THOMAS.) OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 619 



regard to agriculture among the Algonquin tribes east of the Hudson 

 river, as Jhis is a part of the history of the early Pilgrim settlement, 

 and is too well known to need repeating here. Had it not been for the 

 corn fui'nished this settlement in its eai'ly days by the Indians willingly 

 or through force, there would be few if any descendants of the Pil- 

 grim fathers to write their history or sing their praises. 



So far as history tells us anything in regard to the Indians of Penn- 

 sylvania and l^ew Jersey in reference to this subject, it shows them to 

 have been cultivators of the soil. 



The evidence iu regard to thb agriculture of the Virginia Indiaiis has 

 been given in part, to which may be added the fact that the Jamestown 

 colony depended entirely on the natives for corn during the first few 

 years of its existence. 



The evidence that the tribes of North and South Carolina were 

 largely dependent upon agriculture for subsistence is found in Lawson's 

 " Carolina " and Adair's " History of tlie American Indians." From 

 the former we learn that the tribes toward the coast cultivated many 

 kinds of " pulse " (by which term he means chiefly corn), part of which 

 they ate green in summer, keeping great quantities for their winter 

 supply.! 



It is from the southern Indians that the farmers of to-day derive the 

 method of constructing cribs on posts to secure their corn against ver- 

 min, as is evident from the following passage in Lawson's History. 



These Santee Indians » » * make themselves cribs after a very curious man- 

 ner, wherein they secure their corn from vermin, which are more freiiuent in these 

 warm climates than countries more distant from the sun. These pretty fabrics are 

 commonly supported with eight feet or posts al)out 7 feet from the ground, well daubed 

 within and without upon laths with loam or clay, which makes them tight and fit 

 to keep out the smallest insect, there being a small door at the gable end, which is 

 made of the same composition. - 



In regard to the Gulf States east of the Mississippi and also Arkan- 

 sas, the evidence on the point under consideration is so abundant that 

 we can not give space here for more than a mere summary. Corn was 

 grown everywhere in great abundance. De Soto and his Spanish fol- 

 lowers, amounting at the outset to more than 600 men, 200 horses, and 

 a drove of hogs, subsisted during the four years they were traversing 

 the country almost wholly upon the products of the natives' fields. 

 The amount of game taken during this time would scarcely have sufficed 

 them for a single month. 



Such expressions as the following are abundant in the narratives of 

 the chroniclers of this ill-starred expedition : 



"In the barns and in the fields great store of maize. * * * Many 

 sown fields which reached from one town to the other." ' "The maize' 

 that was in the other towns was brought hither; and in all, it was 



■London ed. 1718, p. 207. 

 'Raleigh ed. I860,' p. 35. 

 ^Gentlem.™ of Elvas, Hist. ("nil. I,:i , vol. ll. p. 152. 



