CHAP. XXXIX.] ON INDIAN CORN. 343 



carry on a campaign with honour and spirit against 

 such an enemy. 



In the course of conversation, I found that Mr. 

 Gallatin was of opinion that the indigenous civilisa 

 tion of several Indian tribes, and of the Mexicans 

 and Peruvians among others, was mainly due to the 

 possession of a grain so productive, and, when dried in 

 the sun, so easily kept for many years, as the maize 

 or Indian corn. The potatoe, which, when healthy, can 

 rarely be stored up and preserved till the next harvest, 

 may be said, on the contrary, to be a food on which 

 none but an improvident race would lean for support. 

 &quot;I have long been convinced,&quot; said Mr. Gallatin, &quot;that 

 the Indian corn has also given a powerful impulse to 

 the rapid settlement of the whites in Ohio, Indiana, 

 Illinois, and other western States. In one of my 

 first excursions to the West, I saw a man felling 

 trees in March, who, when I returned in October, 

 had harvested a crop of Indian corn, grown on the 

 very spot. He had also the leaves and stems of the 

 plant to serve for winter fodder for his cattle. He 

 was an emigrant, newly arrived, and entirely with 

 out the capital indispensable to enable him to culti 

 vate wheat, which must have been twelve or thirteen 

 months in the ground before it could be reaped.&quot; 



Next day the stirring news of the invasion of the 

 Mexican territory by the American army, reached 

 New York, and I met the news-boys, in every street, 

 crying out, &quot; War with Mexico ! &quot; Soon afterwards 

 I saw the walls covered with placards, headed with 

 the words, &quot; Ho, for the halls of the Montezumas ! &quot; 



The mayor had called a public meeting to ex- 

 Q 4 



