The native people of the American continent were the
first to grow and smoke tobacco. Tobacco was first used by the Maya of Central
America. When the Maya civilization
collapsed, scattered tribes carried tobacco into North and South
America. Columbus
brought awareness of tobacco to Europe.
In due course returning conquistadores introduced
tobacco smoking to Spain
and Portugal.
The habit, a sign of wealth, then spread to France, through the French
ambassador to Portugal,
Jean Nicot (who eventually gave his name to nicotine).
The word tobacco, some say, was a corruption of Tobago, the name of a Caribbean
island. Others claim it comes from the Tabasco
province of Mexico. The word cigar originated from
sikar, the Mayan word for smoking.
The habit of smoking cigars spread from Spain, where
cigars using Cuban tobacco were made in Seville
from 1717 onwards. By 1790 cigar manufacture had spread north of the Pyrenees with small factories being setup in France and Germany. Cigar smoking did not become really popular
in Britain
until after the Peninsular War (1806-12) against Napoleon, when returning
British veterans spread the habit they had learned while serving in Spain.
Production of segars, as they were known, began in Britain in 1820.
Cigar smoking became such a widespread custom in Britain that
smoking cars became a feature in trains, and the smoking room was introduced in
clubs and hotels. The habit even influenced clothing--with the introduction of
the smoking jacket.
How Sherlock Holmes Lived
Arizona’s Superstition Mountains are mysterious,
forbidding, and dangerous. The
Superstitions are said to have claimed over five hundred lives. What were these people looking for? Is it possible that these mountains hide a
vast treasure? Is it possible that UFOs
land here? Is it possible that in these
mountains there is a door leading to the great underground city of the Lizard
Men? Join us as we recount a fictional
story of the Superstitions and then look at the real history of the legends
that haunt these mountains in our new book: Gold, Murder and Monsters in the Superstition
Mountains.