"The progress of the tobacco trade from the earliest introduction of the plant into Europe until now, is certainly one of the most curious that commerce presents. That a plant originally smoked by a few savages, should succeed in spite of the most stringent opposition in church and state, to be the cherished luxury of the whole civilized world; to increase with the increase of time, and to end in causing so vast a trade, and so large an outlay of money; is a statistical fact, without an equal parallel." The tobacco plant notwithstanding its fascinating powers, has suffered many romantic vicissitudes in its fame and character; having been successively opposed and commended by physicians, condemned and eulogized by priests, vilified and venerated by kings, and alternately proscribed and protected by governments, this once insignificant production of a little island or an obscure district, has succeeded in diffusing itself throughout every clime, and--exhilarating and enriching its thousands--has subjected the inhabitants of every country to its dominion. And every where it is a source of comfort and enjoyment; in the highest grades of civilized society, at the shrine of fashion, in the depths of poverty, in the palace and in the cottage, the fascinating influence of this singular plant demands an equal tribute of devotion and attachment. CHAPTER VI. TOBACCO-PIPES, SMOKING AND SMOKERS. The implements used in smoking tobacco, from the rude pipe of the Indian to the elaborate hookah of the Turk, show a far greater variety than even the various species of the tobacco plant. The instruments used by the Indians for inhaling the tobacco smoke were no less wonderful to Europeans than the plant itself. The rude mode of inhaling the smoke and the intoxication produced by its fumes suggested to the Spaniards a better method of "taking tobacco." Hariot, however, found clay pipes in use by the Indians of Virginia, which though having no resemblance to the smoking implements discovered by Columbus, seem to have afforded a model for those afterward manufactured by the Virginia colony. The sailors of Columbus seemed to have first discovered cigar, rather than pipe-smoking, inasmuch as the simple method used by the natives, consisted of a leaf of maize, which enwrapped a few leaves of the plant.