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The Ancient Records of the Island: Indian

The words of Columbus and what the interpreter added in regard to the power and riches of the Castilian monarchy, made the old Indian to feel so much astonishment and gladness that he wanted to sail with the Spaniards and see the European countries, but his wife and children pleaded so earnestly with him, much to his sorrow, that he finally desisted from his intended voyage. This is the account of the discovery of the use of tobacco, as given by Father Las Casas, in his "General History of the Indians:" "Hallaron por el camino mucha gente que atravesaban a sus pueblos, mugeres y hombres: siempre los hombres con un tizon en las manos y ciertas yerbas secas metidas en una cierta hoja seca tambien a manera de mosquete hecho de papel de los que hacen los muchachos la Pascua del Espiritu Santo, y encendido por una parte de el, por la otra chupan o' sorben o' reciben con el resuello por adentro aquel humo; con el cual se adormecen las carnes y cuasi emborracha y asi diz que no sienten el cansancio. Estos mosquetes o' como los llamaremos, Ilaman ellos tabacos."

TRANSLATION: "They met on the way many people who were going to their villages, both women and men; the men always carrying in their hands a burning piece of wood and certain dry herbs rolled in a certain leaf, also dry, in the fashion of those paper tubes the boys make on the feast of the Holy Ghost, and it is burning on one end, while from the other end they puff or draw or take out with the breath from the inside that smoke with which they get drowsy and almost drunk; and it is said that in this way they do not feel fatigue. These tubes, or whatever we may call them, they call tabacos."

These are the words of Las Casas. It may be added, that the name of the weed was not tabaco corresponds exactly to what we now call cigar, but the name of the manufactured article was afterwards extended to the plant producing the leaf used. The Indian name for the plant and leaf was Cohiba.