CHAPTERIII.

Native Smoking.

Tobacco at this period was also rolled up in the leaves of the Palm and smoked. Columbus found the natives of San Salvador smoking after this manner. Lobel in his History of Plants[6]gives an engravingof a native smoking one of these rolls or primitive cigars and speaks of their general use by Captains of ships trading to the West Indies.

But not only was snuff taking and the use of tobacco rolls or cigars noted by European voyagers, but the use of the pipe also in some parts of America, seemed to be a common custom especially among the chiefs. Be Bry in his History of Brazil (1590) describes its use and also some interesting particulars concerning the plant. Their method of curing the leaves was to air-dry them and then packing them until wanted for use. In smoking he says:â€”

"When the leaves are well dried they place in the open part of a pipe of which on burning, the smoke is inhaled into the mouth by the more narrow part of the pipe, and so strongly that it flows out of the mouth and nostrils, and by that means effectually drives out humours."

Fairholt in alluding to the various uses of the herb among the Indians says:â€”

"We can thus trace to South America, at the period when the New World was first discovered, every mode of using the tobacco plant which the Old World has indulged in ever since."

This statement is not entirely correctâ€”the mode of using tobacco in Norway by plugging the nostrils with small pieces of tobacco seems to have been unknown among the Indians of America as it is now with all other nationalities, excepting the Norwegians.

When Cortez made conquest of Mexico in 1519 smoking seemed to be a common as well as an ancient custom among the natives. Benzoni in his History of the New World[7]describing his travels in America gives a detailed account of the plant and their method of curing and using it. In both North and South America the use of tobacco seemed to be universal among all the tribes and beyond all question the custom of using the herb had its origin among them. The traditions of the Indians all confirm its ancient source; they considered the plant as a gift from the Great Spirit for theircomfort and enjoyment and one which the Great Spirit also indulged in, consequently with them smoking partook of the character of a moral if not a religious act. The use of tobacco in sufficient quantities to produce intoxication seemed to be a favorite remedy for most diseases among them and was administered by their doctors or medicine-men in large quantities. Benzoni gives an engraving of their mode of inhaling the smoke and says of its use:â€”

"In La Espanola, when their doctors wanted to cure a sick man, they went to the place where they were to administer the smoke, and when he was thoroughly intoxicated by it, the cure was mostly effected. On returning to his senses he told a thousand stories of his having been at the council of the gods, and other high visions."

It can hardly be supposed that while the custom of using tobacco among the Indians in both North and South America was very general and the mode of use the same, that the plant grown was of the same quality in one part as in another. While the rude culture of the natives would hardly tend to an improvement in quality; the climate being varied would no doubt have much to do with the size and quality of the plant. This would seem the more probable for as soon as its cultivation began in Virginia by the English colonists it had successful rivals in the tobacco of the West Indies and South America. Robertson says:â€”

"Virginia tobacco was greatly inferior to that raised by the Spaniards in the West Indies and which sold for six times as much as Virginia tobacco."[8]

But not only has the name tobacco and the implements employed in its use caused much discussion but also the origin of the plant.

Some writers affirm that it came from Asia and that it was first grown in China having been used by the Chinese long before the narcotic properties of opium were known. Tatham in his work on Tobacco says of its origin in substantial agreement with La Bott:â€”

"It is generally understood that the tobacco plant ofVirginia is a native production of the country; but whether it was found in a state of natural growth there, or a plant cultivated by the Indian natives, is a point of which we are not informed, nor which ever can be farther elucidated than by the corroboration of historical facts and conjectures. I have been thirty years ago, and the greatest part of my time during that period, intimately acquainted with the interior parts of America; and have been much in the unsettled parts of the country, among those kinds of soil which are favorable to the cultivation of tobacco; but I do not recollect one single instance where I have met with tobacco growing wild in the woods, although I have often found a few spontaneous plants about the arable and trodden grounds of deserted habitations. This circumstance, as well as that of its being now, and having been, cultivated by the natives at the period of European discoveries, inclines towards a supposition that this plant is not a native of North America, but may possibly have found its way thither with the earliest migrations from some distant land. This might, indeed, have easily been the case from South America, by way of the Isthmus of Panama; and the foundation of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations (who we have reasons to consider as descendants from the Tloseolians, and to have migrated to the eastward of the river Mississippi, about the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico by Cortez), seems to have afforded one fair opportunity for its dissemination."

The first knowledge which the English discoverers had of the plant was in 1565 when they found it growing in Florida, one hundred and seventy-three years after it was first discovered by Columbus on the island of Cuba. Sir John Hawkins says of its use in Florida:â€”

"The Floridians, when they travel, have a kind of herb dried, which with a cane and an earthen cup in the end, with fire and the dried herbs put together, do suke through the cane the smoke thereof, which smoke satisfieth their hunger, and therewith they live four or five dayes without meat or drinke, and this all the Frenchmen used for this purpose: yet do they holde opinion withall, that it causeth water and steame to void from their stomacks."

This preparation might not have been tobacco as the Indians smoke a kind of bark which they scrape from the killiconick, an aromatic shrub, in form resembling the willow;they use also a preparation made with this and sumach leaves, or sometimes with the latter mixed with tobacco. Lionel Wafer in his travels upon the Isthmus of Darien in 1699 saw the plant growing and cultivated by the natives. He says:â€”

"These Indians have tobacco amongst them. It grows as the tobacco in Virginia, but is not so strong, perhaps for want of transplanting and manuring, which the Indians do not well understand, for they only raise it from the seed in their plantations. When it is dried and cured they strip it from the stalks, and laying two or three leaves upon one another, they roll up all together sideways into a long roll, yet leaving a little hollow. Round this they roll other leaves one after another, in the same manner, but close and hard, till the roll be as big as one's wrist, and two or three feet in length. Their way of smoking when they are in company is thus: a boy lights one end of a roll and burns it to a coal, wetting the part next it to keep it from wasting too fast. The end so lighted he puts into his mouth, and blows the smoke through the whole length of the roll into the face of every one of the company or council, though there be two or three hundred of them. Then they, sitting in their usual posture upon forms, make with their hands held together a kind of funnel round their mouths and noses. Into this they receive the smoke as it is blown upon them, snuffing it up greedily and strongly as long as ever they are able to hold their breath, and seeming to bless themselves, as it were, with the refreshment it gives them."

In the year 1534 James Cartier a Frenchman was commissioned to explore the coast of North America, with a view to find a place for a colony. He observed that the natives of Canada used the leaves of an herb which they preserved in pouches made of skins and smoked in stone pipes. It being offensive to the French, they took none of it with them on their return. But writing more particularly concerning the plant he says:â€”

"In Hochelaga, up the river in Canada there groweth a certain kind of herb whereof in Summer they make a great provision for all the year, making great account of it, and only men use of it, and first they cause it to be dried in the Sune, then wear it about their necks wrapped in a little beast's skine made like a bagge, with a hollow piece of stoneor wood like a pipe, then when they please they make powder of it, and then put it in one of the ends of the said Cornet or pipe, and laying a cole of fire upon it, at the other end and suck so long, that they fill their bodides full of smoke, till that it commeth out of their mouth and nostrils, even as out of the Tonnel of a chimney. They say that this doth keepe them warme and in health, they never goe without some of this about them."

Be Bry in his History of Brazil 1590 gives an engraving of a native smoking a pipe and a female offering him a handful of tobacco leaves. The pipe has a modern look and is altogether unlike those found by the English in use among the Indians in Virginia.

Old Engraving.

An English writer says of the Tobacco using races:â€”

"From the evidence collected by travellers and archÃ¦ologists, as to the native arts and relics connected with the use of Tobacco by the Red Indians, it would appear that not one tribe has been found which was unacquainted with the custom,[9]its use being as well known to the tribes of the North-west and the denizens of the snowy wilds of Canada, as to the races inhabiting Central America and the West India Islands."

Father Francisco Creuxio states that the Jesuit missionaries found the weed extensively used by the Indians of the Seventeenth Century. In 1629 he found the Hurons smoking the dried leaves and stalks of the Tobacco plant or petune. Many tribes of Indians consider that Tobacco is a gift bestowed by the Great Spirit as a means of enjoyment. In consequence of this belief the pipe became sacred, and smoking became a moral if not a religious act, amongst the North American Indians. The Iroquois are of opinion that by burning Tobacco they could send up their prayers to the Great Spirit with the ascending incense, thus maintainingcommunication with the spirit world; and Dr. Daniel Wilson suggests that

"the practice of smoking originated in the use of the intoxicating fumes for purposes of divination, and other superstitious rites."

When an Indian goes on an expedition, whether of peace or war, his pipe is his constant companion; it is to him what salt is among Arabs: the pledge of fidelity and the seal of treaties. In the words of aReview:

"Tobacco supplies one of the few comforts by which men who live by their hands, solace themselves under incessant hardship."

While the presence, and use of tobacco by the natives of America are among the most interesting features connected with its history, it can hardly be more so than is its early cultivation by the Spaniards, English and Dutch, and afterward by the French. The cultivation of the plant began in the West India Islands and South America early in the Sixteenth Century. In Cuba its culture commenced in 1580, and from this and the other islands large quantities were shipped to Europe. It was also cultivated near Varina in Columbia, while Amazonian tobacco had acquired an enviable reputation as well as Varinian, long before its cultivation began in Virginia by the English. At this period of its culture in America the entire product was sent to Spain and Portugal, and from thence to France and Great Britain and other countries of Europe. The plant and its use attracted at once the attention as well as aroused the cupidity of the Spaniards, who prized it as one of their greatest discoveries.

As soon as Tobacco was introduced into Europe by the Spaniards, and its use became a general custom, its sale increased as extensively as its cultivation. At this period it brought enormous prices, the finest selling at from fifteen to eighteen shillings per pound. Its cultivation by the Spaniards in various portions of the New World proved to them not only its real value as an article of commerce, but also that several varieties of the plant existed; as on removal from one island or province to another it changed in size and quality of leaf. Varinas tobacco at this time wasone of the finest tobaccos known,[10]and large quantities were shipped to Spain and Portugal. The early voyagers little dreamed, however, of the vast proportions to be assumed by the trade in the plant which they had discovered, and which in time proved a source of the greatest profit not only to the European colonies, but to the dealers in the Old World.

Helps, treating on this same subject, says:

"It is interesting to observe the way in which a new product is introduced to the notice of the Old Worldâ€”a product that was hereafter to become, not only an unfailing source of pleasure to a large section of the whole part of mankind, from the highest to the lowest, but was also to distinguish itself as one of those commodities for revenue, which are the delight of statesmen, the great financial resource of modern nations, and which afford a means of indirect taxation that has perhaps nourished many a war, and prevented many a revolution. The importance, financially and commercially speaking, of this discovery of tobaccoâ€”a discovery which in the end proved more productive to the Spanish crown than that of the gold mines of the Indies."

Spain and Portugal in all their colonies fostered and encouraged its cultivation and then at once ranked as the best producers and dealers in tobacco. The varieties grown by them in the West Indies and South America were highly esteemed and commanded much higher prices than that grown by the English and Dutch colonies. In 1620, however, the Dutch merchants were the largest wholesale tobacconists in Europe, and the people of Holland, generally, the greatest consumers of the weed.

The expedition of 1584, under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh, which resulted in the discovery of Virginia, also introduced the tobacco plant, among other novelties, to the attention of the English. Hariot,[11]who sailed with this expedition, says of the plant:

"There is an herb which is sowed apart by itselfe, and iscalled by the inhabitants uppowoc. In the West Indies it hath divers names, according to the severall places and countries where it groweth and is used; the Spaniards generally call it Tobacco. The leaves thereof being dried and brought into powder, they use to take the fume or smoke thereof by sucking it through pipes made of clay into their stomacke and heade, from whence it purgeth superfluous fleame and other grosse humors; openeth all the pores and passages of the body; by which means the use thereof not only preserveth the body from obstructions, but also if any be so that they have not beene of too long continuance, in short time breaketh them; whereby their bodies are notably preserved in health, and know not many grievous diseases wherewithall we in England are oftentimes affected. This uppowoc is of so precious estimation amongest them that they thinke their gods are marvellously delighted therewith; whereupon sometime they make halowed fires, and cast some of the powder therein for a sacrifise. Being in a storme uppon the waters, to pacifie their gods, they cast some up into the aire and into the water: so a weave for fish being newly set up, they cast some therein and into the aire; also after an escape of danger they cast some into the aire likewise; but all done with strange gestures, stamping, sometimes dancing, clapping of hands, holding up of hands, and staring up into the heavens, uttering there withal and chattering strange wordes, and noises."We ourselves during the time we were there used to suck it after their manner, as also since our returne, and have found many rare and wonderful experiments of the virtues thereof; of which the relation would require a volume of itselfe; the use of it by so manie of late, men and women, of great calling as else, and some learned phisitions also is sufficient witnes."

"We ourselves during the time we were there used to suck it after their manner, as also since our returne, and have found many rare and wonderful experiments of the virtues thereof; of which the relation would require a volume of itselfe; the use of it by so manie of late, men and women, of great calling as else, and some learned phisitions also is sufficient witnes."

The natives also when Drake[12]landed in Virginia, "brought a little basket made of rushes, and filled with an herbe which they called Tobah;" they "came also the second time to us bringing with them as before had been done, feathers and bags of Tobah for presents, or rather indeed for sacrifices, upon this persuasion that we were gods."

William Strachey[13]says of tobacco and its cultivation by the Indians:

"Here is great store of tobacco, which the salvages call apooke: howbeit it is not of the best kynd, it is but poor and weake, and of a byting taste; it grows not fully a yard above ground, bearing a little yellow flower like to henbane; the leaves are short and thick, somewhat round at the upper end; whereas the best tobacco of Trynidado and the Oronoque, is large, sharpe, and growing two or three yardes from the ground, bearing a flower of the breadth of our bell-flower, in England; the salvages here dry the leaves of this apooke over the fier, and sometymes in the sun, and crumble yt into poudre, stalk, leaves, and all, taking the same in pipes of earth, which very ingeniously they can make."

The Contrast.

It would seem then, if the account given by Strachey be correct, that the tobacco cultivated by the Indians of North America was of inferior growth and quality to that grown in many portions of South America, and more particularly in the West India islands. As there are still many varieties of the plant grown in America, so there doubtless was when cultivated by the Indians. While most probably the quality of leaf remained the same from generation to generation, still in some portions of America, owing more to the soil and climate than the mode of cultivating by them, they cured very good tobacco. We can readily see how this might have been, from numerous experiments made with both American and European varieties. Nearly all of the early Spanish, French and English voyagers who landed in America were attracted by the beauty of the country. Ponce De Leon, who sailed from Spain to the Floridas, was charmed by the plants and flowers, and doubtless the first sight of them strengthened his belief in the existence somewhere in this tropical region of the fountain of youth.

The discovery of tobacco proved of the greatest advantageto the nations who fostered its growth,â€”and increased the commerce of both England and Spain, doing much to make the latter what it once was, one of the most powerful nations of Europe and possessor of the largest and richest colonies, while it greatly helped the former, already unsurpassed in intelligence and civilization, to reach its present position at the commercial head of the nations of the world.

As Spain, however, has fallen from the high place she once held, her colonial system has also gone down. And while England, thanks to her more liberal policy, still retains a large share of the territory which she possessed at first, Spain, which once held sway over a vast portion of America, has been deprived of nearly all of her colonies, and ere long may lose control of the island on which the discoverer of America first saw the plant.[14]

It is an historical fact that wherever in the English and Spanish colonies civilization has taken the deepest root, so has also the plant which has become as famous as any of the great tropical products of the earth. The relation existing between the balmy plant and the commerce of the world is of the strongest kind. Fairholt has well said, that "the revenue brought to our present Sovereign Lady from this source alone is greater than that Queen Elizabeth received from the entire customs of the country."

The narrow view of commercial policy held by her successors, the Stuarts, induced them to hamper the colonists of America with restrictions; because they were alarmed lest the ground should be entirely devoted to tobacco. Had not this Indian plant been discovered, the whole history of some portions of America would have been far different. In the West Indies three great productsâ€”Coffee, Sugar-Cane, and Tobacco,â€”have proved sources of the greatest wealthâ€”and wherever introduced, have developed to a great extent the resources of the islands. Thus it may be seen that while the Spaniards by the discovery and colonizationof large portions of America strengthened the currency of the world, the English alike, by the cultivation of the plant, gave an impetus to commerce still felt and continued throughout all parts of the globe.

An English writer has truthfully observed that "Tobacco is like Elias' cloud, which was no bigger than a man's hand, that hath suddenly covered the face of the earth; the low countries, Germany, Poland, Arabia, Persia, Turkey, almost all countries, drive a trade of it; and there is no commodity that hath advanced so many from small fortunes to gain great estates in the world. Sailors will be supplied with it for their long voyages. Soldiers cannot (but) want it when they keep guard all night, or upon other hard duties in cold and tempestuous weather. Farmers, ploughmen, and almost all labouring men, plead for it. If we reflect upon our forefathers, and that within the time of less than one hundred years, before the use of tobacco came to be known amongst us, we cannot but wonder how they did to subsist without it; for were the planting or traffick of tobacco now hindered, millions of this nation in all probability must perish for the want of food, their whole livelihood almost depending upon it."

When first discovered in America, and particularly by the English in Virginia, the plant was cultivated only by the females of the tribes, the chiefs and warriors engaging only in the chase or following the warpath. They cultivated a few plants around their wigwams, and cured a few pounds for their own use. The smoke, as it ascended from their pipes and circled around their rude huts and out into the air, seemed typical of the raceâ€”the original cultivators and smokers of the plant. But, unlike the great herb which they cherished and gave to civilization, they have gradually grown weak in numbers and faded away, while the great plant has gone on its way, ever assuming more and more sway over the commercial and social world, until it now takes high rank among the leading elements of mercantile and agricultural greatness.[Back to Contents]

WWe do not find in any accounts of the English voyagers made previous to 1584, any mention of the discovery of tobacco, or its use among the Indians. This may appear a little strange, as Captains Amidas and Barlow, who sailed from England under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584, on returning from Virginia, had brought home with them pearls and tobacco among other curiosities. But while we have no account of those who returned from the voyage made in 1602 taking any tobacco with them, it is altogether probable that those who remained took a lively interest in the plant and the Indian mode of use; for we find that in nine years after they landed at Jamestown tobacco had become quite an article of culture and commerce.

We do not find in any accounts of the English voyagers made previous to 1584, any mention of the discovery of tobacco, or its use among the Indians. This may appear a little strange, as Captains Amidas and Barlow, who sailed from England under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584, on returning from Virginia, had brought home with them pearls and tobacco among other curiosities. But while we have no account of those who returned from the voyage made in 1602 taking any tobacco with them, it is altogether probable that those who remained took a lively interest in the plant and the Indian mode of use; for we find that in nine years after they landed at Jamestown tobacco had become quite an article of culture and commerce.

Hamo in alluding to the early cultivation of tobacco by the colony, says, that John Rolfe was the pioneer tobacco planter. In his words:

"I may not forget the gentleman worthie of much commendations, which first took the pains to make triall thereof, his name Mr. John Rolfe, Anno Domini 1612, partly for the love he hath a long time borne unto it, and partly to raise commodities to the adventurers, in whose behalfe I intercede and vouchsafe to hold my testimony in beleefe that during the time of his aboade there, which draweth neere sixe yearsno man hath laboured to his power there, and worthy incouragement unto England, by his letters than he hath done, witness his marriage with Powhatan's daughter one of rude education, manners barbarous, and cursed generation merely for the good and honor of the plantation."

John Rolfe.

The first general planting of tobacco by the colony began according to this writerâ€”

"at West and Sherley Hundred (seated on the north side of the river, lower than the Bermudas three or four myles) where are twenty-five commanded by capten Maddesonâ€”who are imployed onely in planting and curing tobacco."

This was in 1616, when the colony numbered only three hundred and fifty-one persons. Rolfe, in his relation of the state of Virginia, written and addressed to the King, gives the following description of the condition of the colony in 1616:

"Now that your highness may with the more ease understand in what condition the colony standeth, I have briefly sett downe the manner of all men's several imployments, the number of them, and the several places of their aboad, which places or seates are all our owne ground, not so much by conquest, which the Indians hold a just and lawfull title, but purchased of them freely, and they verie willingly selling it. The places which are now possessed and inhabited are sixe:â€”Henrico and the lymitts, Bermuda Nether hundred, West and Sherley hundred, James Towne, Kequoughtan, and Dales-Gift. The generall mayne body of the planters are divided into Officers, Laborers, Farmors."The officers have the charge and care as well over the farmors as laborers generallieâ€”that they watch and ward for their preservacions; and that both the one and the other's busines may be daily followed to the performance of those imployments, which from the one are required, and the other by covenant are bound unto. These officers are bound to maintayne themselves and families with food and rayment by their owne and their servant's industrie. The laborers are of two sorts. Some employed onely in the generall works, who are fedd and clothed out of the storeâ€”others, specially artificers as smiths, carpenters, shoemakers, taylors, tanners, &c., doe worke in their professions for the colony, and maintayne themselves with food and apparrell, having time lymitted them to till and manure their ground."The farmors live at most easeâ€”yet by their good endeavors bring yearlie much plentie to the plantation. They are bound by covenant, both for themselves and servants, to maintaine your Ma'ties right and title in that kingdom, against all foreigne and domestique enemies. To watch and ward in the townes where they are resident. To do thirty-one dayes service for the colony, when they shalbe called thereuntoâ€”yet not at all tymes, but when their owne busines can best spare them. To maintayne themselves and families with food and raymentâ€”and every farmor to pay yearlie into the magazine for himself and every man servant, two barrells and a halfe of English measure."Thus briefly have I sett downe every man's particular imployment and manner of living; albeit, lest the peopleâ€”who generallie are bent to covett after gaine, especially having tasted of the sweete of their laborsâ€”should spend too much of their tyme and labor in planting tobacco, known to them to be verie vendible in England, and so neglect their tillage of corne, and fall into want thereof, it is provided forâ€”bythe providence and care of Sir Thomas Daleâ€”that no farmor or other, who must maintayne themselvesâ€”shall plant any tobacco, unless he shall yearely manure, set and maintayne for himself and every man servant two acres of ground with corne, which doing they may plant as much tobacco as they will, els all their tobacco shalbe forfeite to the colonyâ€”by which meanes the magazine shall yearely be sure to receave their rent of corne; to maintayne those who are fedd thereout, being but a few, and manie others, if need be; they themselves will be well stored to keepe their families with overplus, and reape tobacco enough to buy clothes and such other necessaries as are needful for themselves and household. For an easie laborer will keepe and tend two acres of corne, and cure a good store of tobaccoâ€”being yet the principall commoditie the colony for the present yieldeth."For which as for other commodities, the councell and company for Virginia have already sent a ship thither, furnished with all manner of clothing, household stuff and such necessaries, to establish a magazine there, which the people shall buy at easie rates for their commoditiesâ€”they selling them at such prices that the adventurers may be no loosers. This magazine shalbe yearelie supplied to furnish them, if they will endeavor, by their labor, to maintayne itâ€”which wilbe much beneficiall to the planters and adventurers, by interchanging their commodities, and will add much encouragement to them and others to preserve and follow the action with a constant resolution to uphold the same."

"The officers have the charge and care as well over the farmors as laborers generallieâ€”that they watch and ward for their preservacions; and that both the one and the other's busines may be daily followed to the performance of those imployments, which from the one are required, and the other by covenant are bound unto. These officers are bound to maintayne themselves and families with food and rayment by their owne and their servant's industrie. The laborers are of two sorts. Some employed onely in the generall works, who are fedd and clothed out of the storeâ€”others, specially artificers as smiths, carpenters, shoemakers, taylors, tanners, &c., doe worke in their professions for the colony, and maintayne themselves with food and apparrell, having time lymitted them to till and manure their ground.

"The farmors live at most easeâ€”yet by their good endeavors bring yearlie much plentie to the plantation. They are bound by covenant, both for themselves and servants, to maintaine your Ma'ties right and title in that kingdom, against all foreigne and domestique enemies. To watch and ward in the townes where they are resident. To do thirty-one dayes service for the colony, when they shalbe called thereuntoâ€”yet not at all tymes, but when their owne busines can best spare them. To maintayne themselves and families with food and raymentâ€”and every farmor to pay yearlie into the magazine for himself and every man servant, two barrells and a halfe of English measure.

"Thus briefly have I sett downe every man's particular imployment and manner of living; albeit, lest the peopleâ€”who generallie are bent to covett after gaine, especially having tasted of the sweete of their laborsâ€”should spend too much of their tyme and labor in planting tobacco, known to them to be verie vendible in England, and so neglect their tillage of corne, and fall into want thereof, it is provided forâ€”bythe providence and care of Sir Thomas Daleâ€”that no farmor or other, who must maintayne themselvesâ€”shall plant any tobacco, unless he shall yearely manure, set and maintayne for himself and every man servant two acres of ground with corne, which doing they may plant as much tobacco as they will, els all their tobacco shalbe forfeite to the colonyâ€”by which meanes the magazine shall yearely be sure to receave their rent of corne; to maintayne those who are fedd thereout, being but a few, and manie others, if need be; they themselves will be well stored to keepe their families with overplus, and reape tobacco enough to buy clothes and such other necessaries as are needful for themselves and household. For an easie laborer will keepe and tend two acres of corne, and cure a good store of tobaccoâ€”being yet the principall commoditie the colony for the present yieldeth.

"For which as for other commodities, the councell and company for Virginia have already sent a ship thither, furnished with all manner of clothing, household stuff and such necessaries, to establish a magazine there, which the people shall buy at easie rates for their commoditiesâ€”they selling them at such prices that the adventurers may be no loosers. This magazine shalbe yearelie supplied to furnish them, if they will endeavor, by their labor, to maintayne itâ€”which wilbe much beneficiall to the planters and adventurers, by interchanging their commodities, and will add much encouragement to them and others to preserve and follow the action with a constant resolution to uphold the same."

The colony at this time was engaged in planting corn and tobacco, "making pitch and tarr, potashes, charcole, salt," and in fishing. Of Jamestown he says:

"At James Toune (seated on the north side of the river, from West and Sherley Hundred lower down about thirty-seven miles) are fifty, under the command of lieutenant Sharpe, in the absence of capten Francis West, Esq., brother to the right ho'ble the L. Lawarre,â€”whereof thirty-one are farmors; all theis maintayne themselves with food and rayment. Mr. Richard Buck minister thereâ€”a verie good preacher."

Rev. Hugh Jones "Chaplain to the Honourable Assembly, and lately Minister of James-Towne and in Virginia," in a work entitledâ€”"The Present State of Virginia," gives the following account of the cultivation of tobacco:

"When a tract of land is seated, they clear it by fellingthe trees about a yard from the ground, lest they should shoot again. What wood they have occasion for they carry off, and burn the rest, or let it lie and rot upon the ground. The land between the logs and stumps they hoe up, planting tobacco there in the spring, inclosing it with a slight fence of cleft rails. This will last for tobacco some years, if the land be good; as it is where fine timber, or grape vines grow. Land when hired is forced to bear tobacco by penning their cattle upon it; but cowpen tobacco tastes strong, and that planted in wet marshy land is called nonburning tobacco, which smoaks in the pipe like leather, unless it be of a good age. When land is tired of tobacco, it will bear Indian Corn or English Wheat, or any other European grain or seed with wonderful increase.

Virginia Tobacco Field, 1620.

"Tobacco and Indian Corne are planted in hills as hops, and secured by worm fences, which are made of rails supporting one another very firmly in a particular manner. Tobacco requires a great deal of skill and trouble in the right management of it. They raise the plants in beds, as we do Cabbage plants; which they transplant and replant upon occasion after a shower of rain, which they call a season. When it is grown up they top it, or nip off the head, succourit, or cut off the ground leaves, weed it, hill it; and when ripe, they cut it down about six or eight leaves on a stalk, which they carry into airy tobacco houses, after it is withered a little in the sun, there it is hung to dry on sticks, as paper at the paper-mills; when it is in proper case, (as they call it) and the air neither too moist, nor too dry, they strike it, or take it down, then cover it up in bulk, or a great heap, where it lies till they have leisure or occasion to strip it (that is pull the leaves from the stalk) or stem it (that is to take out the great fibres) and tie it up in hands, or streight lay it; and so by degrees prize or press it with proper engines into great Hogsheads, containing from about six to eleven hundred pounds; four of which Hogsheads make a tun by dimention, not by weight; then it is ready for sale or shipping."There are two sorts of tobacco, viz., Oroonoko the stronger, and sweet-scented the milder; the first with a sharper leaf like a Fox's ear, and the other rounder and with finer fibres: But each of these are varied into several sorts, much as Apples and Pears are; and I have been informed by the Indian traders, that the Inland Indians have sorts of tobacco much differing from any planted or used by the Europeans. The Indian Corn is planted in hills and weeded much as tobacco. This grain is of great increase and most general use; for with this is made good bread, cakes, mush, and hommony for the negroes, which with good pork and potatoes (red and white, very nice and different from ours) with other roots and pulse, are their general food."

"There are two sorts of tobacco, viz., Oroonoko the stronger, and sweet-scented the milder; the first with a sharper leaf like a Fox's ear, and the other rounder and with finer fibres: But each of these are varied into several sorts, much as Apples and Pears are; and I have been informed by the Indian traders, that the Inland Indians have sorts of tobacco much differing from any planted or used by the Europeans. The Indian Corn is planted in hills and weeded much as tobacco. This grain is of great increase and most general use; for with this is made good bread, cakes, mush, and hommony for the negroes, which with good pork and potatoes (red and white, very nice and different from ours) with other roots and pulse, are their general food."

The cultivation of tobacco increased with the growth of the colony and the increase of price which at this time was sufficient to induce most of the planters to neglect the culture of Corn and Wheat, devoting their time to growing their "darling tobacco." The first thirty years after the colonization of Virginia by the English, the colony made but little progress owing in part to private factions and Indian wars. The horrid massacres by the Indians threatened the extermination of the colony, and for a time the plantations were neglected and even tobacco became more of an article of import than of export, which is substantiated by an early writer of the colony who says:â€”"A vast quantity of tobacco is consumed in the country in smoking, chewing, and snuff." Frequent complaints were made by the colony of want of strength and danger of imminent famine, owing inpart to the presence of a greater number of adventurers than of actual settlers,â€”such being the case the resources of the country were in a measure limited.

The demand for tobacco in England increasing each year, together with the high price paid for that from Virginia (3 s. per lb.), stimulated the planters to hazard all their time and labor upon one crop, neglecting the cultivation of the smaller grains, intent only upon curing "a good store of tobacco." The company of adventurers at length found it necessary to check the excessive planting of the weed, and by the consent of the "Generall Assemblie" restraining the plantations to "one hundred plants[15]ye headd, uppon each of wich plantes there are to bee left butt onely nyne leaves wich portions as neare as could be guessed, was generally conceaved would be agreable with the hundred waight you have allowed."

In 1639 the "Grand Assembly" (summoned the sixth of January) passed a law restricting the growth of the colony to 1,500,000 lbs., and to 1,200,000 in the two years next ensuing. The exporting of the poorer qualities of tobacco by the colony caused much dissatisfaction as will be seen by a letter of the Company dated 11th September, 1621:

"We are assured from our Factor in Holland that except the tobacco that shall next come thence prove to be of more perfection and goodnesse than that was sent home last, there is no hope that it vend att all, for albeit itt passed once yett the wary buyer will not be againe taken, so that we heartily wish that youe would make some provision for the burninge of all base and rotten stuff, and not suffer any but very good to be cured at least sent home, whereby these would certainly be more advanced in the price upon lesse in the quantity; howsoever we hope that no bad nor ill conditioned tobacco shall be by compelling authoritie (abusing its power given for public good to private benefit) putt uppon or Factor, and very earnestly desire that he may have the helpe of justice to constraine men to pay their debts unto him both remaining of the last yeares accompt and what shall this yearse growth deue, and that in Comodities of the same vallew and goodness as shalbe by him contracted for."

At this period it appears that tobacco was used as money, and as the measure of price and value. The taxes whether public, county, or parish, were payable in tobacco.

Tatham says, "Even the tavern keepers were compelled to exchange a dinner for a few pounds of tobacco." The law for the regulation of payments in tobacco was passed in the year 1640. From these facts and incidents connected with the culture and commerce of the plant we see how intimately it was connected with both Church and State. Jones well said "the Establishment is indeed tobacco;" the salary of ministers was payable in it according to the wealth of the parish. In most parishes 16000 lbs. was the yearly amount,

"and in some 20,000 lbs. of Tobacco; out of which there is a deduction for Cask, prizing, collecting, and about which allowance there are sometimes disputes, as are also differences often about the place, time, and manner of delivering it; but all these things might easily be regulated. Tobacco is more commonly at 20 s. per cent. than at 10; so that certainly it will bring 12 s. 8 d. a hundred, which will make 16000 (the least salary) amount to 100Â£ per Ann. which it must certainly clear, allowing for all petty charges, out of the lowness of the price stated which is less than the medium between ten and twenty shillings; whereas it might be stated above the medium, since it is oftener at twenty than ten shillings. Besides the payment of the salary, the surplice fees want a better regulation in the payments; for though the allowance be sufficient, yet differences often and illwill arise about these fees, whether they are to be paid in money or tobacco, and when; whereas by a small alteration and addition of a few laws in these and the like respects, the clergy might live more happy, peaceable, and better beloved; and the people would be more easy, and pay never the more dues.

"Some parts of the country make but mean and poor tobacco so that Clergymen don't care to live in such parishes; but there the payment might be made in money, or in the produce of those places, which might be equivalent to the tobacco payments; better for the minister, and as pleasing to the people."

We find further complaints from the London Company of the poor quality of the tobacco "sent home," in a letter addressed to the Governor, bearing date 10th June, 1622:â€”

"The tobacco sent home by the George for the companyproved very meane and is yett unsold although it hath been offered at 3s. the pound. This we thought fitt to advise you concerning the quantity and the manner how it is raised, in both wich being done contrarie to their directors and extreamly to theire prejudice, the Companie is very ill sattisfied, will write by the next, more largely."

In the year 1620 the difficulties seem first to have been publicly avowed, (though perhaps before felt,) arising from attaching men as permanent settlers to the colony without an adequate supply of women, to furnish the comforts of domestic life; and to overcome the difficulty "a hundred young women" of agreeable persons and respectable characters, were selected in England and sent out, at the expense of the Company, as wives for the settlers. They were very speedily appropriated by the young men of the colony, who paid for the privilege of choice considerable sums as purchase money, which went to replenish the treasury of the Company, from whence the cost of their outfit and passage had been defrayed.

This speculation proved so advantageous to that body, in a pecuniary sense, that it was soon followed up by sending out sixty more, for whom larger prices were paid than for the first consignment; the amount paid on the average for the first one hundred being 120 pounds of tobacco apiece for each, then valued at 3s. per lb., and for the second supply of sixty, the average price paid was 150 lbs. of tobacco, this being the legal currency of the colony, and the standard value by which all contracts, salaries, and prices were paid. In one of the Companies letters dated in London this 12th of August, 1621, we find this account of a portion of thegoodssent over in the ship Marmaduke:â€”

"We send you in this ship one widdow and eleven maids for wives for the people in Virginia; there hath been especiall care had in the choise of them for their hath not any one of them beene received but upon good comendations, as by a note herewith sent you may perceive: we pray you all therefore in generall to take them into your care, and most especially we recommend them to you, Mr. Pountes, that at their first landing they may be housed, lodged and provided for of diet till they be marryed for such was the haste of sendingthem away, as that straightned with time, we had no meanes to putt provisions aboard, which defect shalbe supplied by the magazine shipp; and in case they cannot be presently marryed we desire they may be putt to several householders that have wives till they can be provided of husbands. There are neare fifty more which are shortly to come, we sent by our most honoble Lord William the Earle of Southampton and certain worthy gentlemen who taking into these considerations, that the Plantation can never flourish till families be planted and the respect of wives and children fix the people in the soil; therefore have given this fair beginning for the reimbursing of whose charges, itt is ordered that every man that marries them give 120 lb. waight of best leafe tobacco for each of them, and in case any of them dye that proportion must be advanced to make it upp to those that survive; and this certainly is sett down for that the price sett upon the bages sent last yeare being 20 lb. which was so much money out of purse here, there was returned 66 lb. of tobacco only, and that of the worst and basest, so that fraight and shrinkage reconed together with the baseness of the comoditie there was not one half returned, which injury the company is sensible of as they demand restitution, which accordingly must be had of them that took uppon them the dispose of them the rather that no man may mistake himself, in accomptinge tobacco to be currant 3s. sterling contrary to express orders."And though we are desirous that marriadge be free according to the law of nature, yett undervow not to have these maids deterred and married to servants, but only to such freemen or tenants as have means to maintaine them; we pray you therefore to be fathers to them in this business, not enforcing them to marrie against their wills; neither send we them to be servants, but in case of extremitie, for we would have their condition so much better as multitudes may be allured thereby to come unto you; and you may assure such men as marry those women that the first servants sent over by the company shall be consigned to them, it being our intent to preserve families and proper married men before single persons. The tobacco that shall be due uppon the marriadge of these maids we desire Mr. Pountes to receive and returne by the first, as also the little quantities of Pitzarn Rock and Piece of Oare, the copie of whose bill is here returned. To conclude, the company for some weighty reasons too long to relate, have ordered that no man marrying thesewomen expect the proportion of land usually allotted for each head, which to avoid clamor or other trouble hereafter you shall do well to give them notice of."

"And though we are desirous that marriadge be free according to the law of nature, yett undervow not to have these maids deterred and married to servants, but only to such freemen or tenants as have means to maintaine them; we pray you therefore to be fathers to them in this business, not enforcing them to marrie against their wills; neither send we them to be servants, but in case of extremitie, for we would have their condition so much better as multitudes may be allured thereby to come unto you; and you may assure such men as marry those women that the first servants sent over by the company shall be consigned to them, it being our intent to preserve families and proper married men before single persons. The tobacco that shall be due uppon the marriadge of these maids we desire Mr. Pountes to receive and returne by the first, as also the little quantities of Pitzarn Rock and Piece of Oare, the copie of whose bill is here returned. To conclude, the company for some weighty reasons too long to relate, have ordered that no man marrying thesewomen expect the proportion of land usually allotted for each head, which to avoid clamor or other trouble hereafter you shall do well to give them notice of."

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