When it comes to heroes, sidekicks are often overlooked. Goose was killed off halfway through Top Gun, Virgil stayed in Purgatory while Dante got to go to Paradise, and Batman, throughout the series, got all the glory, leaving Robin to wonder why the heck he was wearing tights. This sidekick phenomenon is true in so many areas, including cigars: Christopher Columbus is generally credited with being the man who introduced the world to the concept of smoking, but it was actually two of his men – two of his sidekicks – who may have really been some of the first to put cigars in their mouths and on the map. 

In 1492, Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres were two Spanish crewmen on Columbus’s journey. Late in the year, Columbus ordered these two men off the boat, believed to be the Nina, in Cuba. Their mission was to explore the countryside and search for the Emperor of China, who was rumored to be on the land. De Jerez and De Torres found something else.

Their exploration took them to an Indian village where the natives received them warmly. De Jerez and De Torres remained in this village for four days and were introduced to many native customs, including the concept of drying tobacco leaves, rolling maize husks around the leaves, lighting one end, and ingesting the smoke from the other. When De Jerez and De Torres went from observers to participants, they became the first European smokers.

De Jerez became a habitual smoker and quickly introduced the Spanish town of Ayamonte to the luxury.  But this adopted habit, and his introduction of it to others, would eventually cost him his freedom. Perpetually surrounded by a cloud of smoke, those near him became frightened and, it was soon declared, that De Jerez was engaging in something sinful.

During the Spanish Inquisition, which began in 1478 in an attempt to keep Catholicism alive and controlled by the Spanish Monarchy, De Jerez was thrown in jail for his habit. He was released seven years later to a country that was now full of tobacco smokers.

Luis De Torres stuck with Columbus until 1493 when he left Columbus only to remain on the new settlement of Hispaniola. During this stay, he and his men were allegedly attacked by Indians in retaliation for the Spaniards’ kidnapping and treatment of the native women. De Torres, and those with him, were all killed.

In a world where the main characters get all the credit, Christopher Columbus is generally credited with being the man behind tobacco. Though it was his fleet that led Luis De Torres and Rodrigo De Jerez to their discovery, De Torres and De Jerez really deserve the credit for European history’s introduction to tobacco. The natives brought it to them, and they brought it to everyone else.