The animals of the New World were not more known to the Europeans, than
were our animals to the Americans. The Peruvians and Mexicans were the
only people on the new continent, which were half civilized. The latter
had no domestic animals; and those of the former consisted of the lama,
the pacos, and the alco, a small animal which was domestic in the
house like our little dogs. The pacos and the lama, like the chamois
goat, live only on the highest mountains, and are found on those of
Peru, Chili, and New Spain. Though they had become domestic among the
Peruvians, and consequently spread over the neighbouring countries,
their multiplication was not abundant, and has even decreased in their
native places, since the introduction of European cattle, which have
succeeded astonishingly in all the southern countries of the American
continent.
It appears singular that in a world, occupied almost entirely by
savages, whose manners somewhat resembled those of the brutes, there
should be no connection, no society existing between them and the
animals by which they were surrounded; and this was absolutely the
case, for there were no domestic animals, excepting where the people
were in some degree civilized. Does not this prove that man, in a
savage state, is nothing more than a species of animal, incapable of
ruling others; and possessing only individual faculties, employs them
for procuring his subsistence, and providing for his security, by
attacking the weak, and avoiding the strong, but without entertaining
any idea of real power, or endeavouring to reduce them to subjection?
Every nation, even those which are but just emerging from barbarism,
has its domestic animals. With us the horse, the ass, the ox, the
sheep, the goat, the hog, the dog, and the cat; in Italy the buffalo;
in Lapland the rein-deer; in Peru the lama, the pacos, and the alco; in
the eastern countries, the dromedary, the camel, and various species of
oxen, sheep, and goats; in the southern ones the elephant; all these
animals have been reduced to servitude, or admitted into society;
while the savage, hardly desirous of the society of his female, either
fears or disdains that of other animals. Of these species, rendered
domestic, it is true, not one existed in America; but if the savages,
with whom it was peopled, had anciently united, and had communicated
to each other the mutual aids of society, they would have rendered
subservient the greatest part of the animals of that country, most of
them being mild, docile, and timid, few mischievous, and scarcely any
formidable. Their liberty, therefore, has been preserved solely from
the weakness of man, who has little or no power without the aid of
society, upon which even the multiplication of his species depends.
The immense territories of the new world were but thinly inhabited;
and, I believe it may be asserted, that on its first discovery, it
contained not more than half the number of people that may now be
reckoned in Europe. This scarcity of men allowed every other animal to
multiply in abundance; every thing was favourable to their increase,
and the number of individuals of each species was immense; but the
number of species were comparatively few, and did not amount to more
than a fourth, or a third of those of the old continent. If we reckon
200 species of animals in the known world we shall find that more
than 130 of them belonged to the old continent, and less than 70 to
the new; and if we except the species common to both continents, that
is, such as by their natures are capable of enduring the rigours of
the north, and might have passed from one to the other, there will
not remain above forty species peculiar to, and natives of, America.
Animated nature, therefore, is in this portion of the globe less
active, less varied, and even less vigorous; for by the enumeration of
the American animals we shall perceive, that not only the number of
species is smaller, but that in general they are inferior in size to
those of the old continent; not one animal throughout America can be
compared to the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, dromedary, buffalo,
tiger, lion, &c. The Tapir of Brasil is the largest of all the South
American animals, and this elephant of the new world exceeds not the
size of a very small mule, or a calf at six months old; with both which
animals he has been compared, although he does not resemble either.
The Lama is not so big as the tapir, and appears large only from the
length of his neck and legs; and the Pacos is much smaller still. The
Cabiai, which, next to the tapir, is the largest of the South American
animals, is not bigger than a common-sized hog; he differs as much as
any of the preceding from all the animals of the old continent; for
although he has been called the water-hog, he has essentially different
characteristics from that animal. The Tajacou is smaller than the
cabiai, and has a strong external resemblance to the hog, but differs
greatly in his internal conformation. Neither the tajacou, cabiai,
nor the tapir, are to be found in any part of the old continent; and
the same may be said of the _Tamanduacuacu_, or _Ouariri_, and of the
_Ouatiriou_, which we have called Ant-eaters. These last animals, the
largest of which is below mediocrity, seem confined to the regions of
South America. They are remarkable in having no teeth, their tongue
is long and cylindrical, and their mouth is so small that they can
neither bite nor hardly take hold of any thing; they can only procure
subsistence by putting out their long tongue in the way of the ants,
and drawing it in when loaded with them. The sloth, which is called
_ai_, or _hai_, by the natives of Brasil, on account of the plaintive
cry of _ai_, which it continually sends forth, seems likewise to
be confined to the new continent. It is smaller than either of the
preceding ones, being not more than two feet long, and is scarcely so
quick in his motion as the turtle; it has but three claws on each foot,
its fore legs are longer than its hind ones, it has a very short tail,
and no ears. Besides, the sloth and armadillo are the only quadrupeds,
which have neither incisive nor canine teeth, but whose grinders are
cylindrical, and round at the extremities, nearly like those of some
cetaceous animals.
The Curiacou of Guiana is an animal of the nature and size of our
largest roe-bucks; the male has horns, which he sheds every year, but
the female has none. At Cayenne it is called the Hind of the Woods.
There is another species, called the little cariacou, or hind of the
fens, which is considerably smaller than the former, and the male
has no horns. From the resemblance of the names I suspected that
the cariacou of Cayenne might be the caguacu, or cougouacou-ara, of
Brasil, and comparing the accounts given by Piso and Marcgrave of the
latter with the cariacou I had alive, I was persuaded they were the
same animal, yet so different from our roe-buck as to justify our
considering them distinct species.
The tapir, cabiai, tajacou, ant-eater, sloth, cariacou, lama, pacos,
bison, puma, juguar, coujuar, juguarat, and the mountain-cat, &c. are
therefore the largest animals of the new continent. The middle-sized
and small ones are the cuandus, or gouandous, agouti, coati, paca,
opossum, cavies, and armadillos; all which I believe are peculiar to
the new world, although our latest nomenclators speak of two other
species of armadillos, one in the East Indies, and the other in Africa;
but we have only the testimony of the author of the description of
Seba's cabinet for their existence, and that authority is insufficient
to confirm the fact, for misnomers frequently happen in the collections
of natural objects. An animal, for example, is purchased under the name
of a Ternat, or American bat, and another under that of the East India
Armadillo; they are then announced by those names in a descriptive
catalogue, and are adopted by our nomenclators; but when examined more
closely the American bat proves to be one of our own country, and so
may the Indian or African armadillo be merely an armadillo of America.
Hitherto we have not spoken of Apes, their history requiring a
particular discussion. As the word _Ape_ is a generic term applied to
a number of species, it is not surprising that it should be said they
abound in the southern parts of both continents; but it is for us here
to enquire whether the apes of Asia and Africa be the same animals as
those so called in America, and whether from among more than thirty
species of apes, which I have examined alive, one of them is alike
common to both continents.
The Satyr, Ourang-outang, or Man of the Woods, as it is
indiscriminately termed, seems to differ less from man than from the
ape, and is only to be found in Africa or the south of Asia. The
Gibbon, whose fore legs, or arms, are as long as the whole body,
even the hind legs included, is a native of the East Indies alone.
Neither of these have tails. The ape, properly so termed, whose hair
is greenish, with a small intermixture of yellow, has no tail, belongs
to Africa, and a few other parts of the old continent, but is not to
be found in the new. It is the same also with the Cynocephali-apes, of
which there are two or three species; neither of them having any tails,
at least they are so short as scarcely to be perceivable. All apes
which are without tails, and whose muzzles, from being short, bear a
strong resemblance to the face of man, are real apes; and the species
above-mentioned are all natives of the old continent, and unknown in
the new; from whence we may pronounce that there are no real apes in
America.
The Baboon, an animal larger than the dog, and whose body is pursed up
like that of the hyæna, is exceedingly different from those we have
noticed, and has a short tail: it is equally endowed with inclination
and powers for mischief, and is only to be met with in the desarts of
the southern parts of the old continent.
Besides these without tails, or with very short ones, (which all belong
to the old continent) almost all the large ones with long tails, are
peculiar to Africa. There are few even of the middling size in America,
but those called little long-tailed monkeys are very numerous, of which
there are several species; and when we give the particular history of
these animals, it will appear the American monkeys differ very much
from the apes of Asia and Africa. The Maki, of which there are three or
four species, has a near resemblance to the monkeys with long tails,
but is another animal, and peculiar also to the old continent. All the
animals, therefore, of Asia and Africa, which are known by the name of
apes, are equally as strange in America as the rhinoceros or tiger; and
the more we investigate this subject, the more we shall be convinced
that the animals of the southern parts of one continent did not exist
in the others and the few found in them must have been carried thither
by men. Between the coasts of Brasil and Guinea, there are 500 leagues
of sea; and between those of the East Indies and Peru, the distance
exceeds 2000 leagues: It appears, therefore, that all those animals
which from their nature are incapable of supporting cold climates, or,
if supporting, cannot propagate therein, are confined on two or three
sides by seas they cannot cross, and on the other by lands so cold they
cannot live in them. At this one general fact, then, however singular
it may at first appear, our wonder ought to cease, namely, that not one
of the animals of the torrid zone of one continent, are natives of the
torrid zone of the other.