90 DRINKING TOBACCO. 



and cigars in Christendom, and the royal workshops of 

 Seville are still the most extensive in Europe. Other mon- 

 archs monopolized the business in their dominions, and all 

 began to reap enormous profits from it, as most do at this 

 day. In the year 1615 tobacco was first planted in Holland ; 

 and in Switzerland in 1686. As soon as its cultivation 

 became general in Spain and Portugal the tobacco trade was 

 " farmed out," bringing an enormous revenue to those king- 

 doms. About the beginning of the Seventeenth Century the 

 Portuguese introduced into Hindostan and Persia* two 

 things, pine-apples and tobacco. To the pine-apples no 

 objection seems to have been made ; but to the tobacco the 

 most strenuous resistance was offered by the sovereigns of 

 the two countries. Spite, however, of punishments and pro- 

 hibitions the use of tobacco spread with the rapidity of 

 lightning. 



In England, tobacco taking soon became a favorite custom 

 not only with the loiterers about taverns and other public 

 places, but among the courtiers of Elizabeth. Smoking was 

 called drinking tobacco, as the fashionable method was to 

 " put it through the nose " or exhale it through the nostrils. 

 At this period tobacco seemed to have nearly the same effect 

 as it did upon the Indian, producing a sort of intoxication ; 

 thus in "The Perfuming of Tobacco " (1611) it is said: 

 " The smoke of tobacco drunke or drawen by a pipe, filleth 

 the membranes of the braine, and astonisheth and filleth 

 many persons with such joy and pleasure, and sweet losse of 

 senses, that they can by no means be without it." 



The term "drinking tobacco" was not confined to Eng- 

 land, but was used in Holland, France, Spain and Portugal, 

 as the same method of blowing the smoke through the nos- 

 trils, seemed to be everywhere in vogue. 



The use of tobacco increased very rapidly soon after its 

 importation from Yirginia. The Spaniards and Portuguese 

 had hitherto monopolized the trade, so that it brought 

 enormous prices, some kinds selling for its weight in silver. 

 As soon as its culture commenced in Yirginia the demand for 

 West India tobacco lessened and Yirginia leaf soon came 



