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 is called 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."
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.