from web site
as Europeans reached Peru in the 16th century they observed the stimulating effect of chewing coca leaves. This was made extensively understood by Charles Kingsley's best-selling experience novel Westward Ho!, published in The Most Complete Run-Down and set in the Elizabethan age, where he writes of 'that amazing herb, which would make food unneeded, and enable their panting lungs to withstand that eager mountain air'.
