Java is said to have possessed it before 1496. Dr. Ruschenberg says,

"We are informed the Portuguese met with it on their first visit
to Java."--_Voy. of U.S.S. Peacock_, vol. ii. p. 456, Lond. ed.
8vo. 1838.

Crauford dates its introduction into Java, 1601, but admits that the
natives had traditions of having possessed it long before. (_Indian
Archipelago_, vol. i. pp. 104. 409, 410. 8vo.) Rumphius, in the latter
part of the seventeenth century, found it universal even where the
Portuguese and Spaniards had never been.

Savary, in his _Parfait Négociant_, states that the Persians have used
tobacco 400 years, and probably received it from Egypt. (See _Med. Chir.
Review_, 1840, p. 335.)

Olearius found it fully established in Persia, 1637, only about fifty
years after its arrival in England. (Lond. 1662, in fol. p. 322.)
Chardin states, the Persians smoked long before the discovery of
America, and had cultivated tobacco time immemorial.

"Coffee without tobacco is meat without salt."--Persian Proverb,
Sale's _Koran_, Preliminary Discourse, 169. ed. 8vo.

In 1634 Olearius found the Russians so addicted to tobacco that they
would spend their money on it rather than bread. (See edit. above
quoted, lib. iii. p. 83.)

According to Prof. Lichtenstein, the Beetjuanen smoked and snuffed long
before their intercourse with Europeans. (_Med. and Chir. Rev._, 1840,