502 NATIVE COUNTRY Of THE POTATO. 



sents us with another very curious problem, when we cohsj-* 

 hot known m der it in an historical point of view. It appears certain, that 

 the*a^rivaf of^ *^^^ P^**"* ^^^ "^* known in Mexico before the arrival of 

 the Spauiards. the Spaniards, It was cultivated at this epocha in Chili, 

 Peru, Quito, in the kingdom of New Granada, in all the 

 Cordillera of the Andes, from the 40° of south latitude to 

 the 50° of north latitude. It is supposed by botanists, that 

 it grows spontaneously in the mountainous part of Peru. 

 On the other hand, the learned, who have inquired into 

 the introduction of potatoes into Europe, afRrm, that the 

 potato was found in Virginia by the first settlers sent there 

 by sir Walter Raleigh, in 1584. Now how can we con- 

 ceive, that a plant, said to belong originally to the southern 

 hemisphere, was found under cultivation at the foot of the 

 Alleghaney mountains* ; while it was unknown in Mexico, 

 and the mountainous and temperate regions of the West 

 Indies ? Is it probable, that Peruvian tribes may have pe- 

 netrated northward to the banks of the Rappahannocf , ia 

 Virginia ? or have potatoes first come from north to south* 

 like the nations, who, from the seventh century, have suca- 

 cessively appeared on the table-land of Anahuac? In 

 either of these hypotheses, how came the cultivation not 

 to be introduced or preserved in Mexico?'* 



* Why at the foot of the Alleghaney mountains ? admitting, that 

 the potato was really bi-ought from Virginia in 1585 or 1586, it did 

 not come from {he foot of these North American Andes. No English- 

 man had penetrated, at this early period, as far as the Alleghaney 

 chain ; or even, I believe, as far as the more eastern chains, called 

 the Blue Ridge and North Mountain. Th? Spaniards, indeed, near 

 half a century earlier than this period, had even crossed these moun- 

 tains in a more southern clime. I allude to the march ©f F. de Loto's 

 army. And these Spaniards, I may b«'eadd, found no potatoes. Mr. 

 Humboldt takes the openawk to be the potato. But the openawk 

 was net a mountain plant. 



-j- Why mention the Rappahaunoc ? Has any one said, that the 

 openawk was found especially in the neighbourhood of this river ? I 

 have no doubt, however, that Peruvian tribes, that is, Indians spe- 

 cifically, and even varietally, the same, inhabited both the valley of 

 Qvito, and the lands which border upon the Rappahaunoc, in Virginia ; 

 and even upon much more northern stieams. But the discussion of 

 this subject belongs to another essay. 



♦' We 



