ESSAY ON INDIAN CORN. 153 



should be borne in mind that the authority of the early writers is not 

 always to be relied upon. They possessed none of the advantages 

 which modern science has laid open, to pursue their investigations. 

 They could not be accurate on questions of this nature. It is very 

 probable that maize came into Europe by way of Turkey and the 

 Levant, which gave it the name which it then bore, of Turkish wheat, 

 &c., and which would be likely to deceive a naturalist of the six- 

 teenth century, in regard to its origin. Then it is very easy to con- 

 ceive how a careless statement made by a writer three hundred years 

 ago, would be takerx on his authority, and thus gain a credit which it 

 did not deserve. Instances of this occur on almost every page of 

 the old historical writers, as any one who is at all familiar with the 

 works of Sir Thomas More and the old chroniclers, can testify. 



It is a remarkable fact that maize is not mentioned by travellers 

 who visited Asia and Africa before the discovery of America. These 

 travellers to foreign parts were often very minute in their descrip- 

 tions of the productions of the soil. Bat the maize was never de- 

 scribed in Europe until after the discovery. This, most certainly ar- 

 gues very strongly that it was not known. 



It is also a remarkable fact that it was universally cultivated on 

 the western continent at the time when the Europeans landed here. 

 This is proved by P. Martyr,i Ercil]a,2 Jean de Lery,^ not to men- 

 tion Torquemada* and others, who tell us that the first Europeans 

 who set foot on the Ne-w World saw among other wonders a gigantic 

 wheat with long stalks, and that this wonderful wheat Avas the maize. 

 The harvesting of it was celebrated by the people with religious fes- 

 tivals. Sacrifices were prepared with it. With it the Mexicans 

 formed idols. It constituted almost the only food for all the tribes in 

 Mexico, in Peru, in Brazil, at the Orinoco and the Antilles. It ser- 

 ved for money. A theft of seven ears the Mexican laws punished 

 with death. 



It is a still more curious fact that immediately after its introduc- 

 tion into Europe, it spread with great rapidity into every country 

 and province where the climate was thought to be suited to it. Now 



1 De Orbc novo decades. III. 1516. 



2 Alonzo de Ercilla, Araucaiia. Madrid, 1577. 



3 Historia d'un voyage fail en la terre du Bresil, 1723. 

 •4 Delia Monarquia Indiana Tom, I. p 158. 



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