SOCIAL GOSSIP ABOUT THE WEED 179 



The statelie, rich, late conquer'd Indian plaines, 



Foster a plant, the princess of all plants, 

 Which Portugall, after peril and paines, 



To Europe brought, as it most justly vaunts ; 

 This plant at home the people and priests assure, 



Of his goodwill, whom they as God adore ; 

 Both here and there it worketh wonderous cure, 



And hath much heavenlie vertue hid in store. 

 A stranger plant shipwrecked on our coast, 



Is come to help this colde phlegmatic soyle, 

 Yet cannot live for calumnie and boast, 



In danger daylie of some greater broyle. 

 My Lord, this sacred herbe which never offendit, 



Is forced to crave your favour to defend it. 



The author's exalted idea about the great value of the 

 weed was a reflex of the Indian's belief in its all-healing 

 properties, a notion which through the Spaniards and 

 Portuguese had become the common property of Europe. 

 This is the animating thought running through the work. 

 He has set his heart upon curing suffering humanity of 

 every malady, and he complacently likens himself to 

 Hercules going out into the world to wage war on disease 

 and corruption. ' I have armed myself with a box for his 

 bag,' says the learned doctor, ' and a pipe for his club ; a 

 box to conserve my tobacco, and a pipe to use it.' He 

 foresees a time coming when the medicinal virtues of the 

 herb will be so well understood that the services of 

 physicians may be dispensed with, particularly in cases of 

 defluxion and catarrh. Warming to his work and holding 

 up the native home of the plant to be a ' Country which 

 God hath honoured and blessed with this holy herbe,' he 

 flourishes his club defiantly in the face of ' the unlearned 

 leiches ' who dare to say evil things about Nicotiana ; ' God 

 willing,' he means to ' overcome many maladies.' In 



