A. E. Verrill — The Bermuda Islands. 555 



cussion of the Cultivation of Tobacco, and changes in the vege- 

 tation and animal life, contained in the following five chapters, and 

 more especially in connection with Deforesting and the Extermination 

 of the Cahow, etc. So much of the early history of the colony was 

 directly dependent on the production of tobacco, which was the 

 principal article of export for over seventy years, that it seems most 

 desirable to describe the Tobacco Cultivation historically, in the 

 next chapter. (See also p. 518.) 



e. — Tobacco Cultivation, as connected with the Early History of the 



Islands. 



It has been doubted whether the Tobacco plant was growing upon 

 the islands before it was planted by the English, but Silas Jourdan, 

 one of Admiral Somers' shipwrecked party, distinctly stated, in 1610, 

 that they found there "very good tobacco." If so, it was probably 

 introduced, like the wild olives and the hogs, by some unknown 

 earlier visitors. 



The first that was cultivated was planted in 1610, by the three men 

 left on the islands from 1610 to 1612, for in his report of 1612, Gov- 

 ernor Moore stated that those men had " made a great deale tobacco," 

 among other useful products. 



Planting it on a larger scale began in 1613. Froni that time until 

 about 1690 it was the principal commodity exported, but its culture 

 entirely ceased about 1707. During more than sixty years it was also 

 used as the regular currency, in barter, and for paying the wages* 

 and salaries, from that of the government officials down to the cheap- 

 est laborers. Fines and taxes were also paid in tobacco. The value 

 varied, but 2 s and 6 d was commonly the value per pound, up to 

 about 1627. 



* An act was passed by the Assembly in 1623 regulating the prices of labor. 

 The wages of a laborer or toiler was to be no more than 1 lb. of tobacco per 

 day ; of a mason or carpenter 2 lbs. ; for sawing lumber the price was to be 

 3 lbs. of tobacco per 100 feet. If any craftsman should refuse to work when 

 called upon to do so, and when not already employed, or if he should leave a 

 job before it was properly completed, he was to be put in the stocks, or else 

 caged. 



This law was reenacted in 1627. It was found necessary because these crafts- 

 men had refused to do their work unless jjaid exorbitant prices, thus making a 

 corner in the labor market of the islands. Or it might be compared to a 

 "strike" where substitutes could not be found in trades absolutely essential to 

 the welfare of the public. 



In 1630, it was ordained that 12 lbs. of tobacco should be equal in value to 

 1,000 ears of corn. 



