EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 179 



On July 2 the Telemachus landed from Lisbon 3 rams and 9 ewes 

 consigned to Coolidge & Co., at Boston, and on the 20th the Herschell 

 arrived at Portland with 43 sheep, 40 for N. Gilman, of Portsmouth, 

 N. H., and 3 for Capt. Lewis, master of the vessel. There is but little 

 doubt that all these shipments were of the 200 Escurials purchased by- 

 Mr. Jarvis. 



The purity of these Jarvis sheep did not pass unchallenged. On June 

 7, 1810, the American Daily Advertiser, of Philadelphia, published this 

 communication : 



Those desirous to obtain a Merino flock should be cautious of those lately imported 

 into this country. From the great demand it has induced the captains, supercargoes, 

 and others to attain them by every species of fraud. The captain, etc., requests the 

 butcher to put up a certain number of sheep for sea stores without regard to blood, 

 size, quantity or quality of wool. They are brought to America and purchased for 

 Merinos, at the same time partaking of the meanest sheep and the various kinds 

 of the country, as it is well known by those conversant in the improved breed of 

 sheep but few if any fall into the hands of the butchers. The captain of the South 

 Carolina informed me the above was the mode he procured his, and the whole was 

 inferior to the half-bloods of the country ; and of the 45 lately imported into Bos- 

 ton, I am informed not more than 4 were entitled to the name of full-blood Merinos. 



We have in this communication an intimation that others besides Mr. 

 Jarvis were shippiag Meriaos — or other Spanish sheep — to the United 

 States. Indeed, we learn from another sea worthy that during the 

 spring (1810) 15,000 Merinos had left Spanish ports and Lisbon for the 

 United States. It was stated at the time that Col. Humphreys or his 

 friends furnished the material for these attacks upon the purity of the 

 Jarvis importations, or at least upon some of those made in June. Col. 

 Humphreys was of too high a character to make or couutenance a 

 misrepresentation or to injure another; what those Avould do who were 

 interested in handling his sheep can not be said. That poor sheep 

 came over on these sailing crafts with the good ones is more than prob- 

 able; indeed, our knowledge of human nature the world over compels 

 us to accept as true the statement of the captain of the South Caro- 

 lina that he procured from the butchers sea stock "the whole inferior 

 to the half-bloods of the country," and shipped them on his own 

 account, and doubtless other than sea captains did the same; but it is 

 an undisputable fact that the Jarvis importations of April, ^May, and 

 June, 1810, were supposed to be good stock, and, without much doubt, 

 -were Escurials. Mr. Jarvis's statement that they were Escurials is 

 entitled to great consideration and has been generally accepted, but in 

 seeming contradiction is a statement made by Chancellor Li-vdngston. 

 Livingston was a keen observer and kept his eye on the early importa- 

 tions, nfaking selections from the best of them for his own flock. On 

 March 22, 1811, he wrote G. W. P. Custis, of Arlington: 



The great number (Merinos) that have been brought into New York has enabled 

 me to become acquainted with all the different breeds of Spain, except those of the 

 Escurial, none of which have, as I believe, aa yet been imported, though I have a 

 letter from a gentleman in Lisbon who writes me that he in conjunction with Lord 



