ROUND-TAILED MANAtl. 
■ - ■ ■ ' " • ~ — ^ 
Pennant, in his account of the Oronoko 
Manati, concludes with " the extraordinary 
history of a tame Manati, preserved by a certain 
Prince of His-paniola, at the time of the arrival 
of the Spaniards, in a lake adjoining to his resi- 
dence. It was, on account of it's gentle nature, 
called in the language of the country Matum. 
It would appear as soon as called by any of it's 
familiars ; for it hated the Spaniards, on account 
of an injury it had received from one of these 
adventurers. The fable of Arion \vas here 
realized. It would offer itself to the Indian 
favourites ; and carry over the lake ten at a 
time, singing and playing on it's back. One 
youth it was particularly enamoured with-^ 
which," adds Pennant, " reminds me of the 
classical parallel in the Dolphin of Hippo, so 
beautifully related fey the younger Pliny. The 
fates of the two animals w^ere very different : 
Matum escaped to it's native waters, by means 
of a violent flood ; the Hipponensian fish fell 
a sacrifice to the poverty of the retired Colo- 
nists." See Peter Martyr's Decades of the In-* 
dies. 
