It may not be amiss to inform our readers that " Seawant or Seawan was one of the names for Indian money, called also Wampum, Wampum peague, and Peague, which consisted of herds formed of the shells of the Gluahaug,^ or wilk, a shell fish which was formerly very abundant on our coasts, but lately of more rare occurrence. It was of two colors, the black being held of twice the value of the white ; indeed the last was formed of another shell fish, called Meteauhock, or Periwinkle, also named Suckautock. The current value was six beads of the white or three of the black for an English penny. The first account we have of the English dealing in this currency was in 1627."<i

A. D. 1650, the following act was passed by the Dutch council of the New Netherlands, in consequence of " the corruption of loose seawant, among which (here are current money that are not perforated, and half finished, and also made out of stone, bone, glass, muscle shells, horns, and some out of wood, and broken ones, whereby occasion is given for repeated complaints from the

» O'Callaghan's Hist. N. N. 211.

b Rec. of to. Roads, Co. Clerk's office, page 1.

t The round clam (venus mercenaria, Lin.) " called Quehog, by the Mohegans- From the internal purple part of this shell fish, the colored beads of the aborigines were manufactured." Nat. Ilist. of N. Y. part 1, Moluscte, 217, 18.

d Alb. Rec Notes of translator.