SECRETARY'S REPORT. 55 



Having candidly stated the various authorities on this ques- 

 tion, we are now prepared to proceed in our investigation. 

 And first, let us say, that though we should consider it no small 

 gift of the New World to the Old, it is not difficult, on a ques- 

 tion which does not affect either personal or national honor, to 

 free our minds from prejudice and partiality, and study with a 

 desire to ascertain and establish the truth. We are not con- 

 vinced, by the assertions of some or by the arguments of 

 Bonafous and others, that maize originated in the East. They 

 have not made out a satisfactory case. It 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 whicli it then bore, of 

 Turkish wheat, &c., and which would be likely to deceive a 

 naturalist of the sixteenth century, in regard to its origin. 

 Then it is very easy to conceive how a careless statement made 

 by a writer three hundred years ago, would be taken on his 

 authority, and thus gain a credit which it did not deserve. 

 Instances of this occur on almost every page of the old histori- 

 cal writers, as any one who is at all familiar with the works of 

 Sir Thomas More and the old chroniclers, can testify. The 

 name Turkey or Ble Turque, or even Ble d'Inde, is no proof, 

 because we know that the very w^ord " Turkey " in English 

 and " Dindon " (D'Indon) in French is applied to a bird that 

 is allowed to be indigenous to America, and not elsewhere. 



It is a remarkable fact that maize is not mentioned by travel- 

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

 These travellers to foreign parts were often very minute in 

 their descriptions of the productions of the soil. But the maize 

 was never described in Europe until after the discovery. This 

 most certainly argues very strongly that it was not known. In 

 fact it was introduced into Africa by the Portuguese, in the 

 sixteenth century. Into Europe at the beginning, and into 

 England in the middle of that century. 



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, Ercilla, Jean de 



