Note 199 — Chapter IX · THE MIGHTY PROJECT IS CONCEIVED. May, 1519.

Alvarado chased a deer, and succeeded in wounding it, but the next moment the dense underbrush saved it from pursuit. The Carta del Ayunt., loc. cit., gives a list of birds and quadrupeds; and a descriptive account, founded greatly on fancy, however, is to be found in the curious Erasmi Francisci Guineischer und Americanischer Blumen-Pusch, Nürnberg, 1669, wherein the compiler presents under the title of a nosegay the ‘perfume of the wonders of strange animals, of peculiar customs, and of the doings of the kings of Peru and Mexico.’ The first of its two parts is devoted to the animal kingdom, with particular attention to the marvellous, wherein credulity finds free play, as may be seen also in the flying dragon of one of the crude engravings. In the second part, the aborigines, their history, condition, and customs, are treated of, chiefly under Peru and Mexico, chapter v. relating specially to the latter country. The narrative is quite superficial and fragmentary; the ‘nosegay’ being not only common but faded, even the style and type appearing antiquated for the date. Appended is Hemmersam, Guineische und West-Indianische Reissbeschreibung, with addition by Dietherr, relating to Africa and Brazil.