142 



Tobacco. 



Vol. VIII. 



Tobacco. 



The following account of the first intro- 

 duction of this article into England, we find 

 in a note to an interesting historical article 

 by Dr. Win. Bacon Stephens, in the last 

 number of the Magnolia, entitled " The 

 First English Voyage to Virginia.'''' This 

 voyage, merely exploratory, was made in 

 1584, by Captains Amadus and Barlow, at 

 the charge and under the auspices of Sir 

 Walter Raleigh. 



Anderson, in his "History of Commerce," 

 and Oldmixon, say they took home with 

 them some tobacco, the first that was ever 

 seen in England. But this is erroneous, as 

 in Stow's Chronicle, it is stated that Sir 

 John Hawkins carried it thither in the year 

 1565, but it was then considered as a mere 

 drug, and the Chronicle tells us, " all men 

 wondered what it meant." This account of 

 Stow, is confirmed by Hakiuyt, who, in his 

 narrative of the voyage of Sir .lohn Haw- 

 kins, in 1565, thus speaks of the article as 

 observed by that navigator among the Flori- 

 dian Indians. " The Floridians, when they 

 travel, have a kind of herb dried, which, 

 with a cane, and an earthen cup in the end, 

 with fire, and the dried herbs put together, 

 do suck through the cane the smoke thereof, 

 which smoke satisfieth their hunger." Haw- 

 kins probably carried a specimen of it to 

 England, as a curiosity. 



Camden and other authorities, however, 

 assert that tobacco was first taken to Eng- 

 land by Ralph Lane, Governor of the Vir- 

 ginia adventurers, in 1-586. That the colo- 

 nists at that time, learned the use of this 

 narcotic, is evident from what Mr. Ilariot, "a 

 man of science and observation," who ac- 

 companied Mr. Lane, says: "The Indians," 

 he writes, " used to take the fume, or smoke 

 thereof, by sucking it through pipes made 

 of clay. We, ourselves, during the time 

 we were there, used to suck it after their 

 manner, as also since our return." The in- 

 terest and example of Sir Walter Raleigh, 

 "a man of gaiety and fashion," soon brought 

 it into such vogue at court, says Stith, that 

 many great ladies, as well as noblemen, 

 made no scruple to take a pipe. 



We are not informed whether the Queen 

 herself made use of it, but it is certain she 

 gave great countenance and encouragement 

 to it, as a vegetable of singular strength and 

 power, which might therefore prove of benefit 

 to mankind and advantage to the nation. So 

 far, as Mr. Oldys well observes, was this 

 wise princess from the refined taste of her 

 successor, who held tobacco in such abomi- 

 nation, that he not only refused the use of it 

 himself, but endeavoured to destroy and sup- 



press it among his subjects, and would there- 

 by have robbed the crown of what has since 

 proved one of its noblest jewels and most 

 considerable revenues, and the nation of a 

 very advantageous and important branch of 

 trade. Sir Walter Raleigh's tobacco box, 

 with some of his pipes, was lately extant, 

 and laid up among the rarities in the mu- 

 seum of that curious antiquarian, the late 

 Mr. Ralph Thornesby, of Leeds, in York- 

 shire. 



There are also some humorous stories 

 stiil remembered concerning the first use of 

 tobacco; particularly his wager with the 

 Queen, that he would determine exactly 

 the weight of the smoke that wont off in a 

 pipe of tobacco. This he did by first weigh- 

 ing the tobacco, and then carefully preserv- 

 ing and weighing the ashes, and the Queen 

 readily granted that what was wanting in 

 prime weight, must be evaporated in smoke, 

 and when she paid the wager, she said plea- 

 santly, that she had heard of many labour- 

 ers in the fire who had turned their gold 

 into smoke, but Raleigh was the first who 

 had turned his smoke into gold. 



It was also related, that a country servant 

 of his bringing him a tankard of ale and nut- 

 meg into his study, as he was intently en- 

 gaged at his book, smoking a pipe of tobacco, 

 the fellow was so frightened at seeing the 

 smoke reek out of his mouth, that he threw 

 the ale into his face, in order to extinguish 

 the fire, and ran down stairs alarming the 

 family, and crying out his master was on 

 fire, and before they could get up, would be 

 burnt to ashes. 



" Certainly," says Camden, " from that 

 time forward, it began to grow into great 

 request, and to be sold at an high rate. It 

 is remarkable, that in all our early accounts 

 of the American aborigines, we find the use 

 of tobacco specified. Carter, in 1535, found 

 it in Canada, and thus describes it : 'There 

 groweth a certain kind of herb, whereof in 

 summer they make great provision for all 

 the year, making great account of it, and 

 only men use of it. And first they cause it 

 to be dried in the sun, then wear it about 

 their neck, wrapped in a little beast's skin 

 made like a little bag, with a hollow piece 

 of stone, or wood, like a pipe ; when they 

 please, they make powder of it, and then 

 put it in one end of said cornet or pipe, 

 and laying a coal of fire upon it, at the other 

 end suck so long, that they fill their bodies 

 full of smoke, till that it cometh out ot their 

 mouth and nostrils, even as out of the tun- 

 nel of a chimney.' " 



Brereton, in his Journal of Gosnold's Voy- 

 age, in 1602, and Rosier, in his account of 

 Weymouth's Voyage to New England, in 



