156 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
that the Indians ‘ have also made mention of great heards of 
well-growne beasts, that live about the parts of this lake’—Ero- 
coise, now Lake Ontario—* such as the Christian world, untile 
this discovery, hath not been made acquainted with. These 
beasts are of the bignesse of a Cowe, their flesh being very good 
foode, their hides good lether, their fleeces very useful, being a 
kind of wolle, as fine almost as the wolle of the Beaver, and the 
salvages do make garments thereof.’ He adds—‘ It is tenne 
years since first the relation of these things came to the Eng¬ 
lish.’ We have introduced this quotation, partly with a view to 
show that the fineness of the Buffalo wool, which has caused it 
within a few years to become an article of commerce, was 
known as far back as Morton’s time, 1637. He compares it 
with that of the Beaver, and with some truth. We were shown 
lower down on Red River, hats that appeared to be of very 
good quality; they had been made in London with the wool of 
the Buffalo. An acquaintance on the part of Europeans with 
the animal itself, can be referred to nearly a century before 
that; for in 1532 Guzman met with Buffalo in the Province of 
Ciraloa. De Laet says, upon the authority of Gomara, when 
speaking of the Buffalo in Quivera, that they are almost black, 
and seldom diversified with white spots. In his history, written 
subsequently to 1684, Hubbard does not enumerate this animal 
among those of New England. Purchas informs us, that in 
1613 the adventurers discovered in Virginia, ‘ a slow kinde of 
cattell, as big as kine, which are good meate. From Lawson, 
we find that great plenty of Buffalos, Elks, &c., existed near 
Cape Fear River, and its tributaries ; and we know that some 
of those who first settled the Abbeville district in South Caro¬ 
lina, in 1756, found the Buffalo there. De Soto’s party, who 
traversed East Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkan¬ 
sas Territory, and Louisiana, from 1513 to 1543, saw no 
Buffalo,—they were told that the animal was north of them; 
however, they frequently met with Buffalo hides, particularly 
when west of the Mississippi. And Du Pratz, who published 
in 1758, informs us, that at that time the animal did not exist in 
