The extent and character of the trade relations between the Indians of the same tribe and those of different tribes can only be inferred relations from known facts which render it unquestionable that such among existed For instance, tobacco, which was in universal use e m exchang by obtained be to had , America North the aborigines of copThe growth. its to soil and climate by ed all localities unadapt per ornaments remarked by Hudson on the persons of the Indians

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

whom lit- met in New York Bay must have been wrought out of metal obtained by barter or capture from distant parts of the country, since no deposits of native copper exist in this region. And Indian relics of various kinds are constantly found which bear no connection to the prevailing remains of the locality where discovered, but on the other hand are perfectly characteristic of other localities. For purposes of exchange, as well as for ornament, the Indians used wampum, a name given to a certain class of cylindrical beads, usually one-fourth of an inch long and drilled lengthwise, which were chiefly manufactured from the shells of the common hard-shell (dam ( \rnus mercciiuria). The blue or violet portions of the shells furnished the material for the dark wampum, which was held in much higher estimation than that made of the white portions, or of the spines of certain univalves. According to Roger Williams, one of the earliest New England writers on the Indians, six of the white beads and three of the blue were equivalent to an English penny. The author of an instructive treatise on k' Ancient and Aboriginal Trade in North America"1 (from which some of the details in the preceding pages are taken) says of the wampum belts, so often mentioned in connection with the history of the eastern tribes: Thev consisted of broad straps of leather, upon which white and blue wampum-beads were sewed In rows, being so arranged that by the contrast of the light and dark colors certain figures were produced.