THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 201 
of the beams of that bright planet. Where they lighted, 
either upon trees or standing corn, there was nothing expected 
but ruin, destruction, and barrenness; for the corn they 
devoured, the fruits of trees they ate and consumed, and 
hung so thick upon the branches that with their weight they 
tore them from the body. The highways were so covered 
with them that they startled the travelling mules with their 
fluttering about their heads and feet. My eyes were often 
struck with their wings as I rode along; and much ado I had 
to see my way,—what with a montero wherewith I was fain 
to cover my face, what with the flight of them which 
were still before my eyes. ‘The farmers towards the south 
sea-coast cried out, for that their indigo, which was then in 
grass, was like to be eaten up; from the Jngenios of sugar 
the like moan was made, that the young and tender sugar- 
canes would be destroyed; but, above all, grievous was the 
ery of the husbandmen of the valley where I lived, who feared 
that their corn would in one night be swallowed up by that 
devouring legion. The care of the magistrates was that the 
towns of Indians should all go out into the fields with 
trumpets, and what other instruments they had, to make a 
noise and to affright them from those places which are most 
considerable and profitable to the commonwealth; and 
strange it was to see how the loud noise of the Indians 
and sounding of the trumpets defended some fields from the 
fear and danger of them. Where they lighted in the moun- 
tains and highways, there they left behind them their young 
ones, which were found creeping upon the ground, ready to 
threaten such a second year’s plague if not prevented; 
wherefore all the towns were called—with spades, mattocks, 
and shovels—to dig long trenches, and therein to bury all the 
young ones. Thus, with much trouble to the poor Indians 
and their great pains (yet after much hurt and loss in many 
places), was that flying pestilence chased away out of the 
country to the South Sea, where it was thought to be 
consumed by the ocean, and to have found a grave in the 
waters, whilst the young ones found it in the land. Yet they 
were not all so buried, but that shortly some appeared, 
which, being not so many in number as before, were, with 
the former diligence, soon overcome.” 
A century later locusts are recorded as laying waste all the 
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