AMERICA'S FIRST CRYPTID?

This may be the first cryptid, in the sense of an unidentified animal, reported from America.  In 1503 the King and Queen of Spain received a letter from Christopher Columbus, no less, telling them of this unusual animal.

Christopher Columbus

This was a cat of sorts, he said, but the face would remind you of a human.  It was a terribly fierce beast.  A crossbowman shot it, but its ferocity was such that he had in defense to cut off two of its legs.  A wild boar happened to be nearby and the beast grabbed its snout with its tail and killed it with one of its remaining leg.  Presumably the beast itself was then killed.

We have no clue regarding the identity of the beast, which I have called the Man-Faced Cat.  I know of no other reports that coincide with its description, but possibly it had a facial deformity, the result of some injury picked up with another beast in a tussle.  Who can say?  Well, I can't.