14 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



are instruments in diffusing. Cortez, the conqueror 

 of Mexico, inhuman as he was in many parts of his 

 conduct, thus writes from Mexico to the King of 

 Spain : ' All the plants of Spain thrive admirably 

 in this land. We shall not proceed here as we have 

 done in the isles, where we have neglected cultiva- 

 tion, and destroyed the inhabitants. A sad experi- 

 ence ought to render us more prudent. I beseech 

 your Majesty to give orders that no vessel set sail for 

 this country without a certain quantity of plants and 

 grain.' The diffusion of plants useful to man is 

 an accident diminishing the evils of hostile invasion ; 

 ^ it is a necessary attendant of commercial inter- 

 course. The Indians of New England called the 

 plantain, ' English-man's foot ; ' and in the same 

 way, in the infancy of ancient society, wheat might 

 have been similarly regarded as springing from the 

 footsteps of the Persians or the Egyptians. In times 

 approaching nearer to our own, we know that wheat 

 followed the march of the Romans, as the vine was 

 in the train of the Greeks ; and, to come still nearer, 

 we find cotton remaining in countries which had 

 otherwise suffered from the incursions of the Arabs. 

 1 The migration of these plants,' observes Hum- 

 boldt, ' is evident ; but their first country is as 

 little known as that of the different races of men 

 which, from the earliest traditions, have been found 

 in all parts of the globe. '* 



The manner in which the most important gifts 

 of Providence to mankind have been diffused by 

 the influences of conquest or commerce, has some 

 striking instances in the history of America. In the 

 New World such facts are too recent to admit of 

 any doubt. The same class of facts, too, are exhi- 

 bited in several cases in the history of our empire in 

 Hindostan. We shall give a few examples. 



* Geographie des Plantes, p 35. 



