This Week In Cigar History October 6 - 10

Navigating west from Spain, Christopher Columbus hoped to sail the ocean blue and discover a watery shortcut to the Orient. But his ship, the Santa Maria, dropped anchor near the tranquil shores of today's San Salvador -- this week on October 12, 1492.

Though the explorer was disappointed that Asian treasures were not found -- all was not lost. The locals were friendly and Columbus was able to calmly observe them paddling canoes brimming with dry leaves. Noting in his diary that the cargo "must be a thing very much appreciated" the Old World crew then sailed nearby -- where they witnessed natives inhaling -- or "drank smoke" -- while burning the dried leaves.

No fool, Columbus rapidly claimed the lush tropical territories for Spain. He anointed the bigger island "Isla Juana" in honor of a Castilian prince...but to its native Taino Indians, their home was "Colba." Not surprisingly, the name got lost in translation and became "Cuba." But fortunately, the Spaniard intruders left well enough alone -- the great tobacco fields of the island that was "...as green as April in Andalusia."

So Columbus may have 'discovered' America…but tobacco growing and consumption were already popular New World traditions by the time his ships arrived.

This Week in Cigar History

10/6/08

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