CHAPTER IV. 
TOBACCO IN EUROPE. 
“HE discovery of the tobacco plant in America by 
European voyagers aroused their cupidity no less 
than their curiosity. They saw in its use by the 
Indians a custom which, if engrafted upon the civil- 
ization of the Old World, would prove a source of revenue 
commensurate with their wildest visions of power and wealth. 
This was particularly the case with the Spanish and Portu- 
guese conquerors, whose thirst for gold was gratified by its 
discovery. The finding by the Spaniards of gold, silver, and 
the balmy plant, and by the Portuguese of valuable and 
glittering gems, opened up to Spain and Portugal three 
great sources of wealth and power. But while the Spaniards 
were the first discoverers of the plant there seems to be con- 
flicting opinions as to which nation first began its culture, and 
whether the plant was cultivated first in the Old World or 
in the New. Humboldt says:— 
“Tt was neither from Virginia nor from South America, 
but from the Mexican province of Yucatan that Europe 
received the first tobacco seeds about the year 1559.* The 
Spaniards became acquainted with tobacco in the West India 
Islands at the end of the 15th Century, and the cultivation 
of Tobacco preceded the cultivation of the potato in Europe 
more than one hundred and twenty years. When Sir Walter 
Raleigh brought tobacco from Virginia to England in 1586, 
26) 
a 
*Mussey in his Eesay on Tobacco records “ That Cortez sent a specim if the 
wing oe pain in 1519." Yucatan was discovered by Hernandez Corlova Mr istte as aS: was 
