236 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



GOATS. 



THE count de Buffon, although fo much difpofed to 

 revile the animals of America, confefTes, notwithstanding, 

 that the goats have profpered well in the climes of Ameri- 

 ca, and that their multiplication is greater there than in 

 Europe (h ) ; for whereas in Europe they bring but a fin- 

 gle kid, or two at mod, at a birth, in America they bring 

 three, four, and fometimes five. Mr. de Paw, who very 

 juftly gives to the count de BufFon the title of the Pliny 

 of France, and refers to his authority on the fubjecl of 

 animals, as to one who has made a review of all the ani- 

 mals of the earth, ought to have confidered and weigh- 

 ed thefe and other confefiions of that learned philofo- 

 pher, before he undertook to write or fpeculate concern- 

 ing the animals or the productions of America. 



HOGS. 



OUR philofophers are not agreed upon this fubje& ; 

 for whereas the count de BufFon places hogs among the 

 animals which have degenerated in America, Mr. dc 

 Paw, on the contrary affirms, that thefe are the only 

 animals which have acquired in the new world an extra- 

 ordinary corpulence, and whofe flefh has been impro- 

 ved. This contradiction arofe without doubt from the 

 not diflinguifhing as they ought to have done the different 

 countries of America. It may be, there are fome places 

 unknown to us where the hogs have loft fomething of 

 their fize : but it is certain that in New Spain, the An- 

 tilles, Terra-firma, and other places of America they 



are 



(b) Hift. Nat. torn, xviii. 



