LOSS OF A JAMAICA SLOOP. 273 
companions, and called brother. The governor has a particu- 
lar article in his instructions from the king- of Great Britain, 
to show kindness and afford them his protection. 
" As often as a new governor arrives at Jamaica the king, 
or some one of their chiefs, go up to compliment him on his 
accession to his government, who are kindly treated by the 
governor, and sent away with presents. The chief of their 
fruits which are the most useful, are plantains and bananas ; 
they have pine-apples in plenty, Indian corn, potatoes, yams, 
and other roots ; and have also sugar-canes, which the^?^ plant. 
All along the coast are several kinds of ravenous beasts, a^ 
tigers, leopards, tiger-cats, snakes, and baboons. The tigers 
or leopards were so bold at Plantain River, that they fre- 
quently seized the poultry among the plantations, and were 
twice among the houses whilst I was there. The baboons 
at Cape Camerone sometimes made so much noise in the 
night that we could not sleep. All the rivers swarm with 
alligators, and there are plenty of guanoes. The shape of the 
alligator is so well known that I need not describe it. A 
guanoe is something like a lizard ; I have often killed them 
five feet long, which we reckon pretty good eating, but their 
eggs exceed all others in taste, and eat like marrow. There 
is also the mountain cow, which I have heard described much 
as Captain Dampier does. I have seen a print of the feet, 
which I was told was the mountain cow's ; and once at the 
Grout, by Portobello, I ate part of one, which both looked and 
tasted like beef. Captain Dampier describes it thus: This 
beast is as big as a bullock of three years old ; it is shaped 
like a cow in the body, but her head much bigger ; her nose 
is short, and the head more compact and round ; she has no 
horns; her eyes are round, full, and of a prodigious size; she 
has great lips, but not so thick as the cow's lips. Her eyes 
are in proportion to the head, rather broader than those of the 
common cow. Her neck is thick and short; her legs also 
shorter than ordinary ; she has a pretty long tail, thin of hair, 
and no bob at the end ; she has coarse thin hair all over her 
body. Her hide is near two inches thick : her flesh is red, 
the grain of it very fine ; the fat is white, and it is sweet, 
wholesome meat. One of them will weigh five or six hun- 
dred weight. This creature is always found in the woods, 
near some large river, and feeds on a sort of long thin grass 
or moss, which grows plentifully on the banks of the rivers, 
but never feeds on savannahs or pastures of good grass, as all 
other bullocks do ; when her belly is full she lies down to 
