this cherished
production of the world, they would discover a commercial prosperity
connected with those nations which have fostered and encouraged its
growth far in advance of those who have frowned upon the plant and
prohibited or hindered its cultivation. Saint Pierre alluding to the
beneficence of nature and of the folly and cruelty of man as
contrasted says:

"When the princes of Europe went Gospel in hand, to lay
waste Asia, they brought back the plague, the leprosy and
the small-pox, but nature showed to a Dervish the coffee
tree in the mountains of Yemen, and at the moment when
nature brought curses on us through the Crusaders, it
brought delights to us through the cup of a Mohammedan Monk.
The descendants of those princes took possession of America,
and transmitted to us by this conquest, an inexhaustible
succession of wars and maladies. While they were
exterminating the inhabitants of America with cannon, a
Carib invited sailors to smoke his Calumet as a signal of
peace. The perfume of the tobacco vanquished their torments
and their troubles, and the use of tobacco was spread all
over the earth. While the afflictions of the two worlds came
from artillery, which kings call their last resort, the
consolations of civilized nations flowed from the pipe of a
savage."

[Illustration: Shipping tobacco.]

It seems hardly possible to draw a more graphic picture of the
blessings diffused by the balmy plant, than that just given. Its
peculiar charms and soothing influence are well calculated to
inspire in the breast of man, feelings of peace and happiness, rather
than elements of discord and strife. The pipe of a king burns not more
freely the shreds of the plant, than it does the last remnant of
hostile feelings and the recollections of bitter wrongs; while the
snuff-box of the diplomat contains the precious dust that has soothed
the fierce hatred of rival houses and cemented the divided factions of
a tottering throne.

CHAPTER IV.

TOBACCO IN EUROPE.

The discovery of the tobacco plant in America by European voyagers
aroused their cupidity no less than their curiosity. They saw in its
use by the Indians a custom which, if engrafted upon the civilization
of the Old World, would prove a source of revenue commensurate with
their wildest visions of power and wealth. This was particularly the
case with the Spanish and Po