446 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



of Queen Elizabeth, appears to have been a botanist of some repute. 

 That nariot's views concerning the wonderful properties of tobacco 

 were not concurred in by all there can be no doubt, for "it was feared," 

 says Camden, "that by the practice of smoking tobacco Anglorum 

 corpora in harbor inn degencrasse rideantur.''^^ 



"Lane and his associates" [of Ealeigh's expedition], says Robertson, 

 "by their constant intercourse with the Indians, had acquired a relish 

 for their favorite enjoyment of smoking tobacco. They brouglit with 

 them a specimeu of this new commodity to England and taught their 

 countrymen the method of nsing it."- 



This is reiterated by Stith, who adds that Raleigh is said to have 

 taken a pipe of tobacco a little before he went to the scaffold, and quotes 

 Camden as thinking that Lane and his associates carried the first 

 tobacco to England, and says : " Sir Walter Raleigh, a man of gaiety and 

 fashion, readily gave in to it, and by his interest and example soon 

 brought it into such vogue at court that many great ladies, as well as 

 noblemen, made no scruple sometimes to take a pipe. It is certain the 

 Queen gave great countenance and encouragement to it as a vegetable 

 of singular strength and power, which might therefore prove of benefit 

 to mankind and advantage to the nation."^ 



There are many anecdotes connected with Raleigh and his use of 

 tobacco, none of which has been oftener repeated than the following: 

 "Sir Walter was smoking in his study, and, being thirsty, called for his 

 servant to bring him a tankard of beer. Jack hastily obeyed, and Sir 

 Walter, forgetting to cease smoking, was in the act of spouting a volume 

 of smoke from his mouth when his servant entered. Jack, seeing his 

 master smoking prodigiously at his mouth, thought no other but he 

 was all on fire inside, having never seen such a phenomenon in all 

 England before, dashed a quart of liquor at once in his face, and ran 

 out screaming, ' Massa's afire ! Massa's afire ! ' "^ 



On another occasion " Sir Walter wagered with the Queen that he 

 would determine exactly the weight of smoke which went off in a pipe 

 of tobacco. This he did by first weighing the tobacco and then care- 

 fully preserving and weighing the ashes ; and the Queen readily granted 

 that what was wanted in the prime weight must be evaporated in smoke. 

 And when she paid the wager she said pleasantly that she had heard 

 of many laborers in the fire that turned their gold into smoke, but 

 Raleigh was the first who turned his smoke into gold."^ 



Spenser, who was a friend of Raleigh, shows in the Faerie Queene, 



' Sir Robert H. Schomburgk, Raleigh's discovery of Guiana, Introduction, p. 

 xxxiv (Haklnyt Society). 



"2 William Robertson, America, p, lix. 



•''William Stith, The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia, 

 p. 21, New York, 1865, Sabino reprint. 



■• Samuel G. Drake, History and Biography of the Indians, p. 113, note, Boston, 1857. 



'^Stith, The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia, p. 21. 



