17TH-CENTURY CANNABIS PIONEER'S JOURNAL FOUND

Previously unknown journals by the 17th-century explorer Thomas
Bowrey, the first English man to describe the recreational use of
cannabis, have turned up at an Isle of Wight auction house.

In the 1690s Captain Bowrey tried "bhang", an infusion of cannabis
seed and leaf, in India. "In less than half an houre it's Operation
will Shew it Selfe for the space of 4 or 5 hours," he wrote.

The journals record his travels to Bengal in 1689, an attempt to find
the north-west passage in 1695, and an observation of a transit of
Venus. They will be sold at Bonham's next month for an estimated ?15,000.