The Tobacco Tiller
Sir of the silken robe and waving plume,—dizzy with visions of the wealth of the Montezumas to be conquered,—you who in the beginning of the sixteenth century, presented the Indian weed to your Sovereign at Madrid,—Fernando Cortez—answer to your name!Sir Frances Drake, the first son of Old England to look to the borders of the Peaceful Ocean,—bring forward Ralph Lane, starving pearl-hunter of Roanoke Island, whom you rescued. Answer, Lane, you who introduced the Indian custom of "drinking tobacco" into your country!Noble prisoner of the Tower,—chivalrous subject of Her Sovereign Majesty, Elizabeth, in whose honor was named the sunny land which grew the herb of enchantment,—you who made the herb fashionable in Britain,—Sir Walter Raleigh, answer to roll call!