The Beginning of Smoking 15 



Adversaria,' published at Antwerp, 1576, declared 

 that ' within these few years ' tobacco had become an 

 inmate of England. Camden cautiously says that 

 Drake and his companions were ' the first, as far as 

 we know, who introduced the Indian plant called 

 Tabaccoor Nicotia into England, having been taught 

 by the Indians to use it as a remedy for Indigestion.' 

 Drake, as we have seen, had been presented with 

 bags of tobacco during his voyage round the world 

 twelve years earlier. Dr. Cotton Mather, in 'The 

 Christian Philosopher,' says that 'in 1585 one Mr. Lane 

 carried over some tobacco, which was the first seen in 

 Europe.' 



There is thus a difference of twenty years as to 

 the date of the introduction of tobacco into England. 

 Taylor's date of 1565 lacks confirmation, and prob- 

 ably his hatred of coaches, which of course injured 

 his trade as a waterman, and tobacco made him link 

 the two together. Hume awards the distinction 

 to Drake, and there is little doubt that during 

 his voyages he and his crew smoked the Indian 

 herb. They may have brought tobacco back with 

 them to England, but there is little doubt that 

 in any quantity it was introduced by Ralph Lane, 

 the Governor of Raleigh's colony of Virginia. He 

 returned to England in 1586, and Hariot, his chroni- 

 cler, concludes his description of the Indian practice 

 of smoking, which we have quoted above, with the 

 party's personal experience of tobacco : ' We our- 

 selves, during the time we were there, used to suck 

 it after their manner, as also since our return, and 

 have found many rare and wonderful experiments 



