Fig. 2.-FROM THEVET'S 'SINGULARITEZ' (1558). THIS DRAWING, PROBABLY BY JEAN COUSIN, IS THE EARLIEST KNOWN ILLUSTRATION OF THE PROCESS OF SMOKING. [To face p. 129. (as some have thought) so name either the herb or the stupor that overcomes them. This herb the Indians regard as a very precious thing, and they grow it in their gardens and plantations for the purpose aforesaid. They consider the use of that herb and the smoke thereof to be not only salutary but very sacred. And so when the cacique or headman falls on the ground, his wives (who are many) take him and place him in his bed, if he have beforehand so commanded them. But if he have not already so ordered, they fear not to leave him where he lies until the intoxication and sleep be past. I cannot think what pleasure is derived from such an act, unless it be the gluttony of drinking till one falls. Yet do I know that some Christians have been addicted to it, especially those who have had the pox, for they declare that during the time when they are thus insensate they feel not the pain of the disease. But to me it seemeth that this is naught else than death in life, a thing which I regard as worse than the pain they thus avoid, since they are not cured thereby. 'At present many of the negroes in this city and in the whole island [of San Domingo] have adopted this very habit, and they grow the herb in the gardens and plantations of their masters for the purpose aforesaid. And they indulge in the same smoking, for they say that when they rest from work and have those tabacos, their fatigue leaves them. . . As has been said above, when some headman or caçique falls by tabaco, they put him in a bed according to command, and it were well here to say what sort of bed the Indians of this Island have. It is that which they call Hamaca, and is made according to the fashion depicted.' ... There follows the picture reproduced in fig. 1, which explains the derivation of our word hammock.'† It will be seen that the term tabaco is here again applied to the smoking apparatus. The period and manner in which the word tobacco became transferred to the substance itself remain undecided. Here, as in nearly all early writings on tobacco, the plant is regarded as having The writer cordially thanks Mr J. A. J. de Villiers of the Map Department of the British Museum and Honorary Secretary of the Hakluyt Society, for help with some of Oviedo's Spanish. The word, which is to be found in all European languages, has passed into modern German as 'Hängematte,' an interesting example of a false derivation. The word tobacco has been derived from the island of Tobago, off Trinidad, and from the city of Tabasco in southern Mexico. The resemblance in both cases, however, is almost certainly accidental. strongly narcotic or medicinal qualities. If Oviedo is to be believed, its potency must have diminished since. The custom of smoking is casually mentioned by several other early Spanish narrators of American travel. It is not unlikely that the first introduction of the plant into Europe was by Hernando Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, who is said to have presented tobacco-grains to Charles V in 1518. Early in the 16th century, however, other nations besides those of the Iberian peninsula began to enter the field of discovery in the New World and to send explorers thither. One of the first of these adventurers, and one of the earliest writers who gave any attention to smoking, was Jacques Cartier (1491-1557), the Breton navigator. The extreme rarity of his 'Brief recit et succincte narration de la navigation faicte es ysles de Canada'* has perhaps prevented the entry of this work into the list of recognised early writings on tobacco. Cartier made altogether four voyages to North America, and it appears to have been on his second expedition, between 1535 and 1536, that he observed the use of tobacco. His 'Brief recit,' however, did not appear until 1545, when his voyages were over and he had settled at St Malo. Cartier writes as follows: 'They have also a herb which they greatly esteem, and during the summer they make great store of it for the winter time. Only the men use it and in the manner following. They have it dried in the sun and carry it about their necks in a little beast's skin in place of a bag, with a horn of stone or wood: then presently they make powder of this herb, and place it in one of the ends of the said horn, and putting a tiny coal of fire thereon, they suck at the other end, and thus they fill their bodies with smoke, so that it comes out by the mouth and nostrils as by a chimney funnel. They say that it keeps them healthy and warm, and they never go without having these appliances. We have ourselves tried the said smoke, which after being put into our mouth seemed to be powder of pepper put therein, it was so hot.' The tobacco here described as being used by the Canadian Indians was probably obtained from the Nicotiana rustica, which grows in their own country, and * Only a single copy of this interesting work is believed to have survived. The volume is now in the British Museum. |