When was rubber discovered?

Although the remarkable properties of the rubber tree were known to the Aztecs and other South American Indians, for perhaps a thousand years, rubber was unknown in Europe until the discovery of the New World.
Pietro Martyre d'Anghiera, chaplain to the court of Ferdinand of aragon, Castile and Leon, gave the first written account of the elastic gum in his book De Orbo Novo. Init he described a game palyed by Aztec children using rubber balls. He was particularly amazed by the balls' ability to bounce back into the air after being thrown to the ground.(questions and answers)