18 MEMOIR ON 



read before the Academy of Sciences, at Paris, that itv 

 origin was in America. The name Ble de Turquie, no 

 more proves it to be of Turkish origin, than the name 

 of the English Horse Bean proves that that plant 

 originally grew wild in Britain. The general cultiva- 

 tion of maize, in southern Europe, and the production 

 of some new varieties, proves nothing with regard to 

 the origin of the species. Nor, where it occurs in the 

 East, there is no proof of its having been carried there 

 previously to the discovery of America. 



In favour of the American origin of maize, is the fact 

 that it was found in a state of cultivation in most of 

 the places where the first navigators landed. Colum- 

 bus discovered it on the Island of Cuba, and other 

 points, where he touched on his first voyage to America, 

 Vasco Nunez, in Guiana, Navaez and Sqttus, in 

 Florida, and Gonalo Ximines, in New Granada, the 

 latter of whom, says, " The principal food of the natives 

 " was Maiz and Cassave, which first grows on stalks 

 " of the size of canes, bearing very large and weighty 

 " spikes or ears, each generally yielding seven hundred 

 u grains a bushel of which, when planted in warm, 

 a moist land, frequently produces three hundred fold. 

 " The maize is distinguished into a coarser and a finer 

 " sort, which last is called Moroche, the leaves and 

 " stalks affording wholesome provender for horses, and 

 u the grains or kernels, bread for the inhabitants, who 

 " make it several ways ; for sometimes they boil the 

 " corn in water, and at other times, parch it in ashes, 

 " or grind it into flour, which, when kneaded into 

 " dough, they make into cakes, biscuits, etc. More- 

 " over, maize steeped in water, boiled, and afterwards 

 " fermented, makes a very strong liquor. " 



All the early historians, both of North and South 

 America, give the strongest testimony that this grain 

 is of American origin, and speak of it as having consti- 

 tuted a great part of the food of the Indians from time 

 immemorial. 



Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, in treating of the pro- 

 ducts of Peru, says, " Of the fruits that grow above 



