About 600,000 acres of land in Munster were declared forfeited to the
Crown on the fall of the Desmonds. This was parceled out to "Gentlemen
undertakers" on certain conditions; one being that they were bound,
within a limited time, to people their estates with "Well-affected
Englishmen." Raleigh became an undertaker, and by a legal instrument,
bearing the Queen's name, dated from Greenwich, last of February, 1586,
he had given to him 42,000 acres of this land, and by a further grant
the year after, the Monastery of Molanassa and the Priory of Black
Friars, near Youghal.[5]
Famine followed close upon the war with the Desmonds. "At length," says
Hooker, "the curse of God was so great, and the land so barren both of
man and beast, that whatsoever did travel from one end to the other of
all Munster, even from Waterford to Smerwick, about six score miles, he
should not meet man, woman, or child, saving in cities or towns, nor yet
see any beast, save foxes, wolves, or other ravening beasts."[6] Such
was Munster when the great colonizer planted the potato there, in the
hope, perhaps, of averting future famines!
It is generally assumed by writers on Ireland that, soon after the
introduction of the potato, it became a general favourite, and was
cultivated in most parts of the country as an important crop.
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