NATIVE COUNTRY OF TIlE POTATO* 303 



** We know not a single fact," continues Mr. Humboldt, Nosinglefsct 

 *♦ by which the history of South America is connected with '^"'^*" to con. 

 that of North America. In Ne\v Spain, the flux of nations tor> of No/ih 

 was from north to south. A great analogy of manners and ^"^ South 

 civilization has been thought to be perceived between the 

 Toultecas, driven by a pestilence from the table-land of 

 Anahuac in the middle of the twelfth century, and the 

 Peruvians under the government of Manco Capac, It 

 might, no doubt, have happened, that people from Aztjas 

 advanced beyond the isthmus or gulf of Panama ; but 

 it is very improbable*, that by migrations from south to 

 north the productions of Peru, Quito, and New Granada, 

 ever passed to Mexico and Canada". 



*' From all these considerations, it follows," says Mr. The openawk 

 Humboldt, ** that, if the colonists sent out by Raleigh ^upposlTby 

 really found potatoes among the Indians of Virginia, we Humboldt t« 

 can hardly refuse our assent to the idea, that this plant was ^ i^t'O'* 

 originally wild in some country of the northern hemisphere, 

 as it was in Chili. The interesting researches carried on 

 by Messrs. Becmaney, Banks, and Dryander, prove, that 

 ■vessels, which returned from the bay of Albermarle in 15S6, 

 first carried potatoes into Ireland ; and that Thomas Har- 

 riot, more celebrated as a mathematician than as a naviga- 

 tor, described this nutritive root by the name of openauokm 

 Gerard in \i\s Herbal, published in 1597) calls it Virginian 

 potatak, or novembega. The very name by which Har- 

 riot describes the potato, seems to prove its Virginian origin. 

 Were the savages to have a word for a foreign plant, and 

 would not Harriot have known the name papaf ?" 



Baron Humboldt seems, upon the whole, to think the Another mis 

 solanum tuberosum was really found in Virginia ; and that T idf ^"™* 

 it is the openawk of Herriot. He intimates too, that it was 

 found in a cultivated state, in that country. For this sus- 

 picion there is no authority. Even the openawk was not 

 cultivated. It is evident, however, that Mr, Humboldt, 



* I think it very probable. 



•f Political Essay on the kingdom of New Spain. By Alexander 

 de Humboldt. Vol. II, p. 344—351. English translatiwn. New- 

 York, 1811, ©ctavo. 



while 



