Note 1378 — Chapter XVII

In the voyage of Pinzon, the companion of Columbus in his last voyage, when the continent of Guiana was discovered, which will be found in the Novus Orbis of Grynæus, a specimen of the genus Didelphis is mentioned with the astonishment which the first appearance of the marsupial type would naturally excite in a European. Conspexere etiamnum ibi animal quadrupes, prodigiosum quidem; nam pars anterior vulpem, posterior vero simiam præsentabat, nisi quod pedes effingit humanos; aures autem habet noctuæ, et infra consuetam alvum aliam habet instar crumenæ, in qua delitescunt catuli ejus tantisper, donec tuto prodire queant, et absque parentis tutela cibatum quærere, nec unquam exeunt crumenam, nisi cum sugunt. Portentosum hoc animal cum catulis tribus Sibiliam delatum est; et ex Sibilia Illiberim, id est Granatam, in gratiam regum, qui novis semper rebus oblectantur, p. 116, edit. 1532. In Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. i. lib. 9, we find a longer account of the monstrosum illud animal vulpino rostro, cercopithecea cauda, verpertilioneis auribus, manibus humanius, pedibus simiam æmulans; quod natos jam filios alio gestat quocunque proficiscatur utero exteriore in modum magnæ crumenæ. This animal, he says, lived some months in Spain, and was seen by him after its death. Several species are natives of Guiana.