Tobacco has been one of the most important gifts from the New World
to the Old. In spite of the attempts of various authors to prove its
Old World origin there can be no doubt that it was introduced into
both Europe and Africa from America. Most species of _Nicotiana_
are native to the New World, and there are only a few species which
are undoubtedly extra-American. The custom of smoking is also
characteristic of America. It was thoroughly established throughout
eastern North and South America at the time of the discovery; and
the early explorers, from Columbus on, speak of it as a strange and
novel practice which they often find it hard to describe. It played
an important part in many religious ceremonies, and the beliefs and
observances connected with it are in themselves proof of its antiquity.
Hundreds of pipes have been found in the pre-Columbian mounds and
village sites of the eastern United States and, although these remains
cannot be dated, some of them must be of considerable age. In the
southwestern United States the Basket Makers, an ancient people whose
remains are found below those of the prehistoric Cliff Dwellers, were
smoking pipes at a time which could not have been much later than the
beginning of our era.
At the time of the discovery of America, tobacco was in use over the
greater part of the continent. It was not used in the sub-Arctic
regions of North America or in the extreme southern part of Southern
America. On the west coast of South America and in the Andean highlands
it was replaced by another narcotic, coca (_Erythroxylum coca_), from
which the modern drug cocaine is extracted. The coca leaves were dried
and chewed with powdered lime. Tobacco was smoked throughout most of
its range, but the tribes of the northwest coast of North America mixed
it with shell lime and made it into small pellets which were allowed
to dissolve in the mouth. The tribes of Washington, Oregon and a great
part of California used it in the same way, but also smoked it. Along
the eastern side of the Andean highlands in South America tobacco was
both smoked and chewed. The chewing tobacco was prepared like the
Andean coca, and the idea was probably borrowed from coca chewing.
Although Europeans learned the custom of smoking from the Indians and
even copied the Indian smoking appliances rather closely, the modern
American custom of tobacco chewing may not be of Indian origin. None of
the North American Indians east of the Rocky Mountains chewed tobacco,
and the only point at which South American tobacco chewing reached the
Atlantic Coast was a small region in northern Colombia. Modern chewing
tobacco lacks the admixture of powdered lime, which was considered
necessary by all Indian tobacco chewers and seems to have been an
invention of the white frontiersmen. It is possible, however, that the
idea of tobacco chewing was carried to the English colonies by the
Spaniards, who may have learned it from the South American Indians.
The North American Indians used at least nine species of _Nicotiana_,
most of which were cultivated. _Nicotiana tabacum_, the species to
which practically all the modern commercial tobaccos belong, was
grown throughout Mexico, the West Indies, and in northern and
eastern South America. It was unknown north of Mexico until its
introduction into Virginia by the English colonists. _Nicotiana
rustica_, a much hardier species with a yellow flower, was grown by
the Indians of the eastern United States and Canada as far west as
the great plains and as far north as agriculture was possible. It was
the first tobacco grown in Virginia for the European trade, but was
soon supplanted there by _N. tabacum_. Small patches of it are still
cultivated by some of the Central Algonquian tribes who use it in their
ceremonies. _N. attenuata_ was used over a larger area than any other
species. It is found in its natural state in the southwestern United
States and southern plains, and as a cultivated plant extends northward
into western Canada and British Columbia. It was also cultivated on
the lower Colorado, but the typical Pueblo tribes do not seem to have
raised it. _N. multivalvis_ was grown in Washington and Oregon, as well
as by the Crow, who lived on the western edge of the plains. A related
species (_N. quadrivalvis_) was grown by the settled tribes along the
Missouri river. Still another species (_N. biglovii_) was used by the
California tribes, and is known to have been cultivated by the Hupa.
The three last-named species are rather closely related; it seems
probable that _N. multivalvis_ and _N. quadrivalvis_ were brought into
the plains area from the west, displacing _N. attenuata_.
[Illustration: PLATE II.