348 
BLACK RIVEE. 
A few months before the capture of the specimen 
which fell under my own notice, a pair were seen in 
the harbour of Black River. My informant, who 
saw them, assured me that they were playing at the 
surface of the water over the bar at the river’s mouth, 
hardly a gun-shot from the bridge ; and that they 
continued their gambols for a considerable time ; yet 
no one cared to pursue them : a fair specimen of 
Jamaican apathy. These were about twelve feet 
long. 
In Dr. Robinson’s MS. volumes there are some 
occasional notices of this animal, and of the manner 
in which it was captured, about the middle of the 
last century. He states that a large Manatee would 
sell at Kingston for 30^. currency {— 18/. sterling). 
even the docility, which would submit to the office of ferrying favourite 
attendants across the lake, I should by no means reject as impossible, 
nor as less likely than tlie same quality in the Elephant and the 
Horse. After a description of the animal sufficiently exact, the 
historian proceeds ; — “ There was a king of Hispaniola which put 
one of these animals (being presented him by his fisherman) into a 
lake of standing water, where it lived five and twenty years. When 
any of the servants came to the lake and called Matto-matto, she would 
come and receive meat at their hands ; and if any would be ferried 
over the lake, she willingly yielded her back, and performed the office 
faithfully : yea, she hath carried ten men at once, singing and playing. 
A Spaniard had once wronged her, by casting a dart at her ; and 
therefore after that, when she was called, she would plunge down 
again ; — otherwise to the Indians she remained officious. She would 
be as full of play as a monkey, and would wrestle with them, especially 
she was addicted to one young man, which used to feed her. This 
proceeded, partly from her docile nature, partly being taken young ; 
she was kept up awhile at home, in the king’s house, with bread. The 
river swelling over his banks into the lake, it followed the stream, 
and was seen no more.” (Pilgrims, B. viii. c. 14.) 
J 
