STRAY LEAVES FROM THE WEED 149 



says : ' Tobacco was first brought and made known by Sir 

 John Hawkins about the year 1565, but not used by 

 Englishmen for many years after, though at this day it is 

 commonly used by most men and many women.' These 

 accounts correspond with Hawkins's second voyage, viz., 

 October 18, 1564, returning September 20, 1565. Con- 

 firmatory evidence comes from John Sparkes, the younger, 

 who, in his account of this voyage, says that Hawkins, 

 ranging along the ' coast of Florida for fresh water, in July 

 1565, came upon the French settlement there under 

 Landoniere, where the natives, when they travel, have a 

 kind of herbe dryed, which with a cane and an earthen cup 

 in the end, with fire and the dryed herbe put together, they 

 do suck through the cane the smoke thereof, which smoke 

 satisfieth their hunger, and therewith they live four or five 

 days without meat or drink, and this all the Frenchmen 

 used for the purpose.' Hearing these wonderful stories 

 told of the Indian's herbe, nothing could be more 

 natural than that Hawkins should make trial of it for 

 himself, and, liking it, secure specimens of the plant for 

 cultivation and use at home. To see and hear and get all 

 he could, was the sole end and aim of his ploughing the 

 Spanish main. Bearing in mind that he got back to 

 England in September 1565, we see that the statements of 

 Taylor, the Water Poet, and Howes, the annalist, that 

 tobacco was brought by Sir John Hawkins in 1565, are 

 consistent and reliable. Collateral evidence on the point 

 is to be found in L'Obel's work on Botany,* written in 

 1570, wherein he says: 'Within these few years the West 



* Stirpium Adversaria Nova. Dedicated to Queen 

 Elizabeth, by Mathias de L'Obel, Botanist, London, 1571. 

 Another edition was published at Antwerp in 1576. 



