as widely used in cases
of dysentery, skin diseases, and as a stimulant and astringent; French
warships searching for loot off the shores of the New World had often
made it the cargo when richer prizes were not to be had.

Like gold, sassafras diverted labor during the crucial early period at
Jamestown from the tasks of building and provisioning. Sailors and
settlers, both, took time off to load the ships with the drug which
would bring a good price in England.

The belief that the exporting of drugs would prove profitable for the
colony in Virginia and for the Company may explain why two apothecaries
accompanied the second group of immigrants who arrived in 1608. Someone
had to search out and identify possible drugs, and a layman could not
be expected to perform a task requiring such specialized knowledge. The
apothecaries could further serve the new settlement by helping to
supply its medicinal needs.

Before the drug trade in Virginia could be developed, and at the same
time adapted to the over-all needs of the colony, attention had to be
given to the use of drugs to meet the immediate needs of the settlers.
Dr. Bohun, who had brought medical supplies in 1610 and soon found them
exhausted, turned resourcefully to an investigation of indigenous
minerals and plants. He investigated earths, gums, plants, and fruits.
A white clay proved useful in treating the fevers (the clay of the
Indians used for "sicknesse and paine of the belly"?); the fruits of a
tree similar to the "mirtle" helped the doctor to face the epidemics of
dysentery.

The colonists also needed a wine which could be produced cheaply and
locally. Many of them, accustomed to beer and wine regularly,
complained of having to rely upon water as a liquid refresher.
According to one of their number, more died in Virginia of the "disease
of their minds than of their body ... and by not knowing they shall
drink water here." One enterprising alchemist and chemist offered to
sell the London Company a solution for this problem: the formula of an
artificial wine to be made from Virginia vegetables.

After the colony seemed no longer in danger of perishing from its own
sicknesses--or going mad from having to drink water--the Company urged
the settlers to develop an active trade in medicinal plants, in order
to help cure the diseases of England and the financial ills of the
Company. The London Company, in a carefully organized memorandum,
advised the colonists wha