INDIAN CORN FOUND. 131 IX. Nov. Indians had formerly planted their corn. After this, CHAP. some thought it best, for nearness of the river, to go down and travel on the sea sands, by which means 1620. some of our men were tired, and lagged behind. So 16. we stayed and gathered them up, and struck into the land again; where we found a little path to certain heaps of sand, one whereof was covered with old "The Indian corn (zca mays) called by the Mexicans tlaölli by the Haytians maize, and by the Massachusetts Indians eachimmineash, is found everywhere on the continent from Patagonia to Canada, and next to rice and wheat, is the most valuable of grains. There can hardly be a doubt that it is a native of America, unknown before the discovery of Columbus. The adventurers who first penetrated into Mexico and Peru found it everywhere cultivated, and in common use as an article of food among the aborigines. Its culture did not attract notice in Europe till after the voyage of Columbus, nor is it described in any work prior to the end of the 15th century. It was unknown to the ancient Greek and Roman writers, the passages in their works which have been supposed to refer to it being more applicable to other grains, such as the holcus sorghum. It is not mentioned by the earlier travellers who visited China, India, and other parts of Asia and Africa, and who were very minute in describing the productions of the countries which they visited. Acosta, in his Natural and Moral History of the Indies, (published in 1596,) says, lib. iv. ch. 16. "In our discourse on plants we will begin with those which are proper and peculiar to the Indies. As wheat is the most common grain for the use of man in the regions of the old world, so in the new found world the most common grain is mays, the which is found almost in all the kingdoms of the West Indies. I do not think that this mays is any thing inferior to our wheat, in strength nor substance. To conclude, God hath imparted to every region what is needful. To this continent he hath given wheat, which is the chief nourishment of man; and to the Indians he hath given mays, which hath the second place to wheat, for the nourishment of men and beasts." The maize is correctly figured in Oviedo's General and Natural History of the Indies, in Ramusio, Delle Navigationi et Viaggi, iii. fol. 131. See Hernandez, Historia Plantarum Nove Hispaniæ, lib. vi. cap. 44; Lamarck's Botany, in the Encyclopédie Méthodique, xxxvi. 680, Planches, 749; and Winthrop's Description of Maize in the London Phil. Trans. xi. 1065. The principal argument against the American origin of maize is that it has never been found growing wild in any part of this continent. This statement, however, is disputed. Cobbett, in his Essay on Corn, ch. 2, maintains that "the cultivation of Indian corn is as old as the world itself," and draws his chief arguments from the following passages of ScriptureMatt. xii. 1; 2 Kings, iv. 2; Job xxiv. 24; Lev. ii. 14; xxiii. 14; Deut. xxiii. 24, 25; Gen. xli. 5, which he thinks are applicable to maize, but not to wheat. 132 WALNUTS, STRAWBERRIES, AND VINES. CHAP. mats, and had a wooden thing, like a mortar, whelm Nov. IX. ed on the top of it, and an earthen pot laid in a little 1620. hole at the end thereof. We, musing what it might 16. be, digged and found a bow, and, as we thought, arrows, but they were rotten. We supposed there were many other things; but because we deemed them graves, we put in the bow again, and made it up as it was, and left the rest untouched, because we thought it would be odious unto them to ransack their sepulchres. We went on further and found new stubble, of which they had gotten corn this year, and many walnut trees 1 full of nuts, and great store of strawberries, and some vines. Passing thus a field or two, which were not village by a high hill, which com- T. Morton says, ch. 2, "Of 2 places where the natives have 3 Vines there are that bear INDIAN BARNS. - 133 IX. Nov. great, we came to another,' which had also been new CHAP. gotten, and there we found where a house had been, and four or five old planks laid together. Also we 1620. found a great kettle, which had been some ship's ket- 16. tle, and brought out of Europe. There was also a heap of sand,3 made like the former, but it was newly done, we might see how they had paddled it with their hands, which we digged up, and in it we found a little old basket, full of fair Indian corn; and digged further, and found a fine great new basket, full of very fair corn of this year, with some six and thirty goodly ears of corn, some yellow, and some red, and others mixed with blue, which was a very goodly sight. The basket was round, and narrow at the top. It held about three or four bushels, which was as much as two of us could lift up from the ground, and was very handsomely and cunningly made." But whilst From the Great Hollow the sixteen adventurers travelled south to the hill which terminates in Hopkins's Cliff (or Uncle Sam's hill, as it is now vulgarly called.) This they called Cornhill. The Indians formerly dwelt in great numbers on this hill; and the shells, deposited by them on it, are still ploughed up in abundance. Hopkins's Cliff is between the Great Hollow and Hopkins's Creek, or Pamet little river, as it is now called. This was probably the remains of a hut built by some shipwrecked sailors. "Their barns are holes made in the earth, that will hold a hogshead of corn apiece. In these, when their corn is out of the husk, and well dried, they lay their store in great baskets, with mats under, about the sides, and on the top; and putting it into the place made for it, they cover it with earth, and in this manner it is preserved from 4 This corn of mixed colors on "In summer they gather flags, of which they make mats for houses, and hemp and rushes, with dying stuff, of which they make curious baskets, with intermixed colors, and portraitures of antique imagery. These baskets be of all sizes, from a quart to a quarter, in which they carry their luggage." Wood, ch. 30. "Instead of shelves, they have several baskets, wherein they put all their household stuff. 134 IX. Νον. 16. OLD TOM'S HILL, IN TRURO. CHAP. We were busy about these things, we set our men sentinel in a round ring, all but two or three, which dig1620. ged up the corn. We were in suspense what to do with it and the kettle; and at length, after much consultation, we concluded to take the kettle, and as much of the corn as we could carry away with us; and when our shallop came, if we could find any of the people, and come to parley with them, we would give them the kettle again, and satisfy them for their corn.1 So we took all the ears, and put a good deal of the loose corn in the kettle, for two men to bring away on a staff. Besides, they that could put any into their pockets, filled the same. The rest we buried again; for we were so laden with armor 2 that we could carry no more. Not far from this place we found the remainder of an old fort or palisado, which, as we conceived, had been made by some Christians.3 This was also hard by that place which we thought had been a river; unto which we went, and found it so to be, dividing itself into two arms by a high bank,' standing right They have some great bags or It will be seen that within eight 66 2 It is worthy of notice that the Pilgrims were cased in armor. See pages 125 and 128. One of their corslets would be a far more precious relic than a cuirass from the field of Waterloo. One of Stand ish's grandsons is said to have been in possession of his coat of mail. His sword and that of Carver and Brewster, are in the cabinet of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Some doubt however is thrown on this point from the circumstance that the Pilgrim Society of Plymouth have also in their possession "the identical sword-blade used by Miles Standish." See Belknap's Am. Biog. ii. 216, 336; Thacher's History of Plymouth, p. 258, second edition. Perhaps by the same persons who owned the kettle and built the hut. See p. 133. Bradford, in his History, as quoted by Prince, p. 163, says 66 a high cliff of sand at the entrance." PAMET RIVER. 135 IX. by the cut or mouth, which came from the sea. That CHAP. which was next unto us was the less. The other 2 1 Nov. arm was more than twice as big, and not unlike to 1620. be a harbour for ships; but whether it be a fresh 16. river, or only an indraught of the sea, we had no time. to discover; for we had commandment to be out but two days. Here also we saw two canoes; the one This is an accurate description of the entrance of Pamet river. The high bank of sand, is called Old Tom's hill, after an Indian chief, who in former times had its seat on its summit, and who received this name from the first English settlers. It is the termination of a neck of land situated between the two creeks, called Indian Neck, it having been reserved to the Indians on the first settlement of Truro, about the year 1700. Prince, p.. 163, has fallen into a great mistake in supposing that Barnstable harbour was the place here described. The description does not suit the harbour of Barnstable, or any other creek or inlet in the bay, except Pamet harbour; and, as Belknap rightly observes, (Am. Biog. ii. 196,) neither the time nor distance can agree with Prince's conjecture. Barnstable is fifty miles from Cape Cod harbour by land; a distance which could not have been travelled, and back again, in three short days of November. F. The smallest creek, which was next to the travellers, is called Hopkins's Creek, or Pamet little river. There is on it a body of salt marsh, which runs half way across the township of Truro. The depth of water in this creek, when the tide is in, is five feet. F. 'Pamet river, which is a creek forced into the land from the bay, and extends almost across the township, being separated from the ocean by nothing but a narrow beach and embankment, which the water has been known to break over. The creek runs through a body of salt marsh. The mouth of it lies nearly south-east from Cape Cod harbour, nine miles distant. It is about a mile south of the Great Hollow, and is a little to the north of what is called the shoal ground, without Billingsgate Point. The part of Truro, south of Pamet river, on the bay, is called Hog's Back. See Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 196. "Of the birch bark the salvages of the northern parts make them delicate canoes, so light that two men will transport one of them over land whither they list, and one of them will transport ten or twelve salvages by water at a time." T. Morton, ch. 2. "Their canoes are made either of pine trees, which, before they were acquainted with English tools, they burned hollow, scraping them smooth with clam shells and oyster shells, cutting their outsides with stone hatchets; these boats be not above a foot and a half or two foot wide, and twenty foot long. Their other canoes be made of thin birch rinds, close ribbed on the inside with broad thin hoops, like the hoops of a tub; these are made very light; a man may carry one of them a mile; being made purposely to carry from river to river, and bay to bay, to shorten land passages. In these cockling fly-boats, wherein an Englishman can scarce sit without a fearful tottering, they will venture to sea, when an English shallop dare not bare a knot of sail, scudding over the overgrown waves as fast as a wind-driven ship, being driven by their paddles; being much |