Early Corn Planters 9 



the maize meant "She Who Sustains Us," "Our Mother," 

 "Our Life." 



The first European to make mention of the grain was 

 Columbus. In his Journal under date of November 5, 1492, 

 while at Cuba, he records: "There was a great deal of tilled 

 land sowed with a sort of beans and a sort of grain they call 

 'Mahiz/ which was well tasted baked or dried, and made 

 into flour." 



When the Admiral returned to Palos from that first venture, 

 the reyes catolicos, having driven the Moors from Andalusia, 

 were holding court in Barcelona. Summoned there, Columbus 

 was received as one who had added to Castile and Aragon a 

 new world. There were triumphal processions, banners, a rain 

 of flowers. The senoritas leaned from their balconies to stare 

 at the bronzed seamen, and at the six grinning Caribs, covered 

 for modesty's sake in leathern breeches and vests. Later, in 

 the palace, the sovereigns received the Admiral with honors 

 usually reserved for princes. He was directed to sit in their 

 presence and to recount to them the wonders of the voyage 

 and explain the spoils he had brought home: stuffed tropical 

 birds and small animals, a handful of pearls, some gold trinkets 

 among these, perhaps, one of the small gold frog-images of 

 the rain-god, which the islanders used to honor for the benefit 

 of their maize fields. There were also bunches of medicinal 

 herbs and spices, and some cobs of yellow mahiz which, the 

 Navigator explained, was the principal food of the peoples of 

 the New World. 



It is not likely that the maize kernels which Queen Isabella 

 nibbled experimentally excited much comment. Spain wanted 

 gold. And more gold. There were the long wars against the 

 Moors to be paid for. Too, the Hapsburg marriage of the 

 Infanta Juana, with the chance it offered of an empire on 

 the other side of the Pyrenees, needed to be safeguarded. Only 

 gold could do that. Columbus was ordered back to the Indies 

 almost immediately. The directions given him were explicit. 

 He was to find El Dorado and carry it home to Spain. Caribs 



