7+ 



TheHifiory of 



Book I 



LIZZAKDS. 



T Here are alfo in thefe Iflands feveral kinds of Lizzardx : 

 The greateft and moft confiderable are thofe which fome 

 Indians call Iguanas , the Brafilians, Senembi, and our Caribbi- 

 ans 3 Ouayamaca : Being come to their full growth they are 

 about hve foot in length, meafuring from the head to the ex- 

 tremity of the tail, which is as long as all the reft of the body 3 

 and for their bignefs they may be a foot about; their fkins are of 

 feveral colours according to the different foils they are bred in. 

 Hence it is probably that the Portuguese have call'd them Came- 

 leons, out of an imagination that they were a (pedes of that 

 creature. In fome Iflands the Females are of a light green, 

 chequer'd with black and white fpots, and the Males are grey : 

 In others thefe laft are black, and the Females of alight grey, 

 intermixt with black and green : Nay in fome places both 

 Males and Females have all the little fcales of their (kin fo glit- 

 tering, and as it were ftudded , that (een at a diftance one 

 would think them cloth'd in rich cloth of gold or filver .* They 

 have on their backs prickles like combs, which they force up, 

 and let down as they pleafe, and appear lels and lefs from the 

 head to the end of the tail : They go on four feet, each where- 

 of hath live claws which have very ftiarp nails : They run 

 very faft, and are excellent at the climbing of Trees : But, whe- 

 ther it be that they love to look on men, or are of a ftupid un- 

 apprehensive nature, when they are perceiv'd by the Hunts- 

 men they patiently expeft without ftirring till they are (hot : 

 Nay they fuffer to be put about their necks that gin with a run- 

 ning knot, which is faftend to the end of a pole that is often 

 us'd to get them off the Trees where they reft themfelves ; 

 when they are angry, a certain craw they have under their 

 throat fwells , and makes them feem the more formidable : 

 Their jaws are very wide, their tongues thick, and they have 

 fome very (harp teeth : they will hardly let go what they have 

 once faften'd on with their teeth, but they are not venemous 

 at all. 



The Females lay egges about the bignefs of thofe of Wood* 

 quifts, but the (hell is loft: they lay them deep enough under 

 the (and on the Sea-fide, and leave them to be hatch'd by the 

 Sun, whence fome Authors haverank'd them among the Am- 

 phibious creatures. The Savages taught the Europeans the 

 way to take thefe Lizzards, and by their own examples en- 

 couraged them to eat thereof: They are very hard to kill, in- 

 fomuch that fome having receiv'd three (hots of a Gun, and 

 thereby loft fome part of their entrails, would not fall .• And 

 yet if a fmall ftickbethruft into their nofes, or a pin between 

 their eyes, where there is a little hole into which thepineafiiy 



enters. 



