Note 260 — NEW ENGLISH CANAAN OR NEW CANAAN.

Josselyn’s account of the Indian wampum is written, more than any other which has come down to us, in the spirit of the New Canaan: “Their Merchandize are their beads, which are their money, of these there are two sorts, blew Beads and white Beads, the first is their Gold, the last their Silver, these they work out of certain shells so cunningly that neither Jew nor Devil can counterfeit, they dril them and string them, and make many curious works with them to adorn the persons of their Sagamores and principal men and young women, as Belts, Girdles, Tablets, Borders for their womens hair, Bracelets, Necklaces, and links to hang in their ears. Prince Phillip, a little before I came for England, coming to Boston, had a coat on and Buskins set thick with these Beads in pleasant wild works, and a broad belt of the same; his Accoutrements were valued at Twenty pounds. The English Merchant giveth them ten shillings a fathom for their white, and as much more or near upon for their blew beads.” (Two Voyages, pp. 142-3.)

There is a much better description of wampum in Lawson’s account of Carolina, quoted by Drake (Book of the Indians, p. 328), in which he says that wampum was current money among the Indians “all over the continent, as far as the bay of Mexico.” Lawson’s explanation of the fact that wampum was not counterfeited to any considerable extent is much more natural than Morton’s. It cost more to counterfeit it than it was worth. “To make this Peak it cost the English five or ten times as much as they could get for it; whereas it cost the Indians nothing, because they set no value upon their time, and therefore have no competitors to fear, or that others will take its manufacture out of their hands.”

Roger Williams (Key, ch. xxvi.) devotes considerable space to this subject, and says: “They [the Indians] hang these strings of money about their necks and wrists; as also upon the necks and wrists of their wives and children. They make [girdles] curiously of one, two, three, foure and five inches thickness and more, of this money which (sometimes to the value of ten pounds and more) they weare about their middle and as a scarfe about their shoulders and breasts. Yea, the Princes make rich Caps and Aprons (or small breeches) of these Beads thus curiously strung into many formes and figures: their blacke and white finely mixt together.” See also Trumbull’s notes in his edition of the Key, and Palfrey, vol. i. p. 31. Parkman (Jesuits in North America, pp. xxxi., lxi.) says of wampum: “This was at once their currency, their ornament, their pen, ink and parchment.” He describes the uses to which it was put among the Hurons and Iroquois, but adds: “The art [of working it] soon fell into disuse, however; for wampum better than their own was brought them by the traders, besides abundant imitations in glass and porcelain.”