60 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DISTANT LANDS 



had entertained in his own house Columbus, Sebastian 

 Cabot and other well-known navigators, and took a 

 lively interest in their enterprises. Moreover, he could 

 write from scanty materials interesting sketches of what 

 had been seen in the New World, and these sketches, 

 when collected into Decades, circulated far and wide. 

 He tells how Pope Leo X. liked to read them to his 

 sister and the cardinals.^ No marvel of the animal life 

 of America interested early explorers more than the 

 opossum, which figures in several narratives. Anglerius 

 describes it as a creature which had the snout of a fox, 

 the tail of a monkey, the ears of a bat, the hands of a 

 man and the feet of an ape. It climbed trees, and 

 carried its young in a pouch, like no other known 

 animal. 



The first man to set down in writing something like 

 a connected account of the natural history of the New 

 World was Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes 

 (1478-1557). Oviedo had in his youth served as page 

 to Prince Juan, son of Ferdinand and Isabella. In 1513 

 he was sent out to America as inspector of mines, and 

 after this he served the crown in various capacities, 

 residing long in Hispaniola, of which he was alcalde. 

 On his retirement from foreign service he acted as 

 chronicler of the Indies. 



Oviedo laboured during a great part of his life at a 

 General and Natural History of the Indies. '^ A 

 summary of this was published in 1526, and the first 

 part of the full history in 1535. The whole is now 

 accessible in print. 



West Indian Mammals. We are told by Oviedo 

 that when Hispaniola (also called Hayti and St. 



^Letter of Anglerius, Deo. 26, 1515. 



^ Historia general y natural de las Indias. Fol. Salamanca, 1535. 



