Ulysses Aldrovardi, Monstrorum historiae, 1642.

      Among obscure mythological creatures, there is an aquatic (or amphibious) unicorn. The sea unicorn is variously called a camphur, camphruch, or campchurch. Its possible relatives are the non-mythological narwhal, a cetecean with a tusk like a unicorn's horn; and the mythological hippocampus (which has the foreparts of a horse, with two legs, and the hindparts of a fish. Unlike them in form, the sea unicorn is quadrupedal, with webbed hind feet. It feeds upon fish. Its single horn is mobile, and is taken as a cure for poison. It has a shaggy gray mane around its neck, not down its neck like a horse. Very little is known about it, as the only story about a campchurch is a reported sighting by Thévet, a Frenchman traveling in the Strait of Malacca...

Thévet's description of a campchurch:

      "This name of Camphruch is the name of an amphibious animal, which takes part of water and the ground, like the crocodile. However this animal is the size of a hind, having a horn on its face, mobile, like an Indian rooster's comb, and in length [the horn] is three feet and half, and its round thickness is like the arm of a man; [its mane is] full with hair around the collar, which is tie with the color grayish. It has two legs which are used for to him to swim in fresh- and salt-water, made like those of a goose, and saw the fish majority, and the others two feet of front made like those of a stag or hind. There are some which is persuaded that it is a species of unicorn, and that its horn, which is rare and expensive, is very excellent against venom."

Erhard Renwick, Perigrinationes ad Terram Sanctum, 1486.

     Which is mostly a French-to-English Babelfish translation of this text:

     "Ce nom de Camphruch est le nom d'une bête amphibie, qui participe de l'eau et de la terre, comme le crocodile. Or cette bête est de la grandeur d'une biche, ayant une corne au front, mobile, comme pourrait être la crête d'un coq d'Inde, et est de longueur de trois pieds et demi et la plus ronde grosseur est comme le bras d'un homme, pleine de poil autour du col, qui est tirant à la couleur grisâtre. Elle a deux pattes qui lui servent de nager dans l'eau douce et salée, faites comme celles d'une oie, et vit la plupart de poisson, et les autres deux pieds de devant faits comme ceux d'un cerf ou biche. Il y a quelques uns qui sont persuadés que c'est une espèce de licorne, et que sa corne, qui est rare et riche, est très excellente contre le venin."
- André Thévet, Cosmographe, les licornes et les unicornes. Livre XII, Chapitre 5, fol.431-432. Part of Bruno Faidutti's thesis, Images et connaissance de la licorne.

Quotes regarding the campchurch, and books in which it is mentioned:

      "In the same year in which Vincent Le Blanc began his travels [1568] there was published a famous book on the drugs and spices of India by Garcias ab Horto. Here we find a description of an amphibian unicorn which the author says he has had from men worthy of belief. They have told him that between the Cape of Good Hope and the promontory commonly called Currentes (Cape Corrientes, opposite the southern end of Madagascar) there are to be seen certain animals that live on the land yet take pleasure also in the sea. Although they are certainly not sea-horses, they have equine heads and manes. This beast has a horn two palms in length, and the horn is movable so that it can be turned to right or left and raised or lowered at will. The animal fights fiercely with the elephant and its horn is considered good against poison. A similar animal, called the campchurch, was reported eight years later by André Thévet. This creature, he said, was to be found near the Strait of Malacca, large as a stag and bearing on its brow a horn three feet and a half in length and mobile like the crest of the Indian cock. The horn was efficacious against poison. The campchurch had two web feet like those of a duck which it used in swimming both in fresh and salt water, but its forefeet were like those of the stag. It lived on fish." This André Thevet, one must remember, was a man 'worthy of trust.'"
- Shepherd, Odell. Lore of the Unicorn. 1930. Quote from Chapter VII. (Exact page not defined in eBook version.)

      Hathaway's "The Unicorn," caption on an illustration, page 130: "A variety of unicorn, the camphur has as its most unusual feature not its horn but its feet, which resemble those of a cow in front and those of a bird in the back."

Peter Pomet, Histoire des Drogues, Paris, 1694.       "André Thévet in his Cosmography, known as that it is of them another in Ethiopia, nearly-similar, named Camphur, in the isle of Moluque, which is amphibious, (i.e.) alive in water & the ground, like the Crocodile. This beast is of size of a hind, having a horn on its face, mobile, length of three feet & a half, thickness like the arms of a man, full with hair around the collar, drawing with the color grisastre. It has two legs like that of Oye, which are used to them to swim, & the others two feet of front like those of a Stag or hind: & fish saw. He has of them there some which believe that it estoit a species of Unicorn, & that its horn is very expensive, & excellent against venoms, the figure of which it is represented here."      Which is mostly a French-to-English Babelfish of this text:       "André Thévet en sa Cosmographie, dit qu'il s'en trouve une autre en Æthiopie, presque-semblable, nommee Camphur, en l'isle de Moluque, qui est amphibie, (c'est à dire) vivant en l'eau & en la terre, comme le Crocodile. Ceste beste est de grandeur d'une biche, ayant une corne au front, mobile, de longueur de trois pieds & demy, de grosseur comme les bras d'un homme, pleine de poil autour du col, tirant à la couleur grisastre. Elle a deux pattes comme celle d'une Oye, qui leur servent à nager, & les autres deux pieds de devant comme ceux d'un Cerf ou biche: & vit de poisson. Il'y en a quelques uns qui se sont persuadez que c'estoit une espece de Licorne, & que sa corne est fort ricche, & excellente contre les venins, la figure de laquelle c'est ici representee." - Paré, Ambroise. Of the Unicorn. 1582. Chapter III. An eBook version on Bill Thayer's website.

     "Among water dwellers [...] two of them, the Hippocampus and the Campchurch, seem to be closely related. The former is a sort of sea horse, having a dolphin's tail in place of its rear legs. With white mane flying it was said to swim at small boats in an attempt to capsize them, a description that sounds suspciously like that of a large wave with spray blowing from it. The Campchurch, on the other hand, is a sea Unicorn. More precisely, it is of stag size, with a single three-and-a-half-foot horn on its head and webbed feet in place of hoofs in the rear. The Campchurch was thus twice mythical, for the Unicorn on whom it was modeled was also unreal. The Campchurch filled a necessary place in the medieval scheme of things, for scientists of those days believed that every land animal had its equivalent form in the sea. [...] As recently as 1575, a French traveler named André Thévet reported sighting a Campchurch in the Straits of Malacca, off the coast of the Malay Peninsula. Since the narwhal, which gave its horn to the Unicorn and sounds remarkably like the Campchurch, does not range as far south as these straits, one is inclined to wonder whether Thévet was privileged to see the long, sharp bill of a swordfish spearing through the waves."
- McHargue, Georgess. The Beasts of Never. 1988. Quote from page 49.

"That strikes more especially as this classification of the quadrupeds unicorns is well curiously built. It is understood easily that oxen, cows, rhinoceroses, camphur and caribou(?) are distinguished from the unicorn. Stoutness of the the first three interdict to assimilate them to the animal represented on the single engraving of the work. The webbed feet of the camphur make a species well with share of it, and the northern habitat of the caribou(?), close cousin of the reindeer, distinguishes it from an unicorn of which it was allowed that it lived in the countries of the East." Heilbronn, Theatrum universale omnium animalium, 1755.       Which is mostly a French-to-English Babelfish of this text:       "Cela frappe d'autant plus que cette classification des quadrupèdes unicornes est bien étrangement construite. On comprend aisément que bœufs, vaches, rhinocéros, camphur et rangifer soient distingués de la licorne. La corpulence des trois premiers interdit de les assimiler à l'animal représenté sur l'unique gravure de l'ouvrage. Les pattes palmées du camphur en font une espèce bien à part, et l'habitat septentrional du rangifer, proche cousin du renne, le distingue d'une licorne dont il était admis qu'elle vivait dans les pays d'Orient." - Catelan, Laurent. Apothicaire, et la Licorne. From part of Bruno Faidutti's thesis Images et connaissance de la licorne.

      "At the end of the 18th century the French physician, Pierre Pomet, dealt with the subject [of unicorn horns] at some length. He observed that the truth about unicorns was still unknown, but described and illustrated several beasts from which the tales about it could have been derived. The camphur was a wild ass found in Arabia that had a horn used to cure several diseases, especially venomous or contagious ones."
- Jackson, William. "The use of unicorn horn in medicine." The Pharmaceutical Journal 273 (2004): 925-927.

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