Southwest iD/useum Leaflets 



ceedingly long-staple cotton. Sea Island is named from the 

 islands off the coast of Georgia and South Carolina where for- 

 merly it was grown. 



The commercial value of the world's crop of Indian long- 

 staple cotton reaches figures of incredible magnitude. 



Tobacco — Tobacco is exclusively an Indian product; but 

 after Europeans discovered its use it was distributed so widely 

 throughout the world and adopted by so many peoples in dis- 

 tant lands that now it is difficult to picture it as having once 

 been confined to the Western Hemisphere. 



The tobacco plant first was brought into Europe in 15 58 

 by Francisco Fernandez, a physician who had been sent by 

 Philip II of Spain to Mexico to investigate its agriculture. For 

 some years tobacco in Europe was regarded as a medicinal 

 plant only. 



It was Sir Walter Raleigh who, in honor of the Virgin Queen, 

 gave the name Virginia to the region covered by the patent 

 Elizabeth granted him for colonization. The claim to Vir- 

 ginia then extended from Newfoundland to Florida and west- 

 ward to the Pacific. Although he never visited Virginia, Sir 

 Walter financed out of his private fortune the first two un- 

 successful attempts at settlement there, which were in what 

 is now North Carolina near Cape Hatteras. Sir Francis Drake 

 searched for the earlier Roanoke colony, where the discouraged 

 governor, Ralph Lane, and his settlers asked Sir Francis to take 

 them back to England, which he did. This was in 15 86 when, 

 so far as known, Ralph Lane was the first person to smoke 

 tobacco in Europe. 



Ralph Lane had brought with him from Virginia a quantity 

 of Indian tobacco and tobacco pipes with which he supplied 

 his patron, Sir Walter Raleigh, and taught him to smoke. Sir 

 Walter being a gentleman of fashion, the Elizabethan courtiers 

 followed his lead, and soon the custom of smoking commenced 

 to spread. 



Life went badly with Sir Walter Raleigh, however, and in 

 1618 he was beheaded. About the last thing he did before he 

 walked to the block was to smoke a pipe of tobacco. 



The pipe-makers of London became an incorporated body 

 in 1619. Throughout the XVII century the custom of smok- 

 ing spread far and wide in spite of opposition by priests and 

 statesmen, severe laws, flogging, excommunication, and even 

 capital punishment. 



Tobacco was introduced into France by a French consul 

 to Lisbon, Portugal, — Jean Nicot, from whose name is derived 



