10 INDIAN CORN CULTURE. 



war in 1637 the English destroyed over two 

 hundred acres of corn planted by the Indians.- 

 The Puritans in King Philip's war, in 1675, took 

 "what he had worth, spoiled the rest, and also 

 took possession of one thousand acres of corn, 

 which was harvested by the English."* Wher- 

 ever the early explorers or voyagers went they 

 found either fields of Indian corn or the Indians 

 using the grain for food. Capt. John Smith, in 

 his "Indians of Virginia," tells of the methods 

 of planting at that time (1608). Cabeca de Vaca 

 found an abundance of maize near Tampa Bay, 

 Florida, in 1528.t In 1679 La Salle, when on a 

 trip through the Great Lakes and across Illinois, 

 found large quantities of stored corn in a vil- 

 lage of Illinois Indians and took about forty 

 bushels of it.J Columbus in 1498 writes to 

 Ferdinand and Isabella of the maize plant and 

 of fields eighteen miles long. The early ex- 

 plorers also noted maize as an important article 

 of food for man in Yucatan, Nicaragua, and 

 Mexico. 



Harshberger's conclusions. — In his impor- 

 tant historical study of maize, Harshberger 

 says:§ 



"The evidence ot archaeology, history, ethnology, and, 

 philology, which points to central and southern Mexico as 



* Harshberger; Maize: A botanical study, etc., p. 131. 

 t Torrey Botanical Club Bulletin, VI, p. 86. 

 t Harshberger; Maize: A botanical study, etc., p. 135. 

 i Ibid., ip. 151. 



