WHO SMOKED THE FIRST CIGARETTE.
. IS-is-difficult to iojagine the time when 110 one smokeft, chewed,, or snuffed—when, in fact, tobacco was unknown. But before the discovery of America the Old World had never imagined tobacco and its delights. Christopher Columbus and his followers were, the first from the Eastern Hemisphere to see men smoking.
When they landed on October 12, 1492, on the island to which he gave the name of San Salvador they beheld to their astonishment a group of natives sitting on the shore puffing clouds of smoke from their lips and nostrils. On closer inspection it was found that the dried leaves of some herb were wrapped in jthe leaves of the maize or corn plant and formed into cylindical rolls, one end of which was put into the mouth, the other kindled and the smoke drawn in and puffed out again. In short, the Indians were smoking cigarettes. These the natives called "tobacco." This is the origin of the name, and not the island of Tobago, which was not discovered until four years later.
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Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 15 May 1912, Page 7
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178WHO SMOKED THE FIRST CIGARETTE. Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 15 May 1912, Page 7
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