The Beginning of Smoking 7 



sent to explore the Isle of Guahain (christened by 

 him San Salvador), 6n their return had a wonderful 

 story to tell of the many strange and marvellous 

 things they had seen. Not least of these was the 

 practice the natives had of carrying lighted fire- 

 brands, from which they inhaled smoke, afterwards 

 puffing it out of their mouths and noses. This the 

 Spaniards thought was the native manner of per- 

 fuming themselves. Closer intimacy taught them 

 that the Indians rolled up the leaves of a certain 

 plant in a strip of maize, set fire to the roll and 

 drank in the smoke. The surprise and wonder of 

 the Spaniards at this curious practice can be well 

 imagined. Little did they dream that Europe and 

 the whole world would soon become devotees of the 

 same strange custom. 



The first clear account of the practice is that given 

 by Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo in his ' Historia 

 General de las Indias,' published in 1526, four years 

 after his return from San Domingo, where he was 

 Viceroy from 1516 to 1522. He describes the custom 

 of smoking, common among the natives of all the 

 islands, as ' very pernicious ' and ' used to produce 

 insensibility.' In Cuba and most of the islands the 

 natives smoked what we now call cigars — 'rolls of 

 certain herbs wrapped up in a leaf, or rather of 

 leaves rolled together, which they call tobaccos. 

 These they lighted at one end and from the other 

 sucked in the smoke.' On the mainland the natives 

 smoked through the previously described tobago, or 

 nose-pipe. ' They thus inhale the smoke until they 

 become stupefied. . . . Their smoking instrument, 



