Indians as the most valuable offering that can be made to the Beings they worship: they use it in all their civil and religious ceremonies. When once its spiral wreaths ascend from the feathered pipe of peace, the compact that has just been made, is considered as sacred and inviolable. Likewise, when they address their great Father, or his guardian Spirits, residing as they believe in every extraordinary production of nature[1], they make liberal offerings of this valuable plant to them, doubting not but that they secure thereby the protection they request.

Smoking was at first supposed to be the only means by which its virtues could be attained; but at length it was found out that the juices of it extracted by chewing were of a cordial nature, alleviating, in laborious employments, the cravings of hunger, or the depression of fatigue; and also, that the powder of it received into the head through the nostrils, in moderate quantities, was a salubrious and refreshing sternutatory. For these purposes, the Americans inhabiting the interior settlements manufacture it in the following easy manner. Being possessed of a tobacco-wheel, which is a very simple machine, they spin the leaves, after they are properly cured, into a twist of any size they think fit, and having folded it into rolls of about twenty pounds weight each, they lay it by for use. In this state it will keep for several years, and be continually improving, as it every hour grows milder. When they have occasion to use it, they take off such a length as they think necessary, which, if designed for smoking, they cut into small pieces, for chewing into longer, as choice directs; if they intend to make snuff of it they take a quantity from the roll, and laying it in a room where a fire is kept, in a day or two it will become dry, and being rubbed on a grater will produce a genuine snuff. Those, in more improved regions, who like their snuff scented, may apply to it such odoriferous waters as they can procure, or think most pleasing.

The Illinois usually form it into carots, which is done by laying a number of leaves, when cured, on each other, after the ribs have been taken out, and rolling them round with packthread, till they become cemented together. These rolls commonly measure about eighteen or twenty inches long, and nine round in the middle part. But as many other methods are at present well known in England, that probably answer the purpose full as well as these, it is almost unnecessary to describe them.

These directions are here given for the benefit of those who raise tobacco for their own use, and chuse to make their snuff without applying to the manufacturer for it.

Among the articles of commerce tobacco holds a distinguished rank, and affords no inconsiderable addition to the revenues of the state. Before the present unhappy dissentions broke out between Great-Britain and America, about ninety-six thousand hogsheads were annually imported from Maryland and Virginia. Thirteen thousand five hundred of which were consumed at home; the duty of which, at the rate of 26l. 1s. per hogshead, amounted to 351,765l. The remaining eighty-two thousand, five hundred hogsheads were exported to various parts of Europe, and their value received in specie, or the produce of those countries.

To the uses already enumerated, I shall add another to which tobacco might be applied, that I believe has never been made known to Europeans, and which will render it much more estimable than any of the foregoing. It has been found by the Americans to answer the purpose of tanning leather, as well, if not better, than bark; and was not the latter so plentiful in their country would be generally used by them instead of it. I have been witness to many experiments wherein it has proved successful, especially on the thinner sorts of hides, and can safely pronounce it to be, in countries where bark is scarce, a valuable substitute for that article.

CHAPTER II.
A Description of the Plant and its Flowers.

There are several species of the Tobacco Plant, and these are chiefly distinguishable by their flowers, and the junction of the leaves to the stalks; but as this is not intended for a Botanical Treatise, I shall confine my description to those sorts which are cultivated in the colonies for exportation: these are two; the Oronokoe and the sweet-scented; which differ from each other in no respect but in the shape of their leaves, those of the former being longer and narrower than the latter. Both are tall, herbaceous plants, of an erect growth and noble foliage, rising each with a strong stem (in their native soil) to the height of from six to nine feet. The stalk is upwards of an inch diameter near the root, and surrounded with a kind of hairy or velvet, clammy substance, of a yellowish green colour. The leaves, which are rather of a deeper green, grow to the stalk alternately, at the distance of about two or three inches from each other. They are oblong, of a spear-shaped-oval, and simple; without pedicles embracing the stalk by an auriculated base. The largest are about twenty inches long, decreasing in size as they ascend, till they are not longer than ten inches, and nearly half as broad. The face of the leaves is much undulated, or corrugated, not unlike those of spinnage when full ripe. In their first state, at the time they do not exceed five or six inches, the leaves are usually of a full green, and rather smooth, but as they increase in size they acquire a yellowish cast and become rougher.

The stem and branches are terminated by large bunches of flowers, collected into clusters of a delicate red, the edges, when quite blown, inclining to a pale purple. The flowers continue in succession until the end of summer, when they make room for the seed. These are of a brown colour, kidney-shaped, and very small, each capsule generally containing about a thousand, and the whole produce of a single plant is estimated at three hundred and fifty thousand. The seeds are usually ripe in the month of September, and when perfectly dry may be rubbed out and preserved in bags till the following season.

The Oronokoe, or, as it is termed by the seedsmen, the long Virginia, appears to me to be the sort best suited to bear the rigour of a northern climate, the strength of the plant, as well as the scent and efficacy of the leaves being greater than the other. The sweet-scented flourishes most in a sandy soil and warm countries, where it greatly exceeds the former in the celerity of its growth; and although, as I have before observed, it differs from the Oronokoe only in the shape of its leaves, being shorter and rounder, yet it is unlike in its strength and flavour, being, agreeable to its name, much milder and pleasanter.

As a species of garden plants, the Nicotiana is an ornamental annual for the pleasure ground, as it attains a majestic stature, and being adorned with fine luxuriant leaves, and large clusters of pleasing flowers which terminate all the shoots, during the autumn it exhibits an elegant appearance.

For a more compleat idea of the Oronokoe plant and its flowers, the reader is referred to the plate prefixed to this Work. But it must be observed, that the number of leaves represented on the stalk is not designed to serve as a rule for topping the tobacco, as directed in the