Coasting along for several days, he came to a part of the shore of a very rich and luxuriant description, which induced him to come to anchor, and land; the natives asserting that it abounded in gold and silver mines. This place was a province of Yucatan in the Mexican Gulf, called Tobaco, the place from whence tobacco is supposed to have derived its present name. There it was that the plant was discovered, in a very thriving and flourishing state. Among the natives who held it in the greatest possible esteem and reverence, from the almost magical virtues they attached to it, it was called petun, and by those in the adjoining islands yoli. So singular a production of the country could not but draw the attention of the Spanish commander to it. The consequence was, that a specimen of it was shipped home with other curiosities of the country, with a long detail of its supposed astonishing virtues, in pharmacy. In the latter end of the year the plants arrived at their destination, and this may fairly be deemed to have been their first entry into the civilized portion of the world.
A dreadful disease, first brought from America by the last return of Columbus, raged about this period with a fearful and unchecked virulency in Spain, committing dreadful devastations on the human frame, and finally ending in the most horrible death imagination could picture. This circumstance served to procure it a most sanguine welcome; for the sailors composing the fleet, having learnt it from the natives, had disseminated the belief, that it was the only known antidote against its ravages,—that it in fact answered the purposes of mercury in the present day, a belief welcomed with enthusiasm, and ending in despair.
No sooner, however, was its inefficacy perceived, than it sunk in the estimation of its worshippers, as low as it previously had risen. Indeed, into such obscurity did it fall after the hopes it had vainly excited, that nearly forty years elapsed, ere it obtained any notice worth commemorating. At about the end of that period, however, we find that it had regained the ground it had previously lost, on a surer and better footing, as a soothing and gentle stimulant.
From Spain, the plant was carried into Portugal; and from thence, gradually exported to the different kingdoms throughout Europe. Shortly after this, it was sent to the East, where it soon came into notice, as a narcotic, and consequently found a ready market. Peculiar facilities at this time too presented themselves to the Spaniards, above every other nation; for Vasco de Gama, another of its adventurers, had discovered and explored a great portion of the countries lying beyond the Cape of Good Hope. Among other articles, exchanged in the way of commerce with the natives, was tobacco: and this, despite of the reasoning of Don Ulloa mentioned some time back, was the first channel through which Hindostan, Arabia, and China, received the plants, now so common throughout the whole of the Eastern Empire. This occurred about the year 1560, shortly after it had been carried into France and Italy.
While the nations of the Peninsula were thus distinguishing themselves, and in the meridian of their glory, extending their discoveries, conquests, and trade to the furthermost parts of that world which they had opened to the eyes of astonished Europe, England, for a time, was incapacitated from pursuing a similar course by intestine broils and factions at home. And even when Elizabeth ascended the throne, her naturally enterprising and ambitious spirit was almost solely confined to arranging domestic discords, and settling foreign quarrels.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, a plain blunt soldier, instigated by feelings of emulation and national enterprise, was the first to direct the attention of the maiden queen towards the benefits that would naturally result from planting a British colony in America. At his request a patent was granted, empowering him to plant and colonize some of the southern districts. He accordingly fitted out a squadron at his own expense, and proceeded on his voyage, which, from different circumstances that occurred, miscarried. A similar fate attended two subsequent attempts, when Sir Humphrey’s half-brother, the after-celebrated Sir Walter Ralegh or Raleigh, as it is now spelt, returned home from the wars in the Netherlands.
Inspired by a restless ambition that ever distinguished this great man, he succeeded in persuading the knight to undertake a fourth voyage, offering to accompany him himself. Combining courage, enterprise, and perseverance, with a degree of knowledge little known at the period we treat of, few men were better qualified for the successful execution of such an enterprise than Raleigh. The sequel proved the truth of this remark, Newfoundland was discovered and taken; though the original gallant projector, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, we have recorded, was drowned on his passage home.
In the year 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh applied for the renewal of the letters patent in his own name, which the queen immediately granted him. Having fitted out a squadron, he put to sea, and after a somewhat tedious voyage, discovered Wingandacoa, which he afterwards called Virginia, in honor of Elizabeth. On his return, he was received with peculiar favour by the queen, who testified her satisfaction by making him a knight, while she lent a willing ear towards the colonizing schemes Sir Walter opened to her aspiring view.
In pursuance of some of these, Sir Richard Grenville, another relation of Sir Walter Raleigh’s, was sent out with Captain Lane, whom he left in command of one hundred men in one of the southern districts of the country, appointing him at the same time to act as governor; and promising to return to him before the next spring with stores and fresh provisions. Circumstances, that have never yet been properly explained to this day, prevented Sir Richard from keeping his word, in consequence of which, the colony was reduced to great distress. Shortly afterwards, taking the advantage of Sir Francis Drake’s return from the Spanish wars, they embarked on board his ships for England, where they arrived in the month of July, A. D. 1686, with their commander, Lane. Among the specimens of the productions and peculiarities of the country, they brought with them that which forms our subject, the tobacco plant.
This, by some, is said to have been its first importation into Great Britain; Lobel, however, asserts, it was cultivated here in 1570, a statement plausible enough, we admit, considering the previous length of time the plant had been known in Spain and Portugal, but yet irreconcileable with the data our own historical research gives us. That it might indeed have been introduced from France previous to its importation from Virginia, and cultivated in trifling quantities, is highly probable, inasmuch as the French date its first appearance among them in 1560, just ten years previous to Lobel’s affirmation. Linnæus likewise mentions that the plant became known in Europe the same year the French date from, and Humboldt so far corroborates him, as to state that seeds of it were received from Yucatan in 1559.