MAIZB. 
8i 
witli a skill and perseverance for which the natiYes of 
these mountains have attained a great renown." 
Maize is no less important to the rapidly-growing 
nations of America than the rice-plant to the followers 
of Buddha or of Brama. The time when the cereals of 
the Old World were first transplanted from their unknown 
Asiatic homes is, and ever will be, hidden in legendary 
obscurity; but the epoch when maize was for the first 
time seen and t^ted by Earopeans lies before iis in the 
broad daylight of authentic history. For^ when CJolumbus 
discovered Cuba, in the year 1492, he found maize culti- 
vated by the Indians, and was equally pleased with the 
taste of the roasted grains and astonished at their size. 
in the following year, when he made his triumphant entiy 
into Barcelona, and presented his royal patrons — Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella — with specimens of the various pi^oduc- 
tions of the New World, the maiae-spikes he laid down 
before their throne, though but little noticed, were in 
reality of far greater importance than the heaps of gold 
which were so falsely deemed to be the richest prizes of 
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