the Indies before the Spaniardes came 

 thither, like to these in Spaine, for that in the discoverie 

 of the Hands of Solornan, it is said they found hennes and 

 swine of Spaine. But howsoever it be, it is most certaine 

 that this cattell hath greatly multiplied at the Indies. They 

 eate the flesh fresh, and hold it to be as holesome and as 

 good as if it were of mutton ; as in Carthagena, in some 

 partes, they are become wilde and cruell, the which they 

 hunt like wilde boars, as wee see in Santo Domingo and other 

 Hands where the beasts live in the forrests. In some places 

 they feede them with the grain e of mays, and they grow 

 wonderfully fatte, to have the grease, which they vse for 

 want of oyle j in some places they make gamons, as in 

 Toluca of New Spaine, and in Paria of Peru. Returning, 

 then, to such beasts as are peculiar there, even as the Sainos 

 are like vnto swine, though somewhat lesse, even so the 

 Dantas 1 resemble small kine, but more vnto mules, having no 

 homes. The hides of these beasts are much esteemed for 

 jerkins and other coverings, they are so hard as they resist 

 any blow whatsoever. And as the Dantas be defended by 

 the hardnes of their hides, so those which they call Arma 

 dillos are by the multitude of their scales, which open and 

 shut as they please, like to a cuirasse. There be litle beasts 

 which go thorow the woods, called Armadillos, by reason of 

 the defence they have, hiding themselves within their scales, 

 and opening when they list. I have eaten of them, and doe 

 not holde it for a meate of any great woorth ; but the flesh 

 of the Yguanas is a better meate, but more horrible to the 

 eye; for they are like to the very lizardes of Spaine, 

 although they be of a doubtfull kinde, for that they go to 

 the water, and comming to land, they clinibe the trees vpon 

 the bankes ; and as they cast themselves from the trees into 

 the water, the boates watch vnderneath to receive them. 



1 Tapirs. 



