The Tobacco Reference Guide by David Moyer

by David Moyer, MD.

Chapter 4 History of tobacco in chronological order

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History of tobacco in chronological order: 1500

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"Among other evil practices, the Indians have one that is especially harmful: the

inhaling of a certain kind of smoke which they call tobacco, in order to produce a state

of stupor. (They) employ a tube shaped like a Y, inserting the forked extremities in

their nostrils and the tube filled with the lighted weed; in this way they would inhale the

smoke until they became unconscious and lay sprawling on the ground like men in a drunken slumber."

G. Fernandez de Oviedo, 1526 (Holy Smoke p. 10)

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"The Indians have a certain herb, of which they lay up a store every Summer, having

first dried it in the sun. They always carry some of it in a small bag hanging around

their necks. They suck themselves so full of smoke that it oozes from their mouths like

smoke from the flue of a chimney. They say the habit is most wholesome."

Jacques Cartier on the St. Lawrence River, Quebec, Canada, 1535

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Cartier noted that tobacco "bit our tongues like pepper." It was not until the 1600's that

the strong, native Nicotiana rustica (wild tobacco) was supplanted by mild Nicotiana

tabacum (common tobacco) from Central and South America.

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