B.C. 75,000-45,000 Scholars debate when Asians first crossed the Bering land bridge and entered North America. The first human hunter-gathers who arrived in North America lived simultaneously with Pleistocene animals that included mammoths, mastodons, and saber-toothed cats. These first Americans did not have domesticated animals or livestock, except the dog. [1: 16] B.C. 4000. A wide variety of plants and animals native to the Americas were domesticated in North, Central, and South America. Among the more prominent were: artichoke, avocado, kidney beans, lima beans, blackberry, cacao (chocolate), cassava, chili pepper, cranberry, guava, maize (corn), papaya, peanut, pecan, pineapple, potato, pumpkin, raspberry, sunflower, tomato, and the turkey. [1: 17] A.D. 1492 [On] this island, there are many spices and great mines of gold and of other metals. [The Indians] endure cold with the help of meats which they eat with many and extremely hot spices. I believe that I have found rhubarb and cinnamon, and I shall find a thousand other things of value. Christopher Columbus First Voyage, 1492 [1: 18] A.D. 1495 And though we have enough biscuit, as well as [wheat], for some while, yet it is necessary that some reasonable amount should also be sent, for the voyage is long and provision cannot be made every day, and likewise some salt meat, I mean bacon, and other salt flesh, which would be better than that which we have brought on this voyage. As to livestock, sheep and lambs above all, more females than males, and some calves and young heifers are necessary, so that they should come. Christopher Columbus. Second Voyage. 1495 [1: 19] A.D. 1513 Ponce de León joined Columbus on his second voyage to the Caribbean and demonstrated his ability as an administrator in Haiti. He was appointed local Governor and raised cattle and horses. He landed in Florida in 1513 and claimed the land for the king of Spain. [1: 20] |
The word maize comes from the Taino language? Taino was the dialect spoken by the Arawaks, the Caribbean people who first greeted Columbus in 1492. The term maize became a loan word in Spanish and subsequently entered other European languages. The word corne, spelled today as corn, comes from the old English dialect term for grain and specifically is used to designate wheat. When the English-speaking Pilgrims encountered maize for the first time, they called it Indian Corne because they did not know or recognize the plant, but they knew it was a grain. [1: 8] |
A.D. 1518 Forks first mentioned as a European eating utensil. American colonists were accustomed to using spoons to hold down food as it was cut, then putting down the knife and shifting the spoon to the right hand, then transferring food to the mouth by spoon. Forks were two pronged until the end of the eighteenth century, when three and four pronged forks became the standard. Americans were late in the adoption of the fork. Americans mostly used knives until after the Civil War. [1: 21] A.D. 1519 Early next morning a few Indians approached us in a canoe bringing several chickens and enough maize to make a meal for a few men and bidding us accept these and depart from their land... Hernando Cortéz. 1519. [1: 22] Hunter-gathers entered North America before domestication of the chicken, and therefore could not have brought them to the New World. The above passage reveals that chickens were in the New World before the arrival of Columbus. The question remains: who introduced them? Did African, Chinese, or Indian explorers reach the New World before Columbus? A.D. 1539 About forty leagues from Quiguate stood Coligoa, at the foot of a mountain, in the vale of a river of medium size... The soil [here] was rich, yielding maize in such profusion that the old was thrown out of store to make room for the new grain. Beans and pumpkins were likewise in great plenty: both were larger and better than those of Spain: the pumpkins, when roasted, have nearly the taste of chestnuts. Fidalgo de Elvas. 1557 Member of the De Soto Expedition [1: 23] A.D. 1540 In five days [we] reached a village which was on a rock called Acuco [Acoma Pueblo], having a population of about 200 men . . . on the top they had room to sow and store a large amount of corn, and cisterns to collect snow and water. . . They made a present of a large number of turkey cocks with very big wattles, much bread, tanned deer skins, pine nuts [piñon], flour [corn meal], and corn. Pedro de Castañada, 1596 Member of the Coronado Expedition [1: 24] A.D. 1565 Spanish colony of St. Augustine was founded in Florida by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. [1: 25] |
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