HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



231 



the fixteenth century fome of them were tranfported 

 from Africa to Peru, where the cold difabled the organs 

 necelTary for their production, and they left no pofterity. 

 Setting afide the chronological error into which he falls, 

 as being immaterial to our purpofe (j), if it was cold 

 that deftroyed the fpecies of camels in America, the fame 

 thing would have happened in the European northern 

 countries, where the cold is beyond companion greater 

 than in any country whatever of Peru. If cold was the 

 caufe of their extirpation, let Mr. de Paw blame thofe 

 who fettled thofe quadrupeds in places unfuitable to their 

 nature, and not America, where there are lands that are 

 hot and dry, and proper for the fubiiflence of Camels. 

 The fame experiment which was made in Peru with ca- 

 mels, was alfo made in Spain, and with the fame want of 

 fuccefs ; but dill there are no perfons who will doubt 

 that the clime of the latter is one of the moft mild and 

 temperate in Europe. Count de Buffon fays, that if 

 proper precautions were taken, thofe animals would fuc- 

 ceed not only in America but in Spain : and there is no 

 doubt that they would profper very well in New Galli- 

 cia. Befides, it is falfe that the camels which were 

 tranfported to Peru did not leave any pofterity ; for 

 Acofta, who went there fome years after, found that 

 they had multiplied, though but a little (z). 



OXEN. 



THIS is one of thofe fpecies of animals which our 

 philofophers imagine to have degenerated in America ; 



which 



(y) Camels were not tranfported to Peru in the beginning of the fixteenth 

 century, becaufe that country was not then difcovered ; but tcwards the middle 

 ef that century, as Kerrera fnews in his Decades. 



(z) Hiftor. Nat. y Mor. lib, iv. cap. 33. 



