34 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



proposed for the Indians, and twelve thousand for the 

 Company." And each newly created office in the Col- 

 ony had a similar reservation made to support it, great 

 or little, according to its importance. The Governor 

 was allowed one hundred tenants, and from this maxi- 

 mum figure the number was scaled down for the other 

 officials, proportionate to the holdings of each. Under 

 this arrangement provision was made for the support 

 of each office, with a proper number of servants, and 

 in a manner to maintain its dignity. 



Tobacco was from the very first the obsession of 

 every man of them, and their initial clearings were ever 

 being enlarged and pressed further back upon the wil- 

 derness, in order to secure the rich virgin soil necessary 

 for its growth. For the demand of the rest of the 

 world for this one plant alone, promised certain riches 

 almost equal to the fabled treasures which had led the 

 Spaniard Narvaez and his hapless followers to their 

 deaths, nearly a century before. 



Supposed to be a native of South America, Nicotiana 

 Tabacum was under aborginal cultivation for ages be- 

 fore a white man ever set foot on Western shores ; and 

 like the corn, its origin in the wild state is, as a matter 

 of fact, one of the mysteries of a lost past. A Spanish 

 doctor is credited with taking the first tobacco to Eu- 

 rope when he went home, from the West Indies prob- 

 ably, somewhere about 1558; but its use as the Indians 



