THE 



ZOOLOGICAL JOURNAL. 



October, }S2S—Januart/, 1829. 



Art. XXXIII. Azotes on the genus Capromys of Desmarest, 

 6?/ W. S. MacLkay, Esq., A. 31., F.L.S.,^c., in a Let- 

 ter to the Editor. 



Havana, Sept. 12, 1828. 

 My Dear Vigors, 



I have lately been fortunate enough to become possessor of the oldest 

 and at the same time one of the rarest and best books on the Natural 

 History of the West Indies; I allude to the " Historia general de las 

 " Indias,''^ by Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo y Valdes, published at 

 Salamanca, in May, 1547. This very rare book, neither Jean de Laet 

 nor Robertson* appear to have seen, nor any noted vvriter that has 

 treated of America physically, except Herrera, who has compiled from 

 it without much judgment or criticism, probably on account of his 

 never having been on the spot, and above all from his being ignorant of 

 Botany and Zoology, in both of which sciences Oviedo is wonderfully 

 correct. 



Some idea of the amusement afforded by Oviedo' s work may be 

 derived from the following few particulars concerning this earliest of 

 writers on American Natural History. Columbus discovered America, 

 or rather the Island of San Salvador, one of the Bahamas, on the 12th 

 October, 1492. Perhaps one of the most extraordinary circumstances 

 in the history of man is the rapidity with which the Spaniards of that 



* Robertson appears to have known the work only by the Italian translation 

 in Ramusio's collection of voyages, printed in 1565, at Venice, 



Vol. IV. T 



