TOBACCO AND ITS HISTORY. 15 



drink." But Cliiistians forming Tlie London Conqmny, char- 

 tered by James the First in 1»J0G to colonize South Virj,nniii, 

 induced 90 poor, l»ut respeclaldo women, under pretence of 

 obtaining husbands, to submit to exi)ortation in IGIO, wliom 

 tliey traded to tlie [)lanters in tliat colony for 120 ])ound.s of 

 Tobacco per head. As Tobacco was then said to be Avortli two 

 penc^ per pound in tlic colony, although it sold for about :30 

 pence ;;» England, the value of each female was put at twenty 

 shillings sterling. 



JOncouraged by this ex])eriment, GO additional females were 

 sent out a short time after, and disposed of in the same way, 

 realizing 30 pounds of Tobacco each, over the former shipment. 



About the same time, the captain of a Dutch tradiy," vessel 

 })rocured 30 negroes, whom he traded to the Tobacco plantei-s 

 also. Thns commenced the curse of slavery in the United 

 States, which continued with all the horrors described in Uncle 

 Tom's Cdhin, for 24G years, until the foul blot was wi[)ed out 

 by tlie best blood of the American nation. 



No wonder the anti-tobacco Puritans on arrivir.g at Boston, 

 1G30, petitioned the goveinment that no Tobacco be ])lanted in 

 that colony, " unless it be seme small quantity for mere neces- 

 sity and for physic, and that the same be taken privately by 

 ancient men, and none othei\ and to make general restraint 

 thereof as much as in you is." 



After James' decease in 1G23, we find Pope Urban the Eighth 

 hurling the anathemas of his church against the weed, with all 

 the dignity of a true Italian. 



Whilst Urban is thus at Mork in Italy, we pass over to the 

 Ottoman Empire, and there find the Turkish Sultan Amurath 

 the Fourth,, hissing at it like a hot stove insulted by the filthy 

 saliva of the tobacco user. Not only that, but decreeing its poor 

 victims to the most cruel death of that age. Other Sultans 

 engaged in the crusade ; and when life was si)ared, the pipes of 

 smokers were thrust through their noses, and they were led 

 about the streets of Constantinople, as a warning to others. 



