I Brought One Of The Legs And A Part Of The
Trunk On Board Our Caravel, Together With Some Of The Hair From Its Body,
Which Was A Span And A Half Long, Of A Black Colour, And Very Thick.
On my
return to Portugal, I presented this hair to Don Henry, together with a
part of the flesh
Salted up for that express purpose, which he received
with much satisfaction, as it was the first of the kind that had been
brought from the countries that were discovered under his auspices. The
foot of the elephant is round, like that of a horse, but without hoofs;
instead of which it is covered by a very thick, hard, black skin, and
defended by five nails on the fore part, which are round and of the size
of a _grossone_[3]. Though young, the foot of this elephant measured a
span and a half in diameter. From the same Negro lord I received the foot
of a full-grown elephant, the sole of which was three spans and an inch in
diameter; which, together with a tooth of twelve spans long, I presented
to Don Henry on my return, who sent it afterwards as a great curiosity to
the Dutchess of Burgundy.
In the river Gambia, and in other rivers on this coast, besides the
_Calcatrici_[4] and other animals, there is one called the _river horse_,
or hippopotamus, of the same nature almost with the sea cow, and which
lives both on land and in the water.
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