38. Raleigh and tobacco
It is not known for certain when and where Sir Walter Raleigh first experienced tobacco, though he was reported to have used it during the attack on Cadiz. He became an ardent consumer of tobacco, and later in life a strong supporter of its use, as well as its cultivation as a means of making the English colonies in North America financially successful. He popularized its use in England and Ireland, wrote poetry espounding on its benefits, and left behind in his cell in the Tower of London a small tobacco pouch, with an inscription in Latin. When translated the inscription read, “It was my companion at that most miserable time”.