46 STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE ' ' 



females. This is a strange inconsistency when compared to 

 the cleariliness of the interior of their houses, in which they 

 are nicer than about their persons. Their rooms generally 

 undergo a thorough scrubbing with lemons every morning, 

 which diffuses a beautiful odor, in opposition to the no less 

 regular fumes of tobacco. The excuse which is given for their 

 attachment to smoaking is that it has a sedative quality, which 

 corrects the effect of strong drink, and preserves them from 

 the colds and damps, that so often prove fatal in this moist 

 atmosphere. If a Dutchman gets wet, the antidote he takes 

 against cold is two or three glasses of gin and a pipe ; he al- 

 lows his clothes to dry on him. This idea, perhaps, consti- 

 tutes an apology for the use of tobacco in Holland, though 

 I cannot but think the stupifying or intoxicating effects it 

 produces, have more share in it. Of its efhcacy as a re- 

 medy I cannot pretend to say much, but I know many of the 

 English colonists, who adopted the usage, were always ready 

 to shelter themselves with their neighbour's excuse. A lux- 

 urious calm of mind, a mild gaiety and pleasing chearfulness, 

 unlike the boisterbus hilarity of wine, but titter for a climate 

 which compels to sedentary habits, really accompanies the ab- 

 sorption of tobacco-fumes. The smoaker appears only tran- 

 quil, but he feels happy. Nor is our tobacco deprived, like 

 the Virginian, of its native fragrance, by aspersions of urine, 

 by fermentation and pressure;, it; has an odor as of incense, 

 and is used in token of reverence. It , is 9^ rarity in Stabroek 



