618 MOUND EXPLORATIONS. 



Ill the "Relatiou," l)y Vimoiit,' twenty -nine tribes living sonthof the 

 lakes are mentioned as sedentary and enltivators of the soil. Le Clercq 

 says'' that "The Algoinqniiis, Iroquois, Hiirons, Nipsiriniens, Neuters, 

 and Five Nations were indeed sedentary." 



Du Pratz says : ' 



"All the nations I h-ive known, and who inliabit from tlie sea as far as the Illinois, 

 ■and even farther, which is a space of about 1,500 miles, carefully cultivate the maize 

 corn, which they make their jiriucipal subsistence."' 



According to Jacques Cartier, who visited Canada as early as 1535, 

 and was, so far as known, the first European explorer who passed up 

 the St. Lawi'ence, the Indians of Hochelaga (now Montreal) " had good 

 and large fields full of corn, * * * which they preserve in garets 

 at the tops of their houses."^ 



Chaniplain,^ A. D. 1010, speaking of the Indians immediately around 

 Lakes Erie and Ontario, says that most of them cultivated corn, which 

 was their priucii)al article of food, and which they also exchanged for 

 skins with the hunter trilies living to the north. They stored it in the 

 tops of their houses, and cultivated it in quantities so that they might 

 have on hand a supply large enough to last three or four years in case 

 of failure ot the crop.* 



The wheat (Indian corn) being thus sown in the manner that we do beans, of a 

 grain obtained only from a stalk or cane, the cane bears two or three spikes, and 

 each spike yields a hundred, two hundred, sometimes 400 grains, and some 5'ield 

 even more. The cane grows to the lieight of a man ami more, and is very large (it 

 does not grow so well or so high, nor the spike as large uor the grain so good in 

 Canada nor in France, as there) in the Huron country. 



The grain ripens in four months and in some places in three. After this they 

 gather it and bind it by the leaves turned u]) at the top and arrange it in sheaves, 

 which they hang all along the length of the cabin from top to bottom on poles, 

 which they arrange in the form of a rack (rattelier) descending to the front edge 

 of the bench. All this is so nicely done that it seems like tapestry hung the whole 

 length of the cabins. The grain being well dried and suitable to press (or pound), 

 the women and girls take out the grains, clean them, and pnt them in their large 

 tubs or tuns made for this purpose, and ])laced in their porch or in one corner of the 

 cabin." 



The amount of corn of the Iroquois destroyed by Denonville in 1687 

 is estimated at more than a million bushels." According to Tonty, 

 who took p^rt in the expedition, they were seven days engaged in cut- 

 ting up the corn of four vilteges.' 



It is unnecessary to allude to the testimony given by Mr. Carr in 



'Jesuit Relation.s for 1640 (Repriut 1858) vol. i, p. 35. 



-Esliih. of the Faith. Sheas trausl. (18S1), vol. I, p. llu. 



3 1)11 I'latz, Hist.La., vol. It. p. L'il!) (Lonilon, 1763.) Freneli eil.. I'aris. 1758, vol. in, p. 8. 

 . "Hakluyt's Voyaj;es (Lomluu, 181(i), vol. ui, p. 272. 



^Voyages tie (,'hamplaiii, liv. IV. cap. 8, Paris. U!H2. 



'Voyajies de Chaniplain, p. 301. Sagard, Voyagesa ilu parades Huroii.s, Paris. 1632. p. 134. £dn. 

 1865, part 1, p. 92. 



'Sagard, Voyages des Hiirona (cdii. 1865), jit. 1, p. 93. 



8Charlevoi.\, Hi.st. Xouv. Fiaiu'e. Paris 1744, v, II, p. 355. Doc. Hist. N. Y. 1st series, 1849, p. 238. 



"Hist. Coll. La., vol, I. p. 70. 



