84 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



The Mania is that flat fifli mentioned by Ulloa and 

 others, which is fo hurtful to the pearl-filhers, and which 

 I have no doubt is the fame with that which Pliny has 

 defcribed, though he feems not to have been very well 

 acquainted with it, under the name of Nubes or Nebu- 

 la (/). It is not improbable, that this fifh has made its 

 way into thefe feas from thofe of the old world in the 

 fame manner as fome others appear to have done. The 

 ftrength of this fifh is fo great that it will not only ftran- 

 gle a man whom it embraces or winds itfelf about, but 

 it has even been feen to take the cable of an anchor and 

 move it from the place where it had been caft. It has 

 been called Mania ^ becaufe when it lies ftretched upon 

 the fea, as it frequently does, it feems like a fleece of 

 wool floating upon the water. 



The fword-fifli of thefe feas is quite diiFerent from 

 that of Greenland, The fword is larger, and in its fi- 

 gure 



rles before by two eye-witnefFes Oviedo and Hernandez. It is true, that Her- 

 nandez does feem to fay the contrary ; but this is owing merely to a typogra- 

 phical error, which is obvious to every reader. I ftiould mention likewife, 

 that the Manati, although properly a fea-animal, is frequently to be found iu 

 rivers. 



(t) Ipft ferunt (Urinatores) et nubem quondam crajfefcere fuper capita, planorum 

 pifcium fimilem prementem eosy arcentemque a reciprocando et ob id filos praacutos lineis 

 annexos habere ffe ; quia nift perfojfa ita, non recedant, caliginis et pa'voris, ut arbi- 

 trary opere, Nubem enim Jtve nebulam ( cujus nomine id malum appellant ) inter animalia 

 baud ullam reperit quifquam. Plin. Hiftor. Nat. lib. ix. cap. 46. The account 

 given of this cloud by thofe divers is much the fame with that which the divers 

 in the American feas give of the manta, and the name of the cloud is perfedly 

 applicable to it, as it really feems to be a cloud to thofe who are in the water 

 below it ; our fwimmers likewife carry long knives, or lharp fticks, for the 

 purpofe of difperfing this animal. This obfervation which has efcaped all the 

 interpreters of Pliny, was made by my countryman and friend the Abbe D. 

 Jof. Raf. Campoi, a man not lefs diftinguiflied by his manners and integrity, 

 than by his eloquence and erudition, particularly in the Latin language, in 

 Hiftory, in Criticifm, and in Geography. His death upon the 29th of Decem- 

 ber, 1777, prevented his finifhing feveral very ufeful works which he had 

 begun. 



