874 JAMAICA. 



who bathe themfelves every day in the Nile, do not take any pre- 

 caution againfl thefe animals ; nor did he hear of any accident 

 happening from them. 



Ulloa mentions, that thofe alligators, which have once tafted 

 flefh, become fo fond of it, as never to take up with fifli but in 

 cafes of neceflity ; that there are even too many melancholy in- 

 ftances of their devouring the human fpecies, efpec.ially children, 

 who have inattentively rambled near their haunts; and that alli- 

 gators, who have once fe^ftted^pon human flefh, are known to be 

 the moft dangerous, and become as it were inflamed with an in- 

 fatiable defire of repeating the fame delicious repaft. It is uncertain 

 whether what he has here related was meant of the crocodile, or 

 the alligator, as both fpecies pafs with the Spaniards under the 

 fame denomination of cayman: but it feems to have been founded 

 on the accounts which he heard from the inhabitants; for, when 

 fpeaking of his own knowledge, he fays, " whatever may have 

 *' been written with regard to the fiercenefs and rapacity of thefe 

 *< animals, I, and all our company, know, from experience, they 

 *« avoid a man, and on the approach of any one immediately plunge 

 *' into the water." It is certain the crocodile is found in all the 

 larger rivers of the South-American continent; and it is probable, 

 that they vary, in colour at leaft, from thofe of Egypt and Africa, 

 if not in difpofition. It is true, there are well-attefted inftances 

 in Jamaica of the voracity of the alligator, and his making at- 

 tempts upon the human fpecies ; but, whether the rarity of luch 

 examples may be attributed to this creature's being more fierce at 

 certain times of the year than at others, or when no other food is 

 to be procured, or to the care which mofl perfons take to avoid 

 them, is very doubtful. I am apt to think fuch attempts are 

 owing more to neceflity than inflinft. It would probably appear, 

 tipon a fair flatc, that, of the two, the alligator is the more in- 

 offenfive animal. But the miftakc of feveral writers, who confound 

 them together, is very apparent ; for they talk of alligators thirty 

 feet in length ; whereas the large ft real alligator, known to have 

 been ineafurcd, did not exceed twenty, and was juftiy thought to 

 be of an extraordinary fize, as they are rarely more than from 

 twelve to fifteen or fixteen feet. We are not, however, to repute 



I the 



