108 SOME SCRAPS BY THE 



the water; neither will I go into the history of the aviaries 

 or the serpent-houses of Montezuma ; nor of the little bags 

 found in his treasure-house containing entomological speci- 

 mens ; nor of those trees into whose bark the humming-birds, 

 when flowers were scarce, thrust their beaks, and remained 

 fixed there till the rainy season revived the flowers, when they 

 drew out their beaks and flew away ; nor yet of those trees 

 whose leaves when they dropped became beetles. But, gentle 

 reader, the subject I have chosen will serve to show how 

 weak man is against the smallest insects, and how these little 

 creatures can involve him in ruin, destroying in a few days the 

 labour of years ; I mean the " plague of ants" which in the 

 year 1519 desolated the Queen of the Antilles and the ad- 

 joining island of San Juan de Puerto Rico. 



The learned Antonio de Herrera, Coronista Mayor de su 

 Magestad de las Indias y Coronista de Castilla y Leon, (I like 

 to have name and titles at full length,) informs us that the 

 Hieronymite Fathers not only took care (a la mode Espagnole, 

 of course) of the Indians, but also persuaded the Spaniards to 

 form farms, make plantations, and pay attention to agricultural 

 affairs. That at their persuasion the cultivation of the Cassia 

 fistula was commenced, which succeeded there so well that it 

 appeared as if the soil had been made expressly for the purpose, 

 and that had all the inhabitants of Europe, Asia, and Africa, 

 taken to using the fruit of it instead of bread, enough could 

 have been grown in Espafiola to supply them. Moreover, a 

 Spaniard of the name of Aguilon had brought in the year 1506 

 some plants of the sugar-cane from the Canaries, which did so 

 well that the Bachiller Bellosa, a resident in St. Domingo, 

 a surgeon, native of Verlanga, began a regular manufactory of 

 sugar. 



Now, as the poor Indians were pretty well exterminated, 

 the Spaniards had got numbers of negro slaves for these 

 plantations, and they had thrived so well that it was a firmly 

 established opinion that a negro would never die save by 

 hanging him, — an experiment no doubt tried by the planters as 

 often as circumstances occurred to render it expedient. " In 

 fact," says the learned Coronista, "they and the orange-trees 

 found in Espanola a country better suited to them than even 

 their native clime." But, notwithstanding this, when they 

 had been set to labour at the sugar works awhile, they 



