02 



THE COAST OF 



Audience of 



In the neighbourhood of Vera Cruz, there grows the nopil, a fpecies of 

 the Tuna,ov prickly pear>but without thorns, on which ihcCocb'inealh found. 



Cochineal are fmall animals, with a beak, eyes, feet and claws, which 

 creep, climb,, feek their food, and bring forth young without changing their 

 fpecies, as filk worms do; but producing their like j are no larger than nits, 

 or fmall mites, or the point of a needle ; but when come to maturity, re < 

 femble both in fize and figure a dog's-tick. They are generated, as is 

 commonly believed by thofe who cultivate them, by a fmall butterfly, bred 

 upon the nopal, (the plant they live upon) which, in pailing and repafilng 

 over tliem, impregnates thefe infedls. 



As to the manner of raifmg, nourifhing, and managing them, it appears, 

 that at tfie proper feafon, namely, after winter (^when thefe little animals can 

 bear the open air) as foon as the cochineals, which they have kept in their 

 houfes, are grown large enough to produce young ones, they put 12 or 14 toge- 

 ther into a paftle, or little neft, made of fine foft hay, ftraw, mofs, 

 trees, or the down which immediately envelopes the cocoa-nut, Thefe pa f- 

 tles are then placed upon the plants of the nopal, or prickly hidian fig, 

 (which they take care to cultivate well for this purpofe) and in two, three or 

 four days thefe animals bring forth a great many young ones ; foon after 

 which the dams die. In the mean while, the young ones, coming out of 

 the nefts, climb up the nopal, fix themfelves to it, and fuck its juices, which 

 is their only nouriibment, but they do not eat the plant ; and, for this reafon, 

 they always feek thofe parts of it that are greeneft, and fullefi: of juice, taking 

 care at the fame time to place themfelves on the parts mod: flieltered from 

 the wind and weather. During this time, whilft they are growing up 'and 

 become pregnant, great care is taken that no vermin incommode or kill them, 

 as alfo to keep them clean, and difengage them from certain threads like cob- 

 webs, that grow upon the nopal, as likewife to defend them from too much 

 heat or cold, and from the rain or winds ; becaufe the fine cochineals are 

 very tender : neverthelefs the wild cochineals fland all thefe inconveniencies $ 

 but then they are fo gritty, of fo ill a fmell, and of fuch little value, that' 

 they ought not tp be mixed with the fine. 



As 



