18 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



Canary Islands, October 5, 1493, to take in a supply of wood and water. 

 Here he purchased also calves, goats, and sheep, to stock the island of 

 Hispaniola, and 8 hogs, from which, according to Las Casas, the infi- 

 nite number of swine was propagated with which the Spanish settle- 

 ments in the Western World subsequently abounded. His live stock 

 was landed about the middle of December, 1493, at Isabella, where was 

 founded the first Christian city of the New World. Vessels that fol- 

 lowed from Spain from time to time, bringing supplies for the colonies, 

 included sheep in their cargoes, which were landed at Hispaniola and 

 Cuba. From these islands sheep were carried to the Isthmus of Pan- 

 ama, and in 1521 one of the conditions imposed upon those who pro- 

 posed to found new settlements on that isthmus was that some respon- 

 sible x^erson was to come forward with whom an agreement for settle- 

 ment could be made 5 and the terms were that " within a time specified 

 there must be from 10 to 30 settlers, each with 1 horse, 10 milch cows, 

 4 oxen, 1 brood mare, 1 sow, 20 ewes of Castile, 6 hens and a cock." 



On Cortes' return from Spain to the City of Mexico, in 1530, misunder- 

 standings arose between him and the magistrates, and he left the capi- 

 tal in disgust, and took up his residence in the city of Cuernavaca, on 

 the southern slope of the Cordilleras, overlooking a wide expanse of 

 country, the fairest and most flourishing portion of his own domain. 

 Here he devoted himself to agriculture and the improvement of a vast 

 estate. 



He introduced the sugar cane from Cuba, and it grew luxuriantly in the rich soil 

 of the neighboring lowlands. He imported large numbers of Merino sheep and other 

 cattle, which found abundant pastures in the country around Tehnautepec. His 

 lauds were thickly sprinkled with groves of mulberry trees, which furnished iiour- 

 shiment for the silkworm.* 



From these two localities, Panama and the city of Cuernavaca, went 

 forth sheep in great numbers, from which it was reported to the home 

 government that much " woolen cloth was made in New Spain in 1560." 

 These Spanish sheep were the progenitors of the immense herds in 

 Mexico, New Mexico, Utah, and Texas. In 173G there were over 

 1,500,000 sheep in the Mexican State of Nuevo Leon, and sheep-raising 

 had risen to great importance because of the rapidly increasing woolen 

 manufactures of Queretaro, Puebla, and Yalladolid. Sheep formed the 

 chief element of agriculture in New Mexico in 1750, these animals be- 

 ing raised in large numbers, both for wool and meat. Of the wool a 

 coarse cloth was made, and the Indians became expert weavers. 



Francisco Pizarro, early in January, 1531, sailed from the Bay of 

 Panama on his third expedition for the conquest of Peru. After its 

 subjugation Spanish sheep from Panama were taken to that country. 

 We have no definite date, but from the following account by Garcilasso 

 de la Yega, it was before 1556. Garcilasso wrote in 1600 : 



The sheep of Castile, which we call so to distinguish them from those of Peru, to 

 which the Spaniards improperly give the name of sheep, since they are neither like 



* "History of the Conquest of Mexico." William H. Prescott. 



