TOBACCO AND MAIZE. 265 



less, where tlie thick forest has been partially de- 

 stroyed by fire, and the seed is sown in the regu- 

 lar spaces between the stumj^s. As soon as the 

 leaves are fully grown they are plucked off, and the 

 petiole and a part of the midiib are cut away. Each 

 leaf is then cut transversely into strips about a six- 

 teenth of an inch wide, and these are dried in the 

 sun until a mass of them looks like a bunch of 

 oakum. It is then ready for use, and at once car- 

 ried to market. This cosmopolite, Nicotiana tabacum, 

 is a native of oui' own country. Las Casas says 

 that the Spaniards on Columbus's first voyage saw 

 the natives in Cuba smokiuo: it in tubes called ta- 

 hacos^ hence its name. Mr. Crawford states that, ac- 

 cording to a Javanese chronicle, it was introduced 

 into Java in the year 1601, ninety years after the 

 conquest of Malacca by the Portuguese, who were 

 probably the first Europeans that fui'nished it to the 

 Javanese, as the Dutch had not yet foi*med an estab- 

 lishment on the island. It is now cultivated in 

 every jDart of the archipelago. The fact that this 

 narcotic was originally found only in America leads 

 us to infer, without raising the questions whether our 

 continent received her aboriginal population from 

 some other part of the globe, or whether they were 

 created here, that there never has been any extensive 

 miorration of our Indians or red-men to the islands 

 in the Pacific, or to any distant part of the world ; 

 for if they had colonized any area, in that place at 

 least, its use would undoubtedly continue to ex- 

 ist at the present day, since it is probable that 

 they would never have thought of going to a new 



