1 66 : The Atlantic 



of warships. In the West Indies the two fleets separated, one going to 

 Vera Cruz and the other going to Porto Bello. 



These were the high old times. Naturally in the course of the year 

 enormous treasure piled up in Porto Bello. Then there were days 

 when the streets of the town were literally piled and paved with gold 

 and silver ingots. Naturally also, there was a market and a fair and a 

 roaring celebration when the fleet came in. 



Despite the Spanish precautions, Drake raided Santo Domingo, 

 Cartagena, Panama and the Pacific coast from 1577 to 1580, and even 

 a century later, 1655-1671, Henry Morgan, plundering the Spanish 

 ships, captured Porto Bello and Panama. 



No treasure that ever came out of the New World was a small per 

 cent as valuable as the foods that America added to the world's die- 

 tary. This, and not the wealth and art of Mexico or Peru, was the great 

 treasure of the Indians and their great contribution to world civili- 

 zation. 



This is true in a quite literal sense. We may begin with a limited 

 and a rather prosaic example. After running over figures such as 

 those we have given above for the value of the treasure shipments 

 from the Caribbean to Spain, Brenton, an English scholar, shows that 

 the annual shipment of codfish from the Grand Banks to English 

 ports exceeded even the high point of the shipment of Spanish treas- 

 ure. By 1615, the English catch on the Banks was yearly in excess of 

 ^200,000. By 1640, the revenues were running to ^^700,000 and this 

 continued year after year. 



In 1670, the value of the American fisheries to England alone ran 

 to pT 800,000. This is the real or literal statement of one phase of the 

 matter, but in a general and philosophical sense the value of the 

 Indian contribution to the wealth and health of the world is almost 

 incalculable. 



In the fields of many a farm edible corn and field corn have been 

 growing in different fields. The corn has been set in little hills and 

 the hills arranged in rows. Until they were harvested, bean vines were 

 climbing about each hill of corn, and melons and pumpkins were set 

 to grow between the rows. 



As I write, the autumn season is upon us. The woods of New 

 England and Long Island are glowing with autumn colors. In the 

 fields of many a New England farm, hills of field corn and corn 

 edible by human beings are being stacked and harvested in the fields. 

 Between the rows of corn, pumpkins are growing and in some cases 

 also edible beans. All these plants were developed and grown by the 



