1'56 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



that the Indians ' have also made mention of great heards of 

 well-growne beasts, that hve about the parts of tliis lake' — Ero- 

 coise, now Lake Ontario — ' such as the Christian world, untile 

 this discovery, hath not been made acquainted with. Tliese 

 beasts are of the bignesse of a Cowe, their flesh being very good 

 foode, their hides good lether, their fleeces very useful, being a 

 kind of wolle, as fine almost as the wolle of the Beaver, and the 

 salvages do make garments thereof He adds — ' It is tenne 

 years since first the relation of these things came to the Eng- 

 lish.' We have introduced this quotation, partly with a view to 

 show that the fineness of the Buffalo wool, which has caused it 

 within a few years to become an article of commerce, was 

 known as far back as Morton's time, 1637. He compares it 

 with that of the Beaver, and with some truth. We were shown 

 lower down on Red River, hats that appeared to be of very 

 good quality ; they had been made in London with the wool of 

 the Buffalo. An acquaintance on the part of Europeans with 

 the animal itself, can be referred to nearly a century before 

 that ; for in 153i2 Guzman met with Buffalo in the Province of 

 Ciraloa. De Laet says, upon the authority of Gomara, when 

 speaking of the Buff"alo in Quivera, that they are almost black, 

 and seldom diversified with white spots. In his history, written 

 subsequently to 1684, Hubbard does not enumerate this animal 

 among those of New England. Purchas infonns us, that in 

 1613 the adventurers discovered in Virginia, * a slow kinde of 

 cattell, as big as kine, which are good meate. From Lawson, 

 we find that great plenty of Buffalos, Elks, &c., existed near 

 Cape Fear River, and its tributaries ; and we know that some 

 of those who first settled the Abbeville district in South Caro- 

 lina, in 1756, found the Buffalo there. De Soto's party, who 

 traversed East Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkan- 

 sas Territory, and Louisiana, from 1513 to 1543, saw no 

 Buffalo, — they were told that the animal was north of them ; 

 however, they frequently met with Buffiilo hides, particularly 

 when west of the Mississippi. And Du Pratz, who published 

 in 1758, informs us, that at that time the animal did not exist in 



