11 



should be planted, and the manner in which the ground 

 should be prepared, and manured with alewives fish. The 

 same year Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins visited 

 the Indians at Namasket and Middleborough, who received 

 them with great joy, and regaled them with bread called 

 mazium, made from Indian corn. 



Rifaud claims to have found " corn" under the head of 

 a mummy at Thebes. If it was known to the Egyptians 

 in Pharoah's time, it was introduced into Palestine in a 

 very early day. The word "corn," however, in Biblical 

 parlance, is known to signify all cereals. The Hebrew 

 word dagari means to " increase," and can properly be 

 rendered u grain/' l( corn," " wheat." In fact the term 

 "corn," as anciently used, is sufficiently comprehensive to 

 include, not only all proper cereals, but various kinds of 

 seeds and plants, in nowise belonging to grain products, 

 says a learned writer upon this subject. 



De Candolle and other ancient botanists assign the ori- 

 gin of this valuable grain to South America. Bouofous 

 was of the opinion corn was indigenous, both in China and 

 south-west South America. This theory was in accord- 

 ance with an old idea entertained respecting many other 

 tropical American vegetables. Humboldt maintains that 

 corn is an American plant, and that the new world gave 

 it to the old. Those of his opinion claim that Columbus, 

 on his return from his first voyage, in 1493, took to Eu- 

 rope the first grains of Indian corn, and thence its cultiva- 

 tion spread into Portugal and southern Europe. The Por- 

 tuguese, who were at that time the great navigators of the 

 world, having doubled Cape Horn previously and discov- 

 ered Java, in 1495. introduced it along the African coast 

 and into Java, and thence its cultivation spread into India 

 and China, and was correctly figured in a Chinese work on 

 agriculture as early as 1552. 



