46 ORIGINAL CULTURE. 
of large portions of America strengthened the currency of 
the world, the English alike, by the cultivation of the plant, 
gave an impetus to commerce still felt and continued 
throughout all parts of the globe. 
An English writer has truthfully observed that “ Tobacco 
is like Elias’ cloud, which was no bigger than a man’s hand, 
that hath suddenly covered the face of the earth; the low; 
countries, Germany, Poland, Arabia, Persia, Turkey, almost 
all countries, drive a trade of it; and there is no commodity 
that hath advanced so many from small fortunes to gain great 
estates in the world. Sailors will be supplied with it for 
their long voyages. Soldiers cannot (but) want it when 
they keep guard all night, or upon other hard duties in cold 
and tempestuous weather. Farmers, ploughmen, and 
almost all labouring men, plead for it. If we reflect upon 
our forefathers, and that within the time of less than one 
hundred years, before the use of tobacco came to be known 
amongst us, we cannot but wonder how they did to subsist 
without it; for were the planting or traffick of tobacco now 
hindered, millions of this nation in all probability must 
perish for the want of food, their whole livelihood almost 
depending upon it.” 
When first discovered in America, and particularly by 
the English in Virginia, the plant was cultivated only 
by the females of the tribes, the chiefs and warriors 
engaging only in the chase or following the war- 
path. They cultivated a few plants around their wig- 
wams, and cured a few pounds for their own use. The 
smoke, as it ascended from their pipes and circled around 
their rude huts and out into the air, seemed typical of the 
race—the original cultivators and smokers of the plant. 
But, unlike the great herb which they cherished and gave to 
civilization, they have gradually grown weak in numbers and 
faded away, while the great plant has gone on its way, ever 
assuming more and more sway over the commercial and 
social world, until it now takes high rank among the leading 
elements of mercantile and agricultural greatness. 
