THE POTATO SAFFOKD 523 



POTATOES CULTIVATED BY THE INDIANS OF SOUTHEKN CHILE 



In November, 1578, Sir Francis Drake encountered tubers of 

 Solanuni tuberosum in use as a food staple by the Indians of 

 southern Chile, where they are still extensively cultivated. Their 

 occurrence at sea level in this part of South America is not sin<^ular, 

 for, as all students of plant distribution well know, many species 

 characteristic of the Andean vegetation thrive at altitudes lower and 

 lower as they extend southward, reaching sea level in the region of 

 the Chonos Archipelago and the Straits of Magellan. Within less 

 than a decade after Drake's visit, these tubers had become a regular 

 food on Spanish ships. On March 16, 1587, Thomas Cavendish, 

 stopping at St. Mary Island, near Concepcion, southern Chile, found 

 " Cades of strawe filled with potato rootes, which were very good to 

 eat, ready made up in the storehouses for the Spaniards, against 

 they should come for their tribute." At this very early date, less than 

 a century after the discovery of America, Cavendish found wheat 

 and barley in cultivation in southern Chile, and "Hogges and 

 Hermes " had also been introduced. " The Indians of this Island," 

 said Master Francis Pretty, who wrote the narrative of the voyage, 

 •'are held in such slavery by them (the Spaniards) th. "^ they dare 

 not eate a Henne or an Hogge themselves. But the Spania. ;ls have 

 made them all in that Hand Christians. Thus wee fitted ourselves 

 here with corn as much as wee would have and as many Hogges as 

 wee had salt to powder them withal, and great store of Hennes, with 

 a number of Bagges of Potato rootes, and about 500 dried Dogge- 

 fishes, and Guinie Wheat which is called maiz (by the Spaniards)." 



Sailing northward, looting the coast towns as he went, Cavendish 

 captured the Santa Anna, the Spanish " admirall," or flagship, off 

 the coast of Mexico, taking from her three young Filipinos, " borne 

 in the Isles of Manilla " ; also a Spaniard, whom he caused to be 

 hung, after having been piloted by him from the Mexican coast to 

 Guam and the Philippines. The " potato rootes " he encountered in 

 the latter islands were not Solanum tuberosum, but sweet potatoes, 

 Ipomoea batatas, easily recognizable by their Aztec name, " Camote," 

 which had accompanied them from Mexico, and which they still 

 bear in those islands.^^ 



Cavendish, like Drake, returned to England around the Cape of 

 Good Hope. Whether he brought back potatoes with him is not 

 known, but it is quite certain that it was not he who introduced them 



23 Camotes, or sweet potatoes, are the principal food crop of the hill-tribes of northern 

 Luzon, where they are extensively cultivated on terraced hillsides. It is declared by the 

 natives that their fathers always possessed thcin. 



