it being their custom to make the woods
their chief places of defence, at present made these their refuge,
whenever they fled from the Spaniards. Hereupon, those first conquerors
of the New World made use of dogs to range and search the intricatest
thickets of woods and forests for those their implacable and
unconquerable enemies: thus they forced them to leave their old refuge,
and submit to the sword, seeing no milder usage would do it; hereupon
they killed some of them, and quartering their bodies, placed them in
the highways, that others might take warning from such a punishment; but
this severity proved of ill consequence, for instead of fighting them
and reducing them to civility, they conceived such horror of the
Spaniards, that they resolved to detest and fly their sight for ever;
hence the greatest part died in caves and subterraneous places of the
woods and mountains, in which places I myself have often seen great
numbers of human bones. The Spaniards finding no more Indians to appear
about the woods, turned away a great number of dogs they had in their
houses, and they finding no masters to keep them, betook themselves to
the woods and fields to hunt for food to preserve their lives; thus by
degrees they became unacquainted with houses, and grew wild. This is the
truest account I can give of the multitudes of wild dogs in these parts.

But besides these wild mastiffs, here are also great numbers of wild
horses everywhere all over the island: they are but low of stature,
short bodied, with great heads, long necks, and big or thick legs: in a
word, they have nothing handsome in their shape. They run up and down
commonly in troops of two or three hundred together, one going always
before to lead the multitude: when they meet any person travelling
through the woods or fields, they stand still, suffering him to approach
till he can almost touch them: and then suddenly starting, they betake
themselves to flight, running away as fast as they can. The hunters
catch them only for their skins, though sometimes they preserve their
flesh likewise, which they harden with smoke, using it for provisions
when they go to sea.

Here would be also wild bulls and cows in great number, if by continual
hunting they were not much diminished; yet considerable profit is made
to this day by such as make it their business to kill them. The wild
bulls are of a vast bigness of body, and yet they hurt not any one
except they be exasperat