SMOKERS I HAVE NEVER MET 



BY JOHN ERNEST MCCANN 



IT is not certain that Sir Walter Ral- 

 eigh was the man who introduced tobacco 

 to the English people, for King James 

 says in his works (1616), page 215, that 

 it was not brought in by a worthy, virtu- 

 ous personage, but by two or three In- 

 dians, arriving from America, who died 

 shortly after. Cause and effect. But 

 whoever it was, Sir Walter will always 

 have the credit for it, for it will be as 

 impossible to rob him of it, as it is, and 

 ever will be, to deprive Shakespeare of 

 his ever green laurels to place them on 

 the head of Francis Bacon. 



53 



