I think they are about the size of those in Spain. I hare seen them three times, and eaten of their meat. The unfortunate explorer took very little interest in animated nature, except as it contributed to the sum of his daily food, which was then the all-important subject of his thoughts. So far as can be ascertained, this was the earliest discovery of the bison in a wild state, and the description of the species as recorded by the explorer is of historical interest. In southeastern Texas he discovered tbe American bison on his native heath. Nine years after the event referred to above, or in 1530, another Spanish explorer, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza, afterwards called Cabeza de Vaca - or, in other words 'Cattle Cabeza,' the prototype of our own distinguished 'Buffalo Bill' - was wrecked on the Gulf coast, west of the delta of the Mississippi, from whence he wandered westward through what is now the State of Texas. But for the destruction of the whole mass of the written literature of the Aztecs by the priests of the Spanish Conquest, we might now be reveling in historical accounts of the bison which would make the oldest of our present records seem of comparatively recent date.

The nearest locality from whence it could have come was the State of Coahuila, in northern Mexico, between 400 and 500 miles away, and at that time vehicles were unknown to the Aztecs. Thus was the first seen buffalo described. It is cloven footed, its Head armed like that of a Bull, which it resembles in Fierceness, with no less strength and Agility.' It has crooked Shoulders, with a Bunch on its Back like a Camel its Flanks dry, its Tail large, and its Neck covered with Hair like a Lion. 'In the second Square of the same House were the Wild Beasts, which were either presents to Montezuma, or taken by his Hunters, in strong Cages of Timber, rang'd in good Order, and under Cover: Lions, Tygers, Bears, and all others of the savage Kind which New-Spain produced among which the greatest Rarity was the Mexican Bull a wonderful composition of divers Animals.

With a degree of enterprise that marked him as an enlightened monarch, Montezuma maintained, for the instruction of his people, a well-appointed menagerie, of which the historian De Solis wrote as follows (1724): In the year 1521, when Cortez reached Anahuac, the American bison was seen for the first time by civilized Europeans, if we may be permitted to thus characterize the horde of blood-thirsty plunder seekers who fought their way to the Aztec capital.

The discovery of the American bison, as first made by Europeans, occurred in the menagerie of a heathen king.

Extermination by E. William Brown