






































Iguana b&w text


28 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2008 SCHAFFER AND SCHAFFER

Many early illustrations of exotic species were presented in anthologies of the natural world, often figured and described by Europeans
who never saw the animals in life. This page, with the iguana at the bottom, is from L’Abbé Bonaterre’s 1789 “encylopedia of nature.”



Although Europeans were certainly not the first people to
find (and consume) iguanas, they were the first to commit

images to paper. Several depictions appeared in the 16th century,
and the number grew over time. However, iguanas were cele-
brated in clay, island names, and dinner far earlier than that. The
name given to the island of St. Lucia by the Kalinago, the last
group of indigenous native people before European arrival, was
“where the iguana is found.” The Kalinago name Ioüanálao is
derived from the Arawak for iguana (yuwána) as recorded by
Pére Raymond Breton, a Dominican missionary, who composed
a dictionary of the Amerindian languages in the 1660s. Iguana
also is thought to stem from the Taino word “higuana.” Part of
the word itself may be significant, as the Taino words for gold,
parrots, fire, and many of their chiefs contain “gua.”

Utilization of iguanas as food has been documented from
as early as 2,700 BP in the Caribbean, but earlier records prob-
ably will be found. Archaeologists have excavated iguana and
marine turtle bones in middens from throughout the Caribbean
and Central America. Images of the marine turtle, another com-
mon dietary item, have been immortalized in pottery, along with
those of iguanas, as seen below in the three Tolita-Tumaco cul-
ture (2,600 and 1,600 BP) pottery effigies from southwestern
coastal Colombia and northwestern coastal Ecuador. This cul-
ture is well known for its figurines made from light gray clay.
Many of these effigy heads are fragments of earthenware. In
Tolita culture, the iguana symbolizes the male reproductive

organ and the spikes of its tail are associated with communica-
tion and positive interaction. Other New World traditions cor-
relate the iguana with water and rain.

In his popular pieces, journal articles, and Earthwatch
Expedition Reports from Grand Turk, Dr. William Keegan of the
Florida Museum of Natural History reported a number of fau-
nal finds, many of them of iguana material. The Coralie site on
Grand Turk is the oldest archaeological site in the Bahamian
Archipelago, with artifacts dated from 1,330–1,100 BP. It is also
the only site from this period excavated outside of Puerto Rico.
The site is archaeologically significant, as its occupation occurred
during a period when sea level was lower and the climate
extremely arid. Both of these factors contributed to better faunal
preservation. Additionally, the remains are virtually unique when
compared to other sites that show significant disturbance. This
site was pristine. From the excavations to date, Dr. Keegan has
concluded that this site must have been an early colony. The fau-
nal assemblage included sea turtles, iguanas, fishes (many of them
very large), and birds. Analyses of these bones suggest that igua-
nas were once up to a meter or more larger than extant forms.
One hearth contained an entire sea turtle carapace together with
large fish and iguana bones. Other food items apparently were
cooked in the turtle shell along with the turtle itself.

An Italian navigator also wrote of Iguanas. Although the
exact site is debated, many authorities believe that, on 12
October 1492, the Lucayo were the first Native Americans to

Iguanas: Early European Impressions 
and Illustrations

Chuck Schaffer1 and Rick Schaffer2

1Turtle and Tortoise Newsletter, Jacksonville, Forida
2Stanton College Preparatory School, Jacksonville, Florida

IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2008 29IGUANAS

�

Tolita-Tumaco culture (2,600 and 1,600 BP) pottery effigies from southwestern coastal Colombia and northwestern coastal Ecuador (illustra-
tions after Brezzi).



come in contact with Cristoforo Columbo. Most history books
state that the meeting occurred on the island of Guanahani
(meaning iguana in their language), which he renamed San
Salvador. Columbus wrote of iguanas in his Journal of the First
Voyage of Colon. Presumably on Watling’s Island, he noted,
“[t]here are no indigenous quadrupeds larger than a rat, and few
reptiles, the largest being the iguana,” which he mentioned later.
“The sailors killed an iguana here, which they called a serpent
… at a spot now called Frenchman’s Wells.”

Between 1492 and 1535, the first natural history of the
New World was written and subsequently published in Seville
by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdez. Titled Historia
General y Natural de las Indias Occidentales, it sought to compile
both the social and natural history of the “Indies,” as the New
World was then known. In this work, the iguana was first
described and illustrated by Europeans. Oviedo noted that the
indigenous people ate iguanas, keeping them in the villages for
extended periods without food or water until they were eaten.
Some Spaniards enjoyed eating iguana, but they found its
appearance repugnant.

Peter Martyr D’Anghera, a contemporary of Oviedo,
recorded the Taino cooking method: stewed and served with
pepper! “Thirty-two caciques were assembled in the house of

Anacauchoa, where they had brought their tribute. In addition
to what had been agreed upon, they sought to win favour by
adding numerous presents, which consisted of two kinds of
bread, roots, grains, utias, that is to say, rabbits, which are
numerous in the island, fish, which they had preserved by cook-
ing them, and those same serpents, resembling crocodiles, which
they esteem a most delicate food. We have described them
above, and the natives call them iguanas. They are special to
Hispaniola. Up to that time none of the Spaniards had ventured
to eat them because of their odour, which was not only repug-
nant but nauseating, but the Adelantado, won by the amiability
of the cacique’s sister, consented to taste a morsel of iguana; and
hardly had his palate savoured this succulent flesh than he began
to eat it by the mouthful. Henceforth the Spaniards were no
longer satisfied to barely taste it, but became epicures in regard
to it, and talked of nothing else than the exquisite flavour of
these serpents, which they found to be superior to that of pea-
cocks, pheasants, or partridges. If, however, they are cooked as
we do peacocks and pheasants, which are first larded and then
roasted, the serpent’s flesh loses its good flavour. First they gut
them, then wash and clean them with care, and roll them into
a circle, so that they look like the coils of a sleeping snake; after
which they put them in a pot, just large enough to hold them,
pouring over them a little water flavoured with the pepper found
in the island. The pot is covered and a fire of odorous wood
which gives very little light is kindled underneath it. A juice as
delicious as nectar runs drop by drop from the insides. It is
reported that there are few dishes more appetising than iguana
eggs cooked over a slow fire. When they are fresh and served hot
they are delicious, but if they are preserved for a few days they
still further improve. But this is enough about cooking recipes.
Let us pass on to other subjects. … They are not neglectful,
however, of hunting, they have, as we have already said, utias,
which resemble small rabbits, and iguana serpents, which I
described in my First Decade. These latter resemble crocodiles
and are eight feet long, living on land and having a good
flavour.”

The next time that images of an iguana would appear was
not until the 1580s, when watercolors were painted by John
White. Another image of a “hiogane” (iguana) appeared about
1590 in an anonymous manuscript now known as Histoire
Naturelle Des Indes: Countenant Les Arbres, Plantes, Fruits,
Animaux, Coquillages, Reptiles, Insectes, Oyseaux, &c. qui se trou-
venant dans les Indes… or the Drake Manuscript. The original is
housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library, although it has been
reproduced in book form in two printings.

White’s original watercolors have been reproduced by the
British Museum. They are significant, as numerous early sources
based their illustrations on them. These included Hariot, de Bry,
Bigges & Croftes, and Catesby. The Boazio plates, which are
included in Bigges and Croftes in two sizes in the two editions,
made one later contemporary appearance, in de Bry’s Grands
Voyages, Part VIII. (1618, 1619). Those engravings are derived
from the smaller engravings (keyed in numerals rather than let-
ters). The figures of the iguana are after drawings by John White,
and are in fact the first publication of any of White’s illustrations.
John White’s drawing is likely the first English illustration of the
iguana. An early Elizabethan description stated that they are

30 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2008 SCHAFFER AND SCHAFFER

Illustrations of iguanas from Oviedo (1535; top) and Ramusio (1550;
bottom).



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2008 31IGUANAS

“caught by the Indian people who sell them to the Spaniards.
They are a sad dull green colour, their body of the bigness of a
cony (rabbit) in fact bigger. They are eaten by the Indians and
Spaniards and so likewise by us for a very delicate meat. In the
breeding time the female is full of eggs in great number, and
they of all the rest are esteemed the most delicate.”

When Alonso de Ojeda and his crew reached Columbian
shores, the Indians fled. The Spanish followed them inland and
came upon an Indian settlement where strange animals were
being prepared for a feast. Among the items on the menu were

“horrible snakes with feet and wings” (iguanas). This image
appeared in de Bry’s Grand Voyages, Part X (1618 in German and
1619 in Latin).

The fanciful tales of Philoponus (1627) contained a liberal
mix of history and fantasy and told the tale of the Benedictine
missionaries who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage
to Hispaniola in 1493, and also included descriptions and depic-
tions of iguanas. Quaint copperplate engravings in the style of
de Bry (whom the author despised) depicted a variety of scenes
ranging from attacks on the Spanish crew by cannibals to

The “Igwano” of White executed in the 1580s (Lorant 1946) and the “Hiogane” (Anonymous 1590).



instances of indigenous hospitality, such as feasts depicting local
fruit and an iguana served on European silver.

For nine months in 1725, Mark Catesby visited the
Bahama Islands during which time he was the guest of Governor
George Phenney and stayed at the Government House. While
there, he visited the islands of Eleuthera, Abaco, and Andros. In
The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands,
he detailed the harsh lifestyle of the early settlers, barely surviv-
ing through the collection of ambergris, subsistence farming,
fishing, turtling, and hunting birds and iguanas. His text pro-
vided most of what we know regarding life at that time, and
included descriptions of the iguana and also the crocodiles that
once lived in the Bahamas. A number of his illustrations, such
as the iguana, are obvious plagiarisms of White.
However, the earliest iguana illustration found to date was pro-
duced by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes in Historia
General y Natural de las Indias. Islas y tierra firme del mar Océano.
He wrote of the iguana: “This is a serpent or dragon, or such ter-
restrial animal (or aquatic), that for those who do not know it,
is of ugly and frightful view, strange lizard, big, with four feet;
furthermore it is larger than the lizards of Spain, because the
head is bigger than the fist or closed hand of a man, the neck is
short, the body longer than two hand spans, and other two in
circumference, and the tail of three and four hand spans long.
These measurements are for the larger animals; many of them
have shorter tails, I do not know if it is due to cut tails from bites

among each other, or if they shed it. (...) they have on the dor-
sal midline a line of spines that by itself appears fierce. It has
sharp teeth and a dewlap that is long and wide that goes from
the chin to the chest, like the ox. And so it is such a quiet ani-
mal, that neither shouts, nor moans, nor makes any sounds, and
it stays anywhere that they put him, without causing damage
nor making any noise, ten or twenty days and more, without
eating and drinking any thing, even if you offer it, also it eats a
little bread or grass or similar thing, according to what some say.
But I have had some of these animals tied in my house some
times, and I never saw them eat, and I have watched. And in
short, I have not known nor been able to understand what they
ate while in my house, and everything that was offered was left
whole. In the field I do not know what they eat. The arms, feet,
hands, and the nails, all these are like of lizard, and the long
nails, but skinny and not of grasping. It is in as much way of ter-
rible appearance, that no man would venture to wait for this ani-
mal, if he were not of great spirit, and to eat of it none, unless
he was of bad sense or beastly (I say not knowing its being,
tameness, and good taste)” ( translation courtesy of Dr. Sam
Rivera).

Another aspect of Oviedo’s work was the extremely ambi-
tious task of assigning names to the American flora and fauna
found in Spanish territories. This was by no means a smooth
process, and during the course of this endeavor, he came into
conflict with Spanish scientists and administrators. Oviedo
attempted to develop a local, rather than imperial approach,
undertaking it in the manner of Pliny by telling it as the narra-
tive of a traveling naturalist, often mixing fact with fiction, sci-
ence with myth. “Escribió Plinio treinta e siete libros en su
Natural Historia, e yo en aquesta mi obra e primera parte della,
veinte, en los cuales, como he dicho, en todo cuanto le pudiere
imitar, entiendo hacerlo” (Pliny wrote thirty-seven books in his
Natural History, and I in my work … will attempt to imitate
him).

Oviedo the man was more straightforward. He was a
Spanish historian, who was born in Madrid in 1478 and died in
Valladolid in 1557. He was familiar with the explorations, had
met Columbus, his sons, and some of the third voyage’s crew,
but did not actually reach the Caribbean until 1513, after which
he made a number of journeys. He was appointed governor of
La Antigua in 1526 and commander of the castle of Santo
Domingo in 1535, remaining in that position until 1545. At
that time, he returned to Spain with the appointment of
“Historian of the Spanish Indies.” He continued the history that
he had begun in 1515, of which a summary had appeared under
the title of “La Historia de las cosas sucedidas en mi tiempo en
America” (1526). The first substantial portion appeared as
Historia General y Natural de las Indias Occidentales (1535), and
the revision of the entire work was finished in 1548. Its publi-
cation, begun in Valladolid in 1550, was interrupted by the
author’s death, and the first complete edition was printed by
order of the Royal Historical Academy in Madrid in 1851.

This work has been judged harshly due to a number of
inaccuracies in the historical portion, and a strong underlying
prejudice against Columbus. However, that it is one of the most
profound and significant early accounts has become evident, and
it certainly qualifies as the first work on the natural history of

32 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2008 SCHAFFER AND SCHAFFER

Plate 4 from de Bry (1618 & 1619) and Philoponus (1627). 



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2008 33IGUANAS

America. In that respect, the author was eminently qualified.
During his journeys in the New World, Oviedo compiled
detailed descriptions and illustrations, many of which might

serve as examples to modern naturalists, of products and goods.
He introduced Europe to America’s natural history, and was the
first European to describe iguanas, manatees, and pineapples. He

Oviedo’s text page with plate (Fernández de Oviedo Gonzalo, Historia General y Natural de las Indias, Selección, Ed. Bruño, 1991, Libro XII,
Capitulo VII. P. 122).



also presented an enormous variety of previously unheard of
“exotica,” including canoes, smoking tobacco, tamales, and
hammocks. Along with Pedro Mártir de Anglería and Bartolomé
de Las Casas, Oviedo was one of the first European “chroniclers
of the Indies,” having written two comprehensive works on
America, including the rare Historia.

Partial translations of Oviedo’s work appeared in Italian by
Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1550) and in English by Richard
Eden (1577). Two works, also translated by Ramusio without
giving the author’s name, “Tratado del palo Guayacan y del palo
Santo como antidoto contra la sifilis” and “Navegación del rio
Marañon,” also are attributed to Oviedo. Ramusio, who was
born on 20 July 1485 in Treviso, Republic of Venice (Italy) and
died on 10 July 1557 in Padua, was an Italian geographer who
compiled an important collection of writings on various travels

in his Delle Navigationi et Viaggi (Some Voyages and Travels,
1550–1559). The book contained works by over fifty other
authors. Ramusio was assisted by the artist Gastaldi in the mon-
umental task of engraving the maps that illustrated the accounts.

Oviedo’s work is quite rare and no recent auction records
have been found for the original editions. Later versions
(1851–1855) command prices in the range of $5,000. The work
also was reprinted in 1959, 1978, 1986, 1989, 1992, and 2002.
Even these editions sell for as much as $250.

References
Alexander, M. (ed). 1976. Discovering the New World. Harper and Row, New York.

Anon. ~1590. Histoire Naturelle Des Indes: Countenant Les Arbres, Plantes,
Fruits, Animaux, Coquillages, Reptiles, Insectes, Oyseaux, &c. qui se trou-
venant dans les Indes… (Ms. Pierpont Morgan Library).

34 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2008 SCHAFFER AND SCHAFFER

Page 64 & facing plate. “Lacertus Indicus, Senembi & Iguana dictus: The Guana” and “Anona maxima, foliis latis fructu maximo luteo conoide,
cortice glabro” (pp. 64–T 64, from Catesby 1754). This illustration is considered by most authorities to be taken from White. The associated
text was on a separate page in English and French (not shown).



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1  •  MARCH 2008 35IGUANAS

Anon. 1996. Histoire Naturelle des Indes. Norton, New York.

Anon. 1996. The Drake Manuscript. Andre Deutsch, London.

Bigges, W. d. 1586. A Svmmarie and Trve Discovrse of Sir Frances Drakes West
Indian Voyage. Wherein Were Taken, the Townes of Saint Iago, Sancto
Domingo, Cartegena & Saint Augustine. London.

Bigges, W. and M. Croftes. 1588. Expeditio Francisci Drake Equitis Angli in
Indias Occidentales. Fr. Raphelengius, Leyden.

Bonaterre, L’A. 1789. Tableau Encyclopédique et Méthodique des trios Règnes
de la Nature. Chez Panckouche, Paris.

Brezzi, A. 2007. Tulato: Window to the prehistory of America. (www.villegased-
itores.com/loslibros/9588160359/catalogo.php).

Breton, R. 1665. La Dictionnaire Caraïbe-Française. Gilles Bouquet, Auxerre,
France.

Castillo, J.C. 2003. Naming Difference: The Politics of Naming in Fernandez
de Oviedo’s Historia General y Natural de las Indias. Science in Context
16:489–504.

Catesby, M. 1754. The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama
Islands: Containing the Figures of Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, Insects and
Plants. Vol II. C. Marsh, London.

Dalby, A. 2001. Christopher Columbus, Gonzalo Pizarro, and the Search for
Cinnamon. Gastronomica 1(2):40–49.

De Bry, T. 1599. AMERICÆ PARS VIII. Continens PRIMO, DESCRIP-
TIONEM (Grands Voyages, Part VIII, Latin version). De Bry, Frankfort.

Du Tertre, J.-B. 1667. Histoire Generales des Antilles Habitees par les Francais. T.
Jolly, Paris.

Eden, R. 1577. The History of Travayle in the West and East Indies. Richard
Jugge, London.

Hulme P. and N. Whitehead. 1992. Wild Majesty: Encounters with the Caribs
from Columbus to the Present Day. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Honychurch, L. 1997. Crossroads in the Caribbean: A site for encounter and
exchange on Dominica. World Archaeology 28(3):291–304.

Honychurch, L. 2004. Pitons, Soufrières and Three-Pointer Zemis: The mythic
geography of Caribbean volcanoes and indigenous cultures. Paper deliv-
ered at the 50th Anniversary Conference of the St. Lucia Archaeological
and Historical Society, Castries.

Honychurch, L. 2005. Ioüanalao People and the First Resistance: Peace and
War among the Kalinago of St Lucia. (cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/stlucia/
conference/papers/honychurch.html).

Hulton, P and D.B. Quinn. 1964. The American drawings of John White,
1577–1590. In: D.B. Quinn (ed.), The Roanoke Voyages. Vol. I, pp.
243–313. The Hakluyt Society, London

Jesse, Rev. C. 1963. The Spanish Cedula of December 23, 1511 on the subject
of the Caribs. Caribbean Quarterly 9(3). Mona, Jamaica.

Keegan, W.F. 1995. History begins on Grand Turk. Times of the Islands: The
International Magazine of the Turks and Caicos. Summer 1995.
(www.flmnh.ufl.edu/caribarch/TCIarchaeology.htm).

Keegan, W.F. 1996. Grand Turk. Earthwatch Expedition Report. February
1996. (www.flmnh.ufl.edu/caribarch/grandturk.htm November 2007).

Keegan, W.F. 1997. Grand Turk. Earthwatch Expedition Report. March 1997.
(www.flmnh.ufl.edu/caribarch/grandturk97.htm November 2007).

Keegan, W.F. and B. Carlson. 1997. The Coralie Site, Grand Turk. Times of the
Islands: The International Magazine of the Turks and Caicos. Summer
1997. (http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/caribarch/coralie.htm).

Keegan, W.F. and B. Carlson. 2007. Talking Taino: Lizards and snakes. Times
of the Islands: The International Magazine of the Turks and Caicos.
(www.timespub.tc/index.php?id=356).

Kraus, H.P. 2005. Sir Francis Drake: A Pictorial Biography by Hans P. Kraus.
(www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/catalog/drake/drake-catalogue.html November
2007).

Lorant, S. 1946. The New World: The First Pictures of America. Duell, Sloan, &
Pearce, New York.

Martyr, P. 1533. De Rebus Oceanicis & Orbe Novo Decades Tres. Joannes
Bebelius, Basel.

Milton, G. 2000. Big Chief Elizabeth, How England’s Adventurers Gambled and
Won the New World. Sceptre/Hodder and Stoughton, London.

Oviedo y Valdez, G.F. de. 1526. La Historia de las Cosas Sucedidas en mi Tiempo
en America. Toledo.

Oviedo y Valdez, G.F. de. 1535. Historia General y Natural de las Indias
Occidentales. Seville.

Oviedo y Valdez, G.F. de. 1547, 1557. Historia General y Natural de las Indias.
Islas y Tierra Firme del Mar Océano. Seville.

Oviedo y Valdez, G.F. de. 1851. Historia General y Natural de las Indias. Islas y
Tierra Firme del Mar Océano. Imprenta de la Real Academia, Madrid.

Oviedo y Valdez, G.F. de. 1978. Historia General y Natural de las Indias. Islas y
Tierra Firme del Mar Océano. Espasa-Calpe, Madrid. 

Oviedo y Valdez, G.F. de. 1986. Historia General y Natural De Las Indias: La
Provincia de Venezuela. Fundacion de Promoción Cultural de Venezuela,
Caracas.

Oviedo y Valdez, G.F. de. 1992. Historia General y Natural de las Indias. Islas y
Tierra Firme del Mar Océano. Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, Madrid.

Philoponus, Honorius (pseudonym of Caspar Plautius, O.S.B.). 1627. Nova
Typis Transacta Navigatio. Novi Orbis Indiae Occidentalis. Linz.

Ramusio, G.B. 1606–1613. Delle Navigationi et Viaggi ... Giunti, Florence.

Porter, C.M. 1992. The Scientific Cosmos of Columbus: An Overview. Proteus
9(1):1–10.

Smith, H. 1990. John White and the earliest (1585–1587) illustrations of
North American reptiles. Brimleyana (16):119–131.




