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INDIAN CORN FOUND.

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After this, CHAP.

river, to go

IX.

Nov.

Indians had formerly planted their corn.' some thought it best, for nearness of the 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 mats,

2

"The Indian corn (zea 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 Novæ 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 Scripture

Matt. 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.

2

Probably at the Great Hollow. F. A mile south of the Pond village, the bank on the bay is intersected by another valley, called the Great Hollow. This valley and another near it, towards the southeast, called the Great Swamp, contain several houses. The Great Hollow is separated from the Pond

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WALNUTS, STRAWBERRIES, AND VINES.

CHAP. and had a wooden thing, like a mortar, whelmed on the top of it, and an earthen pot laid in a little hole at 1620. the end thereof. We, musing what it might be, dig16. ged 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 trees1 full of nuts, and great store of strawberries, and some vines. Passing thus a field or two, which were not

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village by a high hill, which com-
mands an extensive prospect of the
ocean, Cape Cod harbour, and the
opposite shore, as far as the broad
bluff of Manomet, in Plymouth,
and the high lands of Marshfield.

T. Morton says, ch. 2, "Of
walnut trees there is infinite store,
and there are four sorts; it is an
excellent wood, for many uses ap-
proved." Wood says, ch. 5, "the
walnut tree is something different
from the English walnut, and bears
a very good nut, something smaller,
but nothing inferior in sweetness
and goodness to the English nut,
having no bitter peel." And Josselyn
says, p. 50, "the nuts of the walnut
differ much from ours in Europe,
they being smooth, much like a
nutmeg in shape, and not much
bigger; some three cornered, all of
them but thinly replenished with
kernels."

"There is strawberries," says
Wood, "in abundance, very large
ones, some being two inches about;
one may gather half a bushel in a
forenoon." Roger Williams, in his
Key into the Language of America,
ch. 16, says
"This berry is the
wonder of all the fruits, growing
naturally in those parts. In some

places where the natives have planted, I have many times seen as many as would fill a good ship within a few miles' compass." See Mass. Hist. Coll. iii. 221. “The common wild strawberry, (fragaria Virginiana,)" says Bigelow, Plants of Boston, p. 215, "is a very delicious fruit, and when cultivated is inferior to few imported species. The berries ripen early, are of a light scarlet color, exquisitely flavored, but more soft and perishable than the other kinds."

3" Vines there are that bear grapes of three colors, white, black, and red. The country is so apt for vines that, but for the fire at the spring of the year, the vines would so overspread the land, that one should not be able to pass for them. The fruit is as big, of some, as a musket ball, and is excellent in taste." T. Morton, ch. 2. "The vines afford great store of grapes, which are very big, both for the grape and cluster, sweet and good. These be of two sorts, red and white. There is likewise a smaller kind of grape, which groweth in the islands, which is sooner ripe, and more delectable." Wood, ch. 5.

INDIAN BARNS.

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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

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in this manner it is preserved from
destruction or putrefaction, to be
used in case of necessity, and not
else." T. Morton, ch. 13. "Their
corn being ripe, they gather it, and
dry it hard in the sun, convey it to
their barns, which be great holes
digged in the ground, in form of a
brass pot, ceiled with rinds of trees,
wherein they put their corn.'
Wood, ch. 20.

4 This corn of mixed colors on
the same cob, yellow, red, and blue,
is still common at Truro.

5 "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.

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Nov.

OLD TOM'S HILL, IN TRURO.

CHAP. We were busy about these things, we set our men senIX. tinel in a round ring, all but two or three, which digged 1620. up the corn. We were in suspense what to do with it 16. 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 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
sacks, made of hemp, which will
hold five or six bushels." Roger
Williams, in Mass. Hist. Coll. iii.
212.

It will be seen that within six
months they scrupulously fulfilled
this their honest intention, and
gave the owners of the corn "full
content." The censure of Baylies,
i. 54, on their conduct as "inexcu-
sable," and as "compromising their
consciences," might as well have
been spared.

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

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PAMET RIVER.

by the cut or mouth, which came from the sea.

135

That CHAP.

which was next unto us was the less.' The other

2

3

IX.

Nov.

arm was more than twice as big, and not unlike to 1620. be a harbour for ships; but whether it be a fresh river, 16. 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 on 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.

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

3 "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 inan 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 bear a knot of sail, scudding over the overgrown waves as fast as a wind-driven ship, being driven by their paddles; being

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