CULTURE AND CURING IN VIRGINIA. 213 



to Sir Hans Sloane (a) it was kuown as pcstum, while those who inhabited the islands called it yoli. Its several 

 present modes of use were subjects of early observation. In November, 1492, the natives of Cuba were seen 

 smoking it by the companions of Columbus during his first voyage to America, and in the narrative of the 

 second voyage, in 1-194, Eoman Pane, the friar who accompanied it, examples the use of tobacco in snuff-taking. 

 He uses the name coglaba for the plant, which was its Hispauiolan name, but by other travelers it was spelled cohiba. 

 It was known as petun in Brazil, and as piacdt in Mexico. Its use in chewing was observed by the Spaniards upou 

 lauding in Paraguay in 1503, the natives coming forth to oppose them beating drums, throwing water, " chewing 

 herbs, and spitting the juice toward them." In 1519 tobacco is said to have been discovered near Tobasco, but 

 the event is assigned to the next year, (b) In 1535 the negroes had already habituated themselves to its use, 

 and had cultivated it on the plantations of their masters. Europeans likewise smoked it, and its use in Cauada is 

 mentioned by Cartier. In 1559 it was introduced from Saint Domingo into Europe by Hernandez de Toledo, a 

 Spanish gentleman, who brought a small quantity into Spain and Portugal, and in the same year Jean Nicot, envoy 

 from the court of France to Portugal, first transmitted thence to Paris, to Queen Catharine de Medicis, seeds of the 

 tobacco-plant, and from this circumstance it was called Herba Ketjina, and, in honor of hitn, Nicotiana. In 1565 

 Conrad Gesner became acquainted with tobacco, and several botanists cultivated it in their gardens ; the same 

 year Sir John Hawkins carried it from Florida to England, (c) Hariot, who was with the expedition of Sir 

 Richard Grenville, undertaken under the auspices of Sir Walter Ealeigh, in 1584, and which resulted in 'the 

 discovery of Virginia in 1585, makes this mention of tobacco : 



There is a lierbo which is sowed by itselfe, aud is called by the inhabitants uppotcoe. In the West Indies it hath divers names, 

 according to the severall countries where itgroweth arid is used ; the Spaniards generally called it Tobacco. The leaves thereof being 

 dried and brought to powder, they used to take the fume or smoke thereof, by sucking it through pipes made of clay, into their stomach* 

 and head. A Brief e and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, London, 1588, p. 16. 



William Strachey, the first secretary of the colony, wrote circa 1610: 



Here is a great store of tobacco whicli the salvages call apooke, howbeit, it is not of the best kind; it is but poor aud weake ; 

 and of a byting taste ; it grows not fully a yard above ground, bearing a little yellow flower like to henbaue; the leaves are short and 

 thicke, somewhat round at the upper end ; whereas the best tobacco of Trynidado and the Orinoqne, is large, sharpe, and growing two 

 or three yards from the ground, bearing a llovver of the breadth of our bell-flowers in Englaud ; the salvages here dry the leaves of the 

 apooke over the fier, and sometimes in the sun, aud crumble it into powder stalks, leaves and all taking the same in pipes of earth, 

 which they very ingeniously can make. The Hiatorie of Travel into Virginia Britannia, London, 1849, pp. 121, 122. 



Beverley states as to the Indian care of tobacco: 



I am informed that they used to let it all run to seed, only succoring the leaves to keep the sprouts from growing upon and starving 

 them ; aud when it was ripe they pulled oft' the leaves, cured them in the sun, and laid them up for use. History of Virginia, edition of 

 1722, pp. 227, 223. 



The common mode of curing it, however, as we find it stated by other annalists, was to hang it up in their 

 habitations, to be dried by the heat and smoke of their fires. Both Sir Bichard Grenville, on his return to England, 

 in 1585, and Sir Ralph Lane (who was sent out by Sir Walter Ealeigh as the first governor of the colony), in 

 158C, on his return home, carried with them pipes and tobacco. So between them, and not with Sir Walter Ealeigh, 

 as popularly accredited, lies the honor, it appears, of the introduction of tobacco into England. According to 

 Hamor, (d) the meed of inaugurating, in 1012, the cultivation of tobacco systematically in the colony is due to John 

 Eolfe, the husband of Pocahontas. (e) In 1G1G, under the stimulus and fostering care of Sir George Yeardley, the 

 deputy governor, the attention of the colonists was engaged in its planting for profit, which speedily became so 

 alluring that they forsook for it all other occupations. When, in 1G17, Captain Samuel Argall arrived in the colony 

 as its governor, "he found all the Publick Works aud Buildings in James-Town fallen to Decay, aud not above 

 five or six Houses fit to be inhabited ; the Market Place, Stree-ts, and all other Spare Places planted with Tobacco ; 

 and the Colony dispersed all about, as every man could find the properest place and best Conveniency for planting" 

 (Stith, p. 146). 



a Natural History of Jamaica. 



b Precis sur VAmtrique, p. 116. 



t Fairholt, History of Tobacco, p. 51, quoting from Taylor, the water poet. , 



d fiaplte Humor's True Discourse, 1614. London, 1615, p. 24. 



e John Rolfe was clearly a man of sagacity, as well as enterprise, as is evinced in his further interest in and management of 

 tobacco. He wrote in 1616: "Tobacco, though an esteemed weed, is very commodious, which thence thriveth so well that no doubt 

 but after a little more trial and expense in the curing thereof, it will compare with the best West Indies" ("Relation of Virginia," 

 printed in the Virginia Historical Hcgister, vol. i, p. , r ;05). 



In 1G17 one "Mr. Lambert made a great discovery in the trade of planting, for the method of curing tobacco was then in heaps; 

 but tr >s gentleman found out that it cured better upon lines ; and therefore the governor wrote to the company to send over lines for 

 (hat purpose" (Stith's History of Virginia, p. 147). 



According to the journal of Glover (time of Sir William Berkeley) lines had then fallen into disuse. Wo quote from this author 

 (whose work we have not at haud)from the paper prepared in 1S76 by Mr. John Ott, secretary of the Southern Fertilizing Company, 

 Richmond, Virginia, as follows : "They drive into (he stalk of each plant a peg, and as fast as they are pegged they hang them upon 

 tobacco-sticks, so nigh each other that they just touch much after the manner they hang herrings in Yarmouth. When the plant hath 

 put out so niaiiy leaves as the ground will nourish to a substance and largeness that will render them merchantable they take off the 

 top of the plant. If the ground be very rich, they let a plant put out a dozen or sixteen leaves before they top it ; if mean, then not 



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