The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-11-12
History OF Tobacco.

two sailors were sent by Columbus tt
make brief exploration on the island 0
Cuba. They brought back to the shil
the most marvellous aud incredible
report. "We found the natives" thel
said, carrying lighted 6rebrands will
them and putting smoke from thei1
mouths and noses."
The investigation which followed thi'
extraordinary statement disclosed the
nature of the "6rebrands." They were
made of the leaves of unfamiliar herb
rolled up in the dried inner leaves O.
maize or Indian corn. 1t soon turned
out, too, contrary to the theory which
naturally occurred to the Europeans tt
account for this strange custom, that il
was neither method of perfuming the
person nor q part of barbarous relig'
ious ceremony, but practice whose sole
excuse for being lay in the simple salts
faction and pleasure of its performance
In this matured and advanced stage oi
its existence tho cigar makes its first ap.
pearance in history, and it is to be noted
that the changes which have been made
in it during the nearly 400 years that
have since elapsed have been more in
the details of the manufacture than in
the nature of the article itself.
Almost simultaneously with the dis
covery of the cigar, the Spaniards were
made aware of another and still more
curious method of extracting the virtues
from the seductive herb. The custom
was first observed among the natives OF
the island of San Domingo. Upon the
live embers of wood fire they cast the
leaves of the tobacco plant. The long
end of hollow tube dividing into
branches at the top, shaped like letter
Y with an extended stem, was placed in
the smoke. The fumes were inhaled
through the branches held in the mouth
or nostrils.
Such was the primitive pipe, still in
use among some South American tribes.
The native gave this novel instrument
this name-tabaco. The Spaniards con-
founding the name of the weed with that
of the pipe through which it was smok-
ed transmitted the error to future gene
rations, and we have continued to perpe.
trate it. The Spaniards still preserve
the original spelling. The Italians add
an extra C-tabacco. The Poles call it
tabaca. The Swedes and Danes shorten
it to tobak. The Germans, Dutch and
Russians spell it tabak and the French
tabac. 1t is said that the Tartars made
use of the three words ia ba ko to desig-
nate tobacco before the plant came into
use in England. There is an old story,
SO common that everybody is familiar
with it, that "the word tobacco is derived
from tobago, an island of the Lesser
Antilles, where the plant was discovered" :"
This is told and believed with confidence
as if the Island had borne this name
through all time and Columbus had only
to inquire to find out what it was. The
fact as nearly as we can decide it, is that
Columbus gave the Island this name
because he fancied its outline bore a
resemblance to the Y pipe of the natives
of San Domingo.
TO the use of tobacco, which has
become so general throughout the world,
We ara indebted to the uncivilized inhab.
itants of the North American continent.
BY process of natural selection the
inferior races vanished like smoke
at the approach of the superior
races, but they left with US as a
parting gift a memento which seems
likely to last as long as any of our insti.
tutions. 1t is a curious fact, and one
which is probably not paralleled in
history, that race of savages should
impress upon the civilized nation prac.
tice originating among themselves and
exclusively their own. Evidently there
was some void in the civilized heart
waiting to be filled. 1t required no long
process of initiation or requirements
Tobacco was adopted at sight, and sprung
into its place in popular favor at single
bound. A custom so spontaneously
accepted in spite of the most rigorous
legislative attempts to suppress it, so
steady in its growth and so universal in
its ultimate extent, mustindeed have had
something stronger to recommend it than
the mere spirit of imitation or the force
of novelty.
At the period of our first knowledge of
it the tobacco plant seems to have been
spread generally over the Southern part
Of the South American continent and
the Islands at the mouth of the Gulf of
Mexico. According to Humboldt it
was largely cultivated by the ancient
Mexicans as it was by the native abo-
rigines. 1t was found then, as we find it
now, varying greatly in character accord
ing to the climate and the nature of the
soil in which it grew. 1t seemed then as
it does now, particularly adapted to
Southern parallels, but it is even at this
day occasionally found as weed as far
North as New York State, a relic of the
cultivation by the native red man.
Unfortunately, future generations are
not permitted to record the name of the
illustrious discoverer of the virtues of
the tobacco plant. For want of better
evidence we are obliged to accept the
testimony of the SusquehaDna Indians,
who told the Christian missionaries that
it was of divine origins belief, by the
way, which seems to have been pretty
generally INDUCED in by the aborigines.
"Some hunters of our tribe" they said,
"having killed and cooked deer, observ-
ed figure like that of q young woman,
really a spirit, on the hill side, and
thinking that she might be suffering from
hunger, offered her some venision. She
partook of it, was pleased with its flavor
and said: Your kindness shall be
rewarded. Come here thirteen moons
hence and you shall find it, We did so,
and found maize growing where her right
hand had touched the ground, where her
left, kidney-beans, and where she sat we
found tobacco" And undoubtedly this
is lust as authentic as some other "histor-
ical" data which are much more widely
believed.
In this case, at any rate, we shall be
obliged to take things as they are, with.
out indulgiug iu our common weakness
of trying to account for them. 1t is
certain only that the savage was found
by the white man with the pipe in his
mouth, and under his care the culture of
tobacco had already reached an advanced
stage. The first European ship that
touched the shores of America carried
back with them the samples of the curl.
GUS herb that grew in the new country.
We cannot, however, ascertain the date
of the introduction of tobacco into Eu-
rope previous to 1900, when Hernandez
de Toledo, Spanish physician, who had
been commissioned by Philip II. to
examine the productions of Mexico,
brought to Spain small quantity of the
leaves, of which portion found its way