With his thoughts all aglow with his seeming power to prove the correctness of his geographical conjecture that he had reached the eastern coast of Asia, Columbus sent from this place, on the second of November, Rodrigo de Jerez of Ayamonte, and Luis de Torres, a Jew, (the latter having lived with the adelantado of Murcia, and who knew Hebrew, Chaldaic, and some Arabic,) and two Indians, into the interior of the island, with letters to the Grand Khan of Cathay. “He gave them strings of beads to purchase provisions, and directed them to return within six days. Specimens of spicery were intrusted to them that they might know if any thing similar existed in the country. He took care to instruct them how they should inquire for the king, and what they were to say to inform him that the king and queen of Castile had dispatched him with letters and a present for his majesty. Furthermore, the envoys were instructed to obtain some knowledge of the country, and observe the ports and rivers, with their distances from the place where the ships lay. Here the admiral took this night the altitude with a quadrant, and found that he was forty-two degrees from the equator, and by his calculation eleven hundred and forty-two leagues from Ferro, and he was confident that it was the continent.”[153] Among the noticeable things which the embassadors observed while journeying into the interior of Cuba was the common use of tobacco by the natives. “The two Spaniards,” says Las Casas, “met upon their journey great numbers of people of both sexes: the men always with a firebrand in their hands and certain herbs for smoking. These were dry and were placed in a dry leaf, after the manner of those paper tubes which the boys in Spain use at Whitsuntide. Lighting one end, they drew the smoke by sucking at the other. This causes drowsiness and a kind of intoxication, and according to the statement of the natives relieves them from the feeling of fatigue. These tubes they call by the name of _tabacos_.”[154] While waiting the return of the embassadors to the Grand Khan, Columbus acquired some knowledge of the productions of Cuba. “The soil is very fertile, producing _mames_, a root like a carrot, tasting like chestnuts. Beans are also found here but very dissimilar to ours; also cotton, growing spontaneously among the mountains. I am of the opinion that it is gathered at all seasons of the year, for I observed upon a single plant blossoms, buds, and open pods. A thousand other productions I have also observed, which doubtless are of great value, but it is impossible for me to describe them.”