CHAPTER III. 



TOBACCO IN AMERICA. . 



-E do not find in any accounts of the English 

 voyagers made previous to 1584, any mention of the 

 discovery of tobacco, or its use among the Indians. 

 This may appear a little strange, as Captains Amidas 

 and Barlow, who sailed from England under the auspices of 

 Sir "Walter Raleigh in 1584, on returning from Virginia, had 

 brought home with them pearls and tobacco among other 

 curiosities. But while we have no account of those who 

 returned from the voyage made in 1602 taking any tobacco 

 with them, it is altogether probable that those who remained 

 took a lively interest in the plant and the Indian mode of 

 use ; for we find that in nine years after they landed at 

 Jamestown tobacco had become quite an article of culture 

 and commerce. 



Hamo in alluding to the early cultivation of tobacco by 

 the colony, says, that John Rolfe was the pioneer tobacco 

 planter. In his words : 



" I may not forget the gentleman worthie of much com- 

 mendations, which first took the pains to make triall thereof, 

 his name Mr. John Rolfe, Anno Domini 1612, partly for the 

 love he hath a long time borne unto it, and partly to raise 

 commodities to the adventurers, in whose behalfe I intercede 

 and vouchsafe to hold my testimony in beleefe that during 

 the time of his aboade there, which draweth neere sixe years 



