seldom pass a day without it, unless they are on a journey, or hunting. We seldom visit an Indian lodge at any time of the day without seeing their sapaen preparing, or seeing them eating the same. It is the common food of all; young and old eat it; and they are so well accustomed to it, and fond of it, that when they visit our people, or each other, they consider themselves neglected unless they are treated to sapaen.” Maize seems, indeed, to have been the chief article of food with those Indians, at least, who lived upon the banks of the Hudson, or in the New Netherlands. Vanderdonck, in describing their food, does not, I believe, once mention the potato, at least not in the parts of his works which have been translated. He speaks of beans as a favorite vegetable of theirs, and one of the few they cultivated, planting them frequently with maize, that the tall stalk of the grain might serve as a support to the vine. He observes, they had several kinds of beans—probably all the native varieties, of which we have several, were cultivated by them. Squashes he mentioned as peculiar to them, and called by the Dutch Quaasiens, from a similar Indian word. Pumpkins were also cultivated by them, and calabashes, or gourds, which, says he, “are the common water-pails of the Indians.” Tobacco is also named as cultivated by them. But, as we have already observed, in his account of their field and garden produce, he says nothing of the potato, which is quite remarkable. The maize, on the contrary, seems to have been eaten at every meal: “Without sapaen,” he continues, “they do not eat a satisfactory meal. And when they have an opportunity they boil fish or meat with it, but seldom when the fish or meat is fresh—but when they have the articles dried hard and pounded fine. * * They also use many dry beans, which
