The Jaguar i8i 



When we examine the records of the first European 

 travellers in those provinces infested by jaguars, their 

 testimony with regard to its character is quite unani- 

 mous. 



In the Adelantado Pascual de Andagoya's narrative of 

 Pedrarias Davila's expedition he says, " there are lions and 

 tigers " — by which all the Spanish and Portuguese writers 

 meant pumas and jaguars — "on the Isthmus of Panama, 

 that do much harm to the people, so that on their account 

 the houses are built very close to one another, and are se- 

 cured at night." Father Jos6 de Acosta (" Historia natural 

 y moral de las Indias ") explains, however, that these beasts 

 are not equally dangerous. " The tigers are fiercer and 

 more cruel than the lions." Likewise it is more perilous 

 to come in their way " because they leap forth and assail 

 men treasonably." 



Pedro Cieza de Leon, of whom Prescott remarks that 

 "his testimony is always good," gives an account of the 

 state of affairs on the road between Call and the port of 

 Buenaventura. Here are "many great tigers, that kill 

 numbers of Indians and Spaniards as they go to and fro 

 every day." Likewise in the mountainous portions of the 

 district, these animals were so destructive that the Indian 

 houses, which are "rather small, and roofed with palm 

 leaves, . . . are surrounded by stout and very long pali- 

 sades, so as to form a wall ; and this is put up as a defence 

 against the tigers." So far as the author's acquaintance 

 with the .Spanish and Portuguese relations goes, all author- 

 ities of this class agree in giving these beasts the traits 

 that those theoretical and practical considerations njeiiT 



