ANTIQUITY OF TOBACCO-SMOKING 115 



their arts and leading ideas, and in their form of govern- 

 ment, in their personal appearance — as the yellowish hue of 

 their complexions and the Chinese cast of features, more 

 particularly as noticed among the tribes of Peru and Brazil — 

 he saw indubious evidence of an Asiatic origin. Every- 

 where he discerned indications, not of a primitive race, but 

 of the scattered remnants of a civilisation early lost. It is 

 to be earnestly hoped that an inquiry so full of deep 

 interest may not be allowed to die out for want of 

 organised effort to examine and establish the prehistoric 

 connection of these early inhabitants of America with the 

 Old World, possibly with the earliest dynasties of Egypt, 

 before the ravages of time and advancing civilisation have 

 effaced all traces. These traces are still visible and within 

 reach ; they are revealed in the buried cities of Central 

 America, in elaborate inscriptions on the massive stone- 

 work of Mexico and Guatemala, and in other decorative 

 masonry of a people who have left behind no other 

 vestige of their existence, saving the outcast wanderers 

 who still haunt the forest and prairie. 



The question, then, naturally arises, may not the Chinese 

 and other half civilized nations of Asia, in their prehistoric 

 migrations to the shores of America, have carried with them 

 not only a knowledge of the tobacco-plant and its use, but also 

 the seed of the plant ? Certainly they would do so at one 

 period or another with such things as could be conveniently 

 carried for the supply of their immediate wants. A know- 

 ledge and use of the tobacco-plant in China, before the days 

 of Columbus, is established ; incidental mention is made of 

 tobacco or some other plant that may be used in like manner, 

 in their national records of the year 1300. It has been the 

 custom of every writer on the subject to decry all attempts 

 to seek for the origin of the habit in any part of the Old 



