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tion to their quantity of white. On the contrary 

 I am told that such a thing as a black horse is not 

 to be found in the island ; those which may be im- 

 ported black soon change their colour into a bay ; 

 and colts are said to have been dropped perfectly 

 black, which afterwards grew lighter and lighter 

 till they arrived at being perfectly white. 



February 28. 



Hearing that a manati (the sea-cow) had been 

 taken at the mouth of the Cabrita River, and was 

 kept alive at the Hope Wharf, I got a sailing- 

 boat, and went about eight miles to see the animal. 

 It was suffered to live in the sea, a rope being 

 fastened round it, by which it could be landed at 

 pleasure. It was a male, and a very young one, 

 not exceeding nine feet in length, whereas they 

 have frequently been found on the outside of 

 eighteen. The females yield a quart of milk at a 

 time : a gentleman told me that he had tasted it, 

 and could not have distinguished it from the 

 sweetest cow's milk. Unlike the seal, it never 

 comes on shore, although it ventures up rivers in 

 the night, to feed on the grass of their banks ; but 

 during the day it constantly inhabits the ocean, 

 where its chief enemy is the shark, whose attacks 

 it beats off with its tail, the strength of which is 

 prodigious. It was killed this morning, and the 

 gentleman to whom it belonged was obliging 

 enough to send me part of it \ we roasted it for 



