INTRODUCTION OF. 17 



then cultivated only as a garden luxury, was gladly 

 welcomed as a substitute for the bread-corn that had 

 failed them. Their first introduction into this country is 

 supposed to have been about the year 1584, in which 

 year the queen (Elizabeth) granted a royal patent to a 

 company of adventurers for discovering and taking pos- 

 session of new countries not occupied by Christians. 

 Under this sanction a fleet was fitted out for the purpose, 

 through the means chiefly of Sir Walter Raleigh, under 

 whose command it sailed in the ensuing year on its voyage 

 6f discovery. He was accompanied by Harriot, the after- 

 wards well-known mathematician, who collected various 

 specimens of the natural produce of the countries visited ; 

 amongst others that he transmitted to England, were sam- 

 ples of a root greatly esteemed by the natives of a new 

 country in North America, to which the courtier-like 

 gallantry of Sir Walter Raleigh had given the name of 

 " Virginia/' in honour of his maiden queen. This expe- 

 dition returned, and brought home with it a larger quan- 

 tity of the root, and the Indian name, openawk, by 

 which it was called, was changed into the Batatas vir- 

 giniana under which name it is figured and described 

 by Gerarde (1597) to distinguish it from the sweet 

 potato, 1 then already known. The sweet potato, Sir 

 Joseph Banks tells us, was used in England long before 

 the new potato of Virginia was known to us, having 

 been introduced from Spain and the Canary Isles. It 

 is this potato which is alluded to in Shakspeare and old 

 contemporary authors. According to some authorities, 

 however, the potato is said to have been known in 

 Ireland some years previous to Sir W. Raleigh's expedi- 

 tion, having been introduced into that country in 1545, 

 by a sea captain, John Hawkins, who had brought it 



1 The Convolvulus or Dioscorea batatas, a garden plant recently re-intro- 

 duced. 



VOL. II. 34 



