Dom Enrique, Infante of Portugal, surnamed the Navigator (1394-1460) transported it about 1420, from Cyprus and Sicily to Madeira, whence it was taken to the Canaries in 1503, and thence to Brazil and Hayti early in the 16th century, whence it spread to Mexico, Cuba, Guadeloupe and Martinique, and later to Bourbon.
But Canada is bound only by a voluntary allegiance, Guiana is unimportant, and in the West Indian islands, where the independence of Hayti and the loss of Cuba and Porto Rico by Spain have diminished the European sphere, European dominion is only a survival of the colonial epoch.
In 1498 he accompanied his father in an expedition under Columbus to the West Indies, and in 1502 he went with Nicolas de Ovando, the governor, to Hayti, where in 1510 he was admitted to holy orders, being the first priest ordained in the American colonies.
For Basiliscus see Basilisk; Iguana is dealt with under its own heading; allied is Metopoceros cornutus of Hayti.
Plagiodontia aedium, another member of the group, is peculiar to Hayti.