CHAPTER XIV. 



HISTORY OF MAIZE, OR INDIAN CORN. 

 By E. Lewis Sturtevant, M.D. 



THE corn-plant is only known as a cultivated plant. 

 When Columbus first reached the shores of the West 

 Indies in 1492, he found mahiz grown and used by the 

 Indians, and also in Yucatan upon its discovery in 1502. 

 While Cabeca de Vaca was toiling his intermittent way 

 from Florida to the Pacific coast in 1528 to 1536, he 

 found maize grown in large fields, and stored in cribs, by 

 the natives of those regions. Cortez had previously 

 found maize in Mexico, at the period of the invasion, 

 and at Cempoalla, in 1519, had eaten maize made into 

 bread-cakes, and on the march to Mexico passed amidst 

 flourishing fields of maize. When De Soto invaded 

 Florida in 1539, macs occurred everywhere in large 

 fields ; and the same year Marco de Vica found maize 

 growing in New Mexico in fields. In 1540 Vasquez 

 de Coronado mentions fields of maize in the valley of 

 San Miguel and also in store at Cibola ; and it is also 

 mentioned in Castanedo's Relations for the same date. 

 Alarcon, in 1540, found it growing in his journey up the 

 Colorado River, and Antonio de Espips in 1583 found 

 it under cultivation by the Concho Indians of this region. 



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