Origins of Tobacco --Susquehanna Indian Tribe U.S.A.
 
A wood-nymph of awe-inspiring beauty approached hunters around a campfire who were eating freshly cooked venison.  She appeared to be hungry, so they invited here to join them. In appreciation, she promised that if they would return to the same place after 13 moons had passed, they would collect a reward.  When they came back they found maize growing where the wood-nymph’s right hand had touched the soil, and beans growing where her left hand had been. Tobacco was growing were she sat.. (Nicotiana Tabacum, Georg A Brongers, 1964.)
 
 

Tobacco Addiction

“The fashion of smoking caught on among colonists and when they were asked why they did it, their only answer was, that they could not do without it any more.” --Bishop Bartholomus de las Casas, 1474-1566 (Nicotiana Tabacum, George A Brongers, 1964.)

“As the smoking of tobacco has taken very bad effect upon the health and mind of many persons, I ordered that no-one should practice the habit.  My brother Shah Abbas also being aware of it's evil effects, has issued a command against the use of it in Iran."
--Mogul Emperor of Hirdustan--Early 17th Century
The sentence was to split the lips of smokers and the death penalty for suppliers.  (The International Journal of Addictions, 1973.)

“...These people became so addicted to it (tobacco) like Drunkards to Wine and Beer, and they cannot lose the habit of it as by nature it warms people and dopes the brain.”
--Emanuel van Meeeren, 1598
(Nicotiana Tabacum, Georg A Brongers, 1964.)
 
"A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.”
--James I of England   (A Counterblast to Tobacco, 1604)

"To quit smoking is one of the easiest things in the world, I must have done it over a dozen times."  (Mark Twain 1835-1910).
  
   

The Beginnings of Tobacco

Sir Walter Raleigh is credited with popularizing the use of tobacco in England and gained the favor of Queen Elizabeth I.  However, he did not fair so well under James I, who he fell out of favor with.  James I executed Sir Walter Raleigh in 1618.  When show the axe to be used at his beheading, Sir Walter Raleigh remarked "This is a sharp medicine, but it is a physician for all diseases."

Jean Nicot (1530 to 1600)  In 1560 he introduced tobacco in the form of snuff to the French aristocracy as a cure for migraine headaches.  The tobacco plants name "nicotinia" and the active drug it contains "nicotiana" is named after him. 

Christopher Columbus arrives in America in 1492 and brings back tobacco leaves and seeds to Europe.