POTATOE. 93 



several varieties in colour and shape of these, 

 as well as of the common potatoe. They are 

 much cultivated by the negroes in the West 

 Indies. The roots pounded are often made 

 into a kind of pudding called a Pone, which 

 is baked or boiled ; mashed or fermented, 

 they make a pleasant and cool drink called 

 Mobby ; when distilled, they afford an excel- 

 lent spirit; and mixed with an equal quantity 

 of flour, they make excellent bread, retaining 

 the moisture several days longer than wheaten 

 bread— a circumstance by no means unim- 

 portant in that warm climate. The bread is 

 also said to be very nourishing, and easy of 

 digestion. 



Hughes says, in his Natural History of 

 Barbadoes (published 1750), that potatoes are 

 there looked upon as so beneficial, that there 

 is scarce an estate where there is not a con- 

 siderable quantity of land planted with them; 

 for these, with the yams and plantains, serve 

 instead of bread to most of the middling 

 classes, and almost entirely to the poorer 

 sort : they make a kind of bread or cake of 

 these roots. The potatoes being first grated, 

 and the juice pressed out, the meal is mixed 

 with sugar and spice, and made into paste, 

 which being baked in the oven in the form 



