A TRIP TO TRINIDAD. 381 



herbivoros, find them there in abundance, and kill 

 them in the open sea. 1 



About half a mile from Cay Flamenco, we sailed 

 near two rocks level with the sea, against which the 



1 The following is Dampier's clear description of this animal, 

 which is still found in some places on the south side of Cuba : " This 

 creature is about the bigness of a horse, and ten or twelve feet long. 

 The mouth of it is much like the mouth of a cow, having great, 

 thick lips. The eyes are no bigger than a small pea ; the ears are 

 only two small holes in the side of the head. The neck is short and 

 thick, bigger than the head. The biggest part of this creature is at 

 the shoulders, where it hath two large fins on each side of its belly. 

 Under each of these fins the female hath a small dug to suckle its 

 young. From the shoulders, towards its tail, it retains its bigness 

 for about a foot, then groweth smaller and smaller to the very tail, 

 which is flat, and about fourteen inches broad, and twenty inches 

 long, and the middle four or five inches thick, but about the edges 

 it is not above two inches thick. From the head to the tail it is 

 round and smooth, without any fin but those two before mentioned. 

 I have heard that some weigh twelve hundred pounds, but I never 

 saw any so large. The Manatee delights to live in brackish water, 

 and they are commonly in creeks and* rivers near the sea. * * * 

 They live on grass seven or eight inches long, which grows in the 

 sea in many places. They never come on shore, nor into shallow 

 water where they cannot swinu Their flesh is white, both the fat 

 and the lean, and extraordinary sweet, wholesome meat. The skin 

 of the bull, or of the back of the cow, is very thick, and of it they 

 make horsewhips. While the thongs are green, they twist them, and 

 hang them to dry, which, in a week's time, become as hard as 

 wood." — Voyas Round the World, vol. 1, p. 33. 



