The Rise of Smoking in England..


No sooner had Columbus in the 16th Century shown the way to the new lands far overseas than a host began to follow in his train, from every nation they came in haste, eager to imitate the example of the Spaniards, and acquire, each for his own country, has many El Dorados as they might discover. The whole world was drawn as if by magic to that wondrous land in the West known as America, after the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci, news whose name, although Columbus had preceded him by seven years, came to be associated with the new World merely from the fact that he had written and published such a glowing account of his travels as could not fail to appeal to the popular imagination

It was only natural that this universal rush for the new discoveries should give rise to bitter rivalry and even open hostilities among the various nations concerned. Of these the first place must be given to England for her attempt to help outbid both Spain and Portugal, although her navy was no match for the combined fleets of the Peninsula. So long as Mary of England, the wife of Phillip II of Spain, was a party to the persecution which sought to bring back the Catholic religion to Protestant England it was possible to keep the rival interests of the opposing countries in the background, but on her death early in 1558 the peace was broken and open war ensued, in which the English did not hesitate to attack any Spanish vessel that crossed their path. Men like Admiral Hawkins, Drake, and Raleigh were little better than Pirates in their dealings with the Spaniards, pillaging and destroying without scruple. As these encounters took place off the Coast of Central and Southern America the English sailors were brought into contact with the natives of these parts, and were thus enabled to make their first acquaintance with the use of tobacco in the very land of its origin. Hawkins, describing his second voyage [1564-65], notes the existence of smoking among the natives of Florida, but he, like others, completely misunderstood their object, his theory being that they smoked in order to appease their hunger, since they were thus able to go for four or five days without eating or drinking.

It was about this time that a few specimens of the tobacco plant, together with the seed, found their way to England by way of Portugal and France. There has been much dispute as to who can claim the honour of having first introduced the plant into that country, there seems to be no certainty about this matter, nor is it of special importance, we only know that it was brought from America by the sea-captains, who where the first to smoked publicly in the streets of London, to the great amazement of the people, who collected in crowds to see so strange and incomprehensible a sight. In England, as opposed to the Continent, tobacco seems to have been regarded from the first less as a medicinal herb than as the means by which the pleasant habit of smoking might be enjoyed. At first, however, the number of smokers was few, and they were looked upon as a curiosity, the custom becoming general only after the discovery of Virginia, when the British colonists returned home after a prolonged sojourn in that country. To Sir Walter Raleigh, the famous "general on land" and "Admiral on the seas," Queen Elizabeth, who succeeded her sister Mary on the throne of England, assigned the royal privilege of exploring unknown lands and planting colonies in North America. Starting from Florida, Raleigh followed the coast northward and gradually arrived at what we now call the state of Virginia, where he founded the colony which took its name from "the virgin Queen." He returned to England soon after this achievement, and was followed in September of the same year by his fellow-captains Amadas and Barlow, who brought three Indians from Virginia home with them. These men, unable to give up their habit of smoking, brought supplies of tobacco with them, and Raleigh was thus enabled to acquaint himself with their method of using it.