T h e iiland o f Buero is a few leagues to the weft o f Manipa
and Keylan ; the fea round it is o f a vaft depth, from whence the
ihore rifes gradually, and furrounds the whole iiland like a fteep
wall. The mountains feemingly rife to the very iky, and in
fome parts are fo lofty as to afpire above the clouds, and may
fometimes be feen at the diftance of twenty-eight leagues. The
circumference o f Buero is about iixty leagues; near the. coafts it
is extremely well wooded, and productive o f molt of the tropical
trees; a green ebony and an iron wood is mentioned among
them. The ground in general is very fertile, but like the other
iilands much fubjedt to earthquakes.
T h e inhabitants are almoft black, and both fexes go naked,
excepting when a wrapper covers their waifts : they were nominally
fubjea to the king o f Ternate; but in 1660 the Dutch
built a fort, and compelled all the natives to live about the
bay o f Key el, in fourteen villages neatly built o f cane; they alfo
compelled them to cut down and burn the woods, and turn them
into fields, gardens, and orchards; before that time they lived
in the moft wretched hovels. They bemoan their dead relations
with great lamentations, but after the corpfe is buried, they
make great rejoicings ; they line the graves with brick, and
cover them with clay and ftones.
In the mountains are the civet voeefel, Hiß. Quad. N° 274,
from which the natives procure the civet, and fell it very cheap.
In this iiland is that very curious hog, called the Babyrouffa or
horned, tUXyey, the Sus Babyruffa of Linnceus, Seb. mus. i. p. 80.
tab. 50; Rati. Quad. p. 96; Bontius.| fig. 6 1; Grew, p. 27 ; Nieu-
boff, p. 195. tab. p. 96; and de Bufion, xii. p. 379.
9 The
T h e laft author, and perhaps a few others, extend this fpecies
to Africa, but the kind they miftake it for.is my Cape Perd hog,
N° 77. Linnteus makes it an inhabitant of Borneo, and Gmelin o f
Java, and others * o f Celebes and Mindanao, but poifihly they
miftake for it the Mthiopian, which is found in the laft + : Pliny
had certainly heard o f it, for he defcribes fome hogs found in
India with four horns. “ In India Cubitales derttium flexus
“ gemini ex rqftro, totidem a fronte feu vituli cornua, exeunt,
PilusJEreoftmilis agrejiibus, cceteris nigerl’ As to the Yi tst^ome^us
o f Mlian, de Nat’Anim. lib. xvii. c. 10, it certainly is the ¿Ethiopian.
The fpecies appears to me to be limited to this iiland, and
perhaps is the moft local o f any o f the greater quadrupeds. I
am decidedly of opinion that it is found wild in Buero only. It
may poffibly be domefticated on fome adjacent iiles. As to
thofe o f New Guinea, the Papuan iiles, and the Moluccas, I cannot
find fufficient authority for their exiftence in thofe places :
Mr. Forrefi never fpeaks o f this fingular animal ; he gives
figures o f thofe o f the Papuan iiles, but not the leaft intimation
o f their differing from other hogs. They are made in their
bodies like our common hog, and have not the elegant deer-like
form given it by Nieuhoff. They are fometimes kept tame in the
Indian iiles, live in herds, have a very quick fcent, feed on herbs
and leaves of trees ; never range gardens like other fwine; their
fleih well tailed. When purfued and driven to extremities,
ruih into the fea, fwim very well, and even dive, and pafs thus
from iile to iile ; in the foreft often reft their head, by hooking
* Purchas, v» 566. t Lib. viii. c. 52,
their