124 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [ETH, ANN. 33 
The seeds of watermelons are like those of French melons. Their shape 
is oval and flat, being as thick at the ends as towards the middle; their 
length is about six lines, and their breadth four. Some are black and others 
red; but the black are the best, and it is those you ought to chuse for sowing, 
if you would wish to have the best fruit; which you can not fail of if they are 
not planted in strong ground where they would degenerate and become red. 
MELONS GROWN BY INDIANS OF VIRGINIA BEFORE THE COMING OF 
WHITE MEN 
... but none of the Toils of Husbandry were exercised by this happy 
People, except the bare planting a little Corn and Melons, ... And indeed 
all that the Hnglish have done since their going thither, has been only to 
make some of these Native Pleasures more scarce... . hardly making Im- 
provements equivalent to that Damage.’ 
MELONS FOUND BY LA SALLE IN TEXAS IN 1687 
This instrument [wooden hoe] serves them instead of a hoe, or spade, for 
they have no iron tools. When the land has been thus tilled, or broken up, the 
women sow and plant the Indian corn, beans, pompions, watermelons and 
other grain and garden ware, which is for their sustenance. [Account of the 
Cenis, (Caddos), 1687.]? 
... We met a company of Indians, with axes, going to fetch barks of trees 
to cover their cottages. They were surprised to see us, but having made signs 
to them to draw near, they came, caressed and presented us with some water- 
melons they had... We halted in one of their cottages, ... There we met 
several women who had brought bread, gourds, beans and watermelons, a sort 
of fruit proper to quench thirst, the pulp of it being no better than water.® 
WATERMELONS AMONG THE ILLINOIS 
We continued some time in Fort Louis [on the Mississippi among the Illinois] 
without receiving any news. Our business was, after haying heard mass, which 
we had the good fortune to do every day, to divert ourselves the best way 
we could. The Indian women daily brought in something fresh; we wanted 
not for watermelons, bread made of Indian corn, baked in the embers, and 
other such things, and we rewarded them by little presents in return.* 
The natives of the country about (among the Poutouatannis [Pottawatomies] 
which is half way to Michilimaquinay) till the land and sow Indian corn, 
melons and gourds.® : 
MELONS AND OTHER CULTIVATED PLANTS AMONG TRIBES OF WESTERN 
PRAIRIES 
The savage peoples who inhabit the prairies have life-long good-fortune; 
animals and birds are found thee in great numbers, with numberless rivers 
abounding in fish. Those people are naturally very industrious, and devote 
1 Beverley, History of Virginia (1705), Book 11, p. 40. 
2Cox, Journeys of La Salle, vol. 11, p. 139. 
3Ibid., pp. 190-191. 
“Tbid., p. 222. 
5Ibid., p. 229. 
