CHAPTER IV. 



TOBACCO IN EUROPE. 



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HE discovery of the tobacco plant in America by 

 European voyagers aroused their cupidity no less 

 than their curiosity. They saw in its use by the 

 Indians a custom which, if engrafted upon the civil- 

 ization of the Old World, would prove a source of revenue 

 commensurate with their wildest visions of power and wealth. 

 This was particularly the case with the Spanish and Portu- 

 guese conquerors, whose thirst for gold was gratified by its 

 discovery. The finding by the Spaniards of gold, silver, and 

 the balmy plant, and by the Portuguese of valuable and 

 glittering gems, opened up to Spain and Portugal three 

 great sources of wealth and power. But while the Spaniards 

 were the first discoverers of the plant there seems to be con- 

 flicting opinions as to which nation first began its culture, and 

 whether the plant was cultivated first in the Old World or 

 in the New. Humboldt says : 



" It was neither from Virginia nor from South America, 

 but from the Mexican province of Yucatan that Europe 

 received the first tobacco seeds about the year 1559.* The 

 Spaniards became acquainted with tobacco in the West India 

 Islands at the end of the 15th Century, and the cultivation 

 of Tobacco preceded the cultivation of the potato in Europe 

 more than one hundred and twenty years. When Sir Walter 

 Raleigh brought tobacco from Virginia to England in 1586, 



*Mussry in his Essay on Tobacco rocords " That Cortcz sent ft specimen of the plant to the 

 king of Spain la 1519. Yucatan was discovered by Hernandez Cordova In 1517, and In 1519 was 



Ulcd. 



