Yes actually. In 1597 we have Gerarde's "The Herball" which mentions them, calling them "Ginnie pepper" or "Indian pepper".

He says that the seeds of the pepper as well as the cod have a "hot biting taste like common pepper", and also mentions that it is "extreme hot and drie even in the fourth degree: that is to saie, farre hotter and drier than Auicen sheweth dogs ginger to be."

Finally he says that although you can use it in place of pepper it has "a malitious qualitie, whereby it is an enimie to the liver & other of the entrails"