86 
§ 88. Vegetables cultivated by the American Indians.—lI. 
Our first article was intended to prove the existence of abo- 
riginal names for several varieties of cucurbitaceous plants. In the 
present we quote several authorities showing through what extent 
of territory the knowledge particulary of these plants and of beans 
had extended before the coming of Europeans, For what is of 
value in both we are chiefly indebted to the learning and kindness 
of Dr. J. E. Trumbull, of Hartford. 
Cabaca de Vaca landed in Florida in 1528. Near Tampa Bay he 
found “maize, beans, and pumpkins, in great plenty.” In his 
travel westward through Texas, the Indians supplied him with 
prickly pears and, occasionally, maize ; but after crossing “a great 
river coming from the north ”—which seems to be the Rio Grande 
—he came into a country whose “inhabitants lived on maize, beans, 
and pumpkins.” 
On Cartier’s first visit to Canada, 1534, he found, everywhere, 
maize—“ mil gros comme poix, pareil a celui qui croit au Bresil, 
dont ils magent au lieu de pain,’—and “ils ont aussi des febues 
(féves) qwils nomment Sahu.” The vocabulary appended to the 
relation of his voyage gives “‘casconada” as the Indian name for 
“the seeds of concombres or melons.” In the “ Brief Relation” 
of his second voyage, 1535-36, mention is made of the use of maize 
by the Indians, “et de febues et poix, desquels ils ont assez, et aussi 
gros concombres et aultres fruicts. Further up the St. Lawrence, 
the Indians brought him presents of maize (“gros mil”) and: 
“ several great melons.” 
Hudson, 1609, when anchored off the Catskills, bought “ears of 
Indian corn, pumpkins, and tobacco, and two days after, Sept. 18th, 
( Brodhead p. 30) saw in a house “a great quantity of maize or 
Indian corn, and beans of the last year’s growth; and there lay 
near the house for the purpose of drying, enough to load three 
ships, besides what was growing in the fields. 
In Champlains narrative of his earlier voyages (1604-1611), as 
reprinted in his final edition of 1632, he says that when coasting 
eastward from the River Quinibequey (Kennebec), he saw the 
Indians planting their “bleds d’Inde;” and that “in every hill 
they put four Brasilian beans (“fedves de Bresil”), which grow of 
divers colors. As these grow high, they wind about (“ s’entrelacent 
autour’) the corn, which rises to the height of five or six feet, and 
keep the field clear of weeds.”* ‘“ We saw also abundance of 
citrotiilles, courges, and tobacco, which they cultivate” (p. 73). 
Southward, after passing Cape Blane (Cape Cod), near the port of 
Mallebarre, he saw fields of Indian corn in flower, and “ plenty of 
Brasilian beans (féves de Bresil), and of citrodilles of several sizes, 
good to eat (p. 84). At one place the Indians brought him “little 
citroiiilles, the size of one’s fist, which we eat in a salad, like eu- 
cumbers, and found excellent; and purslane (pourpié) also, which 
grows plentifully among the Indian corn, and of which the savages 
make no more account than if it were a noxious weed!” (p. 80.) 
* If this was the Phaseolus vulgaris, it had not yet degenerated to nanus.—J. H. T. 
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