Tobacco has been grown in China since 1658. Tobacco seeds brought from the Philippines were used to grow a non-aromatic leaf that was smoked principally in water pipes. In 1897 Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company sent cigarette salesman James A. Thomas to Japan, China, the Philippines, Borneo, Straits Settlement (Singapore), Java, Sumatra, Siam, India, Burma, and Ceylon. Thomas had instructions to visit all of these countries for three years, then report back to company headquarters what he had seen. Not speaking the languages of any of the countries he visited or worked in, Thomas still managed to successfully introduce American made cigarettes in the Far East, principally in China and India. Later, James Thomas established cigarette factories in China after he had been able to improve the quality of tobacco grown there. Tobacco seed and fertilizer was imported from the US, along with a few North Carolina tobacco men who were to teach Chinese farmers how to cultivate it. This produced a quality Chinese leaf. In 1902 Thomas went to work for the newly amalgamated British-American Tobacco Company. He now sold Pirate and Drumhead cigarettes from England, Rooster cigarettes from the British Cigarette Co., Ltd. Shanghai, and Pinhead cigarettes from the US. The 1907 postcard below is of a Chinese funeral in Hong Kong. If that pirate looking down has a frown on his face, it's probably deja vu.