555 A. EB. Verrill—The Bermuda Tslands. 143 
cussion of the Cultivation of Tobacco, and changes in the vege- 
tation and animal life, contained in the following five chapters, and 
more especially in connection with Deforesting and the Extermination 
of the Cahow, ete. So much of the early history of the colony was 
directly dependent on the production of tobacco, which was the 
principal article of export for over seventy years, that it seems most 
desirable to describe the Tobacco Cultivation historically, in the 
next chapter. (See also p. 518.) 
é.— Tobacco Cultivation, as connected with the Early History of the 
Islands. 
It has been doubted whether the Tobacco plant was growing upon 
the islands before it was planted by the English, but Silas Jourdan, 
one of Admiral Somers’ shipwrecked party, distinctly stated, in 1610, 
that they found there “very good tobacco.” If so, it was probably 
introduced, like the wild olives and the hogs, by some unknown 
earlier visitors. 
The first that was cultivated was planted in 1610, by the three men 
left on the islands from 1610 to 1612, for in his report of 1612, Gov- 
ernor Moore stated that those men had “ made a great deale tobacco,” 
among other useful products. 
Planting it on a larger scale began in 1613. From that time until 
about 1690 it was the principal commodity exported, but its culture 
entirely ceased about 1707. During more than sixty years it was also 
used as the regular currency, in barter, and for paying the wages* 
and salaries, from that of the government officials down to the cheap- 
est laborers. Fines and taxes were also paid in tobacco. The value 
varied, but 2° and 6° was commonly the value per pound, up to 
about 1627. 
* An act was passed by the Assembly in 1623 regulating the prices of labor. 
The wages of a laborer or toiler was to be no more than 1 Ib. of tobacco per 
day ; of a mason or carpenter 2 lbs.; for sawing lumber the price was to be 
3 lbs. of tobacco per 100 feet. If any craftsman should refuse to work when 
called upon to do so, and when not already employed, or if he should leave a 
job before it was properly completed, he was to be put in the stocks, or else 
caged. 
This law was reénacted in 1627. It was found necessary because these crafts- 
men had refused to do their work unless paid exorbitant prices, thus making a 
corner in the labor market of the islands. Or it might be compared to a 
‘‘ strike” where substitutes could not be found in trades absolutely essential to 
the welfare of the public. 
In 1630, it was ordained that 12 Ibs. of tobacco should be equal in value to 
1,000 ears of corn. 
