1) When Columbus arrived in the Americas, natives offered him tobacco leaves which he threw away. Soon after, Spanish traders adopted tobacco smoking from natives and introduced it to Europe. 2) In the early 1600s, some voices warned of tobacco's health risks but it remained popular. King James I unsuccessfully tried to curb smoking and tobacco imports to England through taxes. 3) The Jamestown colony struggled until John Rolfe began growing a sweeter tobacco variety. Tobacco became very profitable and enabled Jamestown's survival as the first permanent English settlement in North America.