[ I2 9 ] 



tended that turkies were found upon them; and, on the contrary, 

 Brown informs us, that in the prefent century, " they require a 

 " good deal of care in Jamaica, and a moderate climate when 

 " young h ." Du Tertre alfo obferves, though turkies in the 

 Leeward IJlands thrive well after they are of a certain fize, yet, 

 that if the leaft dew wets their heads they commonly dye, as 

 likewife from a vertigo, luppofed to arife from the intenfe heat of 

 the fun in that climate c . 



But as the citation from Hernandez is fo much relied upon 

 for turkies being indigenous in the neighbourhood of Mexico, 

 it mull be recollected that Cortez firft viiited that country in 

 1 519, did not take the capital till 1.521, nor returned to Spain 

 till 1523 d , which is the earliefr. period that can be reafonably 

 affigned for the introduction of this bird into Europe from 

 America, though no author (as it is believed) hath ever men- 

 tioned his bringing with him any live animals. 



The inference from this feems to be, that it is much more 

 probable turkies mould have been carried with fowls, horfes, 

 cows, and fheep,, to the Weft Indies, than that they mould have 

 been brought from thence to Europe, as it is well known that a 

 regular iupply of whoiefome food mull; be one of the firft objects 

 which every new fettlement mud: attend to. 



But I will now fuppofe that Cortez, or any of his followers, 

 had introduced the turkey into Spain in the year 1528 ; would 

 it not then have received the name of the Mexican bird, or 

 Mexican peacock ", rather than that of pago, which was its old 



appellation, 



b Hiftory of Jamaica, p. 470. 



f Hiftoire des Antilles. T. II. p. 266. — Paris, 1667. Quarto. 

 d Robertfon's Hiftory of America. 



e Gage was fent to Mexico in 1625, and traverfed not only the 

 Mexican, but adjoining territories; in his account of which journies, he 

 four times mentions turkies, together with fowls which are known to 



S have 



