84 WONDERFUL CURES. 
more care than any other besides him, he did so highly 
esteeme thereof for the exceeding good qualities sake. ; 
“The Spaniards call it Tobaco, it were better to eall it 
Nicotiana, after the name of the Lord who first sent it into 
France, to the end that we may give him the honor which he _ 
hath deserved of us, for having furnished our land with so - 
rare and singular an herbe: and thus much for the name, 
now listen unto the whole historie: Master John Nicot, one 
of the king’s oe ambassador for his Maiestie 
(Majesty) in the realme of Portiugall, in the yeere of our 
Lord God, 1559. 60. and 61. went on a day to see the 
monuments and northie places of the said king of Portiugall: 
at which time a gentleman keeper of the said monuments 
resented him with this herbe as a strange plant brought 
hort Florida. The nobleman Sir Nicot having procured it 
to growe in his garden, where it had put forth and multiplied 
very greatly, was aduertifed (notified) on a daie by one of 
his pages, that a yoong boie kinsman of the said page, had 
laide (for triall sake) the said herbe, pressed, the substance 
and juice and altogether, upon an ulcer which he had upon 
his cheeke, neere unto his nose, next neighbor to a Voli me 
tangere, (a cancer) as having already seazed upon the cartil- 
ages, and that by the use thereof it was become marvellous 
well: upon this occasion the nobleman Nicot called the boie 
to him, and making him to continue the applying of this 
herbe for eight or ten days, the Voli me tangere became 
thoroughly kild: nowe they had sent oftetimes unto one of 
the king’s most famous phisitions, the said boie during the 
time of this worke and operation to make and see the pro- 
ceeding and working of the said Nicotiana, and having in 
charge to do the same until the end of ten days, the said 
phisition then beholding him, assured him that the Vole me 
tangere was dead, as indeed the boie never felt anything of 
it at any time afterward. 
“Some certain time after, one of the cooks of the said 
ambassador having almost all his thombe (thumb) cut off 
from his hand, with a great kitchin knife, the steward 
running unto the said Nicotiana, made to him use of it five or 
six dressings, by the ende of which the wounde was healed. 
From this time forward this herbe began to become famous 
in Lisbon, where the king of Portiugal’s court was at that 
time, and the vertues thereof much spoken of, and the 
common people began to call it the ambassador’s herbe. 
Now upon this occasion there came certain days after, a 
