Chapter SWALLOW to SWEET POTATO of S by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

by the Pacific islanders even as far west as New Zealand. And Dr. Bretschneider is satisfied that the plant is described in Chinese books of the 3rd or 4th century, under the name of Kan-chu (the first syllable=‘sweet’). See B. on Chin. Botan. Words, p. 13. This is the only good argument we have seen for Asiatic origin. The whole matter is carefully dealt with by M. Alph. De Candolle (Origine des Plantes cultivées, pp. 43–45), concluding with the judgment: “Les motifs sont beaucoup plus forts, ce me semble, en faveur de l’origine americaine.”

The “Sanskrit name” Ruktaloo, alleged by Mr. Piddington, is worthless. Alu is properly an esculent Arum, but in modern use is the name of the common potato, and is sometimes used for the sweet potato. Raktalu, more commonly rat-alu, is in Bengal the usual name of the Yam, no doubt given first to a highly-coloured kind, such as Dioscorea purpurea, for rakt- or rat-alu means simply ‘red potato’; a name which might also be well applied to the batatas, as it is indeed, according to Forbes Watson, in the Deccan. There can be little doubt that this vegetable, or fruit as Oviedo calls it, having become known in Europe many years before the potato, the latter robbed it of its name, as has happened in the case of brazil-wood (q.v.). The batata is clearly the ‘potato’ of the fourth and others of the following quotations. [See Watt, Econ. Dict. iii. 117 seqq.]

1519.—“At this place (in Brazil) we had refreshment of victuals, like fowls and meat of calves, also a variety of fruits, called batate, pigne (pine-apples), sweet, of singular goodness.…”—Pigafetta, E.T. by Lord Stanley of A., p. 43.

1540.—“The root which among the Indians of Spagnuola Island is called Batata, the negroes of St. Thomè (C. Verde group) called Igname, and they plant it as the chief staple of their maintenance; it is of a black colour, i.e. the outer skin is so, but inside it is white, and as big as a large turnip, with many branchlets; it has the taste of a chestnut, but much better.”—Voyage to the I. of San Tomè under the Equinoctial, Ramusio, i. 117c.

c. 1550.—“They have two other sorts of roots, one called batata.…They generate windiness, and are commonly cooked in the embers. Some say they taste like almond cakes, or sugared chestnuts; but in my opinion chestnuts, even without sugar, are better.”—Girol. Benzoni, Hak. Soc. 86.

1588.—“Wee met with sixtee or seventee sayles of Canoes full of Sauages, who came off to Sea vnto vs, and brought with them in their Boates, Plantans, Cocos, Potato-rootes, and fresh fish.”—Voyage of Master Thomas Candish, Purchas, i. 66.

1600.—“The Battatas are somewhat redder of colour, and in forme almost like Iniamas (see YAM), and taste like Earth-nuts.”—In Purchas, ii. 957.

1615.—“I took a garden this day, and planted it with Pottatos brought from the Liquea, a thing not yet planted in Japan. I must pay a tay, or 5 shillings sterling, per annum for the garden.”—Cocks’s Diary, i. 11.

1645.—“…pattate; c’est vne racine comme naueaux, mais plus longue et de couleur rouge et jaune: cela est de tresbon goust, mais si l’on en mange souuent, elle degouste fort, et est assez venteuse.”—Mocquet, Voyages, 83.

1764.—

“There let Potatos mantle o’er the ground, Sweet as the cane-juice is the root they bear.”—Grainger, Bk. iv.