INTRODUCTION OF SHELL-MONEY TO NEW ENGLAND. 235 



the Indians, and hence the fathom became the unit of trade.* In the 

 Carolinas, according to Lawson, the strings were measured in cubits, "as 

 much in length as will reach from the elbow to the little finger." 



The Indians themselves were particular as to quality and size of the 

 beads, for upon the elegance of their finish (to speak scientifically, the 

 amount of labor and time they represented) depended their value. " When 

 these beads are worn out," says Lindstrom, " so that they cannot be strung 

 neatly and evenly on the thread, they no longer consider them as good. 

 Their way of trying them is to rnb the whole threadfnl on their noses; 

 if they find it full and even, like glass beads, then they are considered 

 good, otherwise they break and throw them away. Their manner of 

 measuring their strings is by the length of their thumbs: from the end 

 of the nail to the first joint makes six beads." This was in New Jersey. 



Seeing that profit and wealth lay in the possession of wampum, the 

 burghers along the Hudson River, as the easiest way of getting rich, 

 began to make it. With their tools of steel this could be done very 

 rapidly; but with absence of the painstaking care with which the In- 

 dian wrought came a loss of value. To widen their market it was car- 

 ried to New England. Considering the many references to it, and the un- 

 doubted fact that it was made there aboriginally as well as southward, I 

 am at a loss to understand Gowan's statement that " the use of wampum 

 was not known in New England until it was introduced there in October, 

 1627, by Isaac de Hazier, who was acting as a sort of amity-treaty com- 

 missioner from the New Netherlands to Plymouth Colony. He carried 

 wampum thither and bought corn. To this introduction the pious Hub- 

 bard attributes all the wars which ensued between the Puritans and the 

 Indians. " Whatever were the honey in the mouth of that beast of trade, 

 there was a deadly sting in the tail," he wails out. " For it is said they 

 (the Dutch) first brought our people to the knowledge of wampam-peag ; 

 and the acquaintance therewith occasioned the Indians of these parts to, 

 learn the skill to make it, by which, as by the exchange of money, they 

 purchased store of artillery, both from the English, Dutch, and French, 

 which proved a fatal business to those that were concerned in it. It 

 seems the trade thereof was at first, by strict proclamation, prohibited by 



* " They fashion both sorts like beads, and String them into several lengths, but the 

 most usual measure is a Fathom ; for when they make any considerable bargain, they 

 usually say so many Fathom. So many Black or so many white Wampams make a far- 

 thing, a penny, and so on : which Wampam or Indian Money we valued above the Spanish 

 or English Silver in any Payments, because of trading with the Indians in their own 

 coin." — Woolbt's New York, 1679. 



