508 THE MOUNDS OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
not more inexplicable than it is to account for the efforts, at this late 
day, of earnest and intelligent men to have the Indian shown how to 
raise corn, and this in face of the fact that he has cultivated that most 
useful cereal for hundreds of years, and actually taught our ancestors 
the process.* These are but samples of the loose way of thinking 
that prevails upon this and kindred topics, and it must be our excuse, 
if any be needed, for going into the matter somewhat in detail. For- 
tunately, the material for this purpose is quite abundant, and the tes- 
timony so uniform that of the main fact—the cultivation of corn in 
greater or less quantities by all the tribes living east of the Mississippi 
and south of the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes—there can not be a 
shadow of doubt.t All the early writers are agreed upon the point, 
and there is no room for a difference of opinion, except, perhaps, 
in regard to the amount grown. Upon this point, too, the evi- 
dence is explicit. Instead of cultivating it in small patches as a 
summer luxury, it can be shown, on undoubted authority, that every- 
where, within the limits named, the Indian looked upon it as a staple 
article of food, both in summer and winter; that he cultivated it in 
1, fourth series, p. 129. ‘‘ Others fell to plaine stealing, both night and day, from 
ye Indeans, of which they grievously complained. - - - Yea, in ye end they 
were faine to hange one of their men, whom they could not reclaime froin stealing: ” 
Ibid., p. 180. ‘‘Sometimes these savages” (the Hurons and Ouattawacs at Missil- 
makinac) ‘‘sell their corn very dear:” La Hontan, Voyages, vol. 1, p. 90: London, 
1703. See also Geo. Perey, Virginia, in Purchas Pilgrims, book 9, chap. 2; and 
Winslow, Good News from New England in same, book 10, chap. 5: London, 1625. 
* “Afterwards they (as many as were able) began to plant the corne, in which 
servise Squanto stood them in great stead, showing them both ye manner how to 
set it, and after how to dress and tend it.” Bradford’s History of Plymouth Planta- 
tion in Publications Mass. Hist. Soc., vol. 111 of 4th series, p. 100. ‘ Instructed them 
in the manner of planting and dressing the Indian corn.” Trumbull’s History of 
Connecticut, vol. 1, p. 46, Hartford, 1797. 
+ “All the tribes east of the Mississippi were more or less agricultural. They 
all raised corn, beans, squashes and melons.” Force, Some Considerations on the 
Mound-builders, p. 70. ‘Le mais ainsi que Je viens de Je dire est la nour- 
riture commune de tous les sauvyages sedentaires depuis le fond du _ Brésil 
Jusques aux extremitez du Canada.” Lafitau, Moeurs des Sauvages Ameri- 
quains, vol. u, p. 64: Paris, 1724. “The whole of the tribes situated in 
the Mississippi Valley, in Ohio, and the Lakes reaching on both sides of the 
Alleghanies, quite to Massachusetts and other parts of New England, cultivated 
Indian corn. It was the staple product.” Schoolcraft, vol. 1, p. 80. All the nations 
I have known, and who inhabit from the sea as far as the Illinois, and even farther, 
which is a space of about 1,500 miles, carefully cultivate the maiz corn, which they 
make their principal subsistence.” Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, vol. 11, p. 239: 
London, 1763. ‘The territory over which cultivation had extended is that which is 
bounded on the east by the Atlantic, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, on the west 
generally by the Mississippi, or, perhaps more properly, by the prairies, on the north, 
it may be said by the nature of the climate.” Archwologia Americana (Gallatin), 
vol. u, p. 149. “It was found in cultivation from the southern extremity of Chili to 
the fiftieth parallel of north latitude, beyond which limits the low temperature 
renders it an uncertain crop.” Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 23: New York, 
1876. See also Relation, A. D. 1626, p. 2: Quebec, 1858. 
