Que trajo los primeros de la tierra.
Hubo tambien capones y gallinas,
Que se multiplicaron desque vino
Nicolao Fedriman de Venezuela,
Que al Nuevo reino trajo las primeras.”
[4] Fray Bernardo Lugo, in his Gramatica de la lengua Mosca, published in 1619, and Padre Simon, in his Noticias Historiales, written shortly after, were the first to state that the language spoken was the Chibcha. Muisca is a Chibcha word signifying person. [↑]
[5] The Chibchas, like many people living on the Andean plateaus to-day, derived their chief sustenance from potatoes and maize, both of which are indigenous to South America. Oviedo speaks of the potato as their principal aliment, as it was always served with whatever else they ate. According to Castellanos, it was a favorite article of diet with the conquistadores, as well as with the Indians.
Maize afforded them meat and drink, for out of it they made bread and their highly-prized beverage, chicha, which is still so popular among their descendants. Of the paramount importance of this article of food among the aborigines of the New World, John Fiske, in his valuable work, The Discovery of America, writes as follows:—
“Maize or Indian corn has played a most important part in the history of the New World, as regards both the red men and the white men. It could be planted without clearing or ploughing the soil. It was only necessary to girdle the trees with a stone hatchet, so as to destroy their leaves, and let in the sunshine. A few scratches and digs were made in the ground with a stone digger, and the seed once dropped in took care of itself. The ears could hang for weeks after ripening, and could be picked off without meddling with the stalk; there was no need of threshing or winnowing. None of the Old World cereals can be cultivated without much more industry and intelligence.” Vol. 1, pp. 27, 28. M. Alphonse de Candolle, in his learned work, Origin of Cultivated Plants, seems to regard Colombia as the original home of maize, while he inclines to the opinion that Chile was the point of departure of the potato—Solanum tuberosum. [↑]