Rodrigo de Jerez

Rodrigo de Jerez was one of the Spanish crewmen who sailed to the Americas on the Santa Maria as part of Christopher Columbus's first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492.

On 12 October 1492, the crew first encountered tobacco at San Salvador island in the Bahamas, known to the natives as Guanahani.

The natives presented them with apparently valuable "dry leaves that spread a peculiar fragrance".

In November 1492, Jerez and Luis de Torres first observed natives smoking.

Apparently, the natives made rolls of palm and mais leaves "in the manner of a musket formed of paper" with tobacco on the inside.