100 



THIRD DIVISION OF THE 



Captain Brown states that, " notwithstanding his commanding appear- 

 ance and the strictness with which he guards the property of his master, 

 he is possessed of the greatest mildness of conduct, and is as grateful for 

 any favours bestowed upon him as is the most diminutive of the canine 

 tribe. There is a remarkable and peculiar warmth in his attachments. 

 He is aware of all the duties required of him, and he punctually discharges 

 them. In the course of the night he several times examines every thing 

 with which he is intrusted with the most scrupulous care, and, by repeated 

 barkings, warns the household or the depredator that he is at the post of 

 duty." a 



THE MASTIFF. 



The mastiff from Cuba requires some mention, arid will call up some of 

 the most painful recollections in the history of the human race. He was 

 not a native of Cuba, but imported into the country. 



The Spaniards had possessed themselves of several of the South American 

 islands. They found them peopled with Indians, and those of a sensual, 

 brutish, and barbarous class continually making war with their neigh- 

 bours, indulging in an irreconcilable hatred of the Spaniards, and deter- 

 mined to expel and destroy them. In self-defence, they were driven to some 

 means of averting the destruction with which they were threatened. They 

 procured some of these mastiffs, by whose assistance they penetrated into 



8 Brown's Biographical Sketches, p. 425. 



