[ m ] 



Bofman's Voyage to Africa was flrft printed at London in 

 1705 ; and I conclude, that fuch turkies as he happened to fee at 

 that time on the coalr. of Guiney might not be in a wild ftate, 

 but fupplied from Europe. 



It mould feem, however, that above a century before this the 

 fame coaft abounded with them: for in Thomas Candim's Voyage 

 in 1588, he informs us, "That we found in this ifland (viz. 

 St. Helena) great flore of Guiney cocks, which we call turkies l ." 



Thefe birds were therefore either indigenous in St. Helena, 

 " being found in great Jlore s ;" or muft have been brought early 

 in the fixteenth century by the Portuguefe from the coaft of 

 Guiney or the Eaft Indies, of both which they were the firft 

 difcoverers, as well as of the ifland of St. Helena. 



There is one circumftance, - indeed, rather in favour of the 

 Eaft Indies, which is, that a turkey to this day is called in the 

 Portuguefe language peru, whilft it goes by the fame name in 

 many parts of India; nor can it be contended that the bird is thus 

 named from that part of South America, hecaufe the Portuguefe 

 had never any connexions with Peru. Bendes which it never 



r Hakluyt, Pt. II. p. 825. 



s Four years before this, viz. in 1584, Mr. William Barrett touched 

 at this ifland, and found there only two Portuguefe hermits. Turkies 

 therefore could have been fcarcely introduced merely for their fufte- 

 nance; and if the Portuguefe had intended to make the fame ufe of the 

 ifland that we do, they would have left there more ufeful members of 

 ioc-iety. Hakluyt, Pt. II. p. 280. 



1 So early as the year 1453, and confequently long before the difcovery 

 of any part of America, a Venetian named Alvife da M.ofio, fpeaks thus 

 of birds, which he found on the coaft of Senegal: " There are alfo in this 

 " country fome large birds, which we call hens of Pharaoh, and which 

 " come to us (fc. the Venetians) from the Levant" Ramufio, v. i. p. 104. 

 B. Venezia, 1588. I fhall afterwards take notice, that one of the 

 Turkilh fynonyms for this bird is Mefry, or of Egypt. 



z 



hath 



