Definition of "devourer"

It is doubtful, whether we ought to ascribe any superior qualities to the more ancient Africans; for we find them represented […] as proud, lazy, deceitful, thievish, […] devourers of human flesh, and quaffers of human blood […]

1774, Edward Long, The History of Jamaica, page 354

[They] have entered into the hunt with all the zeal that characterized the bookhunters, the coin collectors, the autograph devourers and the rest of that class of maniacs.

1864, Frank Leslie's Ten Cent Monthly, volumes 1-2, page 305