Santos 85 



of the plant. This was done, and the abbot caused an 

 infusion to be made, which he administered to certain 

 of his most notoriously lazy monks. The potion had 

 the desired effect, and they staid awake at night, after 

 it had been given them. After awhile they came to 

 relish it, and as the result of an accident, by which some 

 of the coffee-seeds were scorched in a fire, the fact that 

 the beans were improved by roasting and the infusion 

 made more palatable, was discovered. Probably this 

 story is a fiction. The use of coffee as a beverage 

 was, however, confined to the region about the Red Sea 

 until quite modern times. It first spread into Persia 

 and Arabia. The pilgrims to Mecca learned to use it 

 at Aden. The Hadjis brought a knowledge of the 

 beverage back with them to Cairo and Constantinople. 

 At first there was a great deal of opposition to its use 

 by the Mohammedan rulers, and it was declared to be 

 intoxicating, and therefore forbidden by the Koran. 

 But the opposition proved ineffectual and the Syrians 

 and Turks became confirmed drinkers of coffee. Its 

 use was introduced into England in 1652 by a merchant 

 named Edwards, who traded with Smyrna. At the 

 end of the seventeenth century the Dutch began to 

 grow it in Java, and early in the eighteenth century 

 introduced the plant into their West Indian colonies 

 and Dutch Guiana. A Franciscan monk, by the name 

 of Villaso, is said to have taken the first coffee-plant 

 to Rio de Janeiro in 1754, an d from the little sapling, 

 which he carried across seas, all the millions of coffee- 

 plants in Brazil are descended. 



The coffee-plant is a low shrub or tree with long, 

 shining, dark green leaves. The blossoms, which are 

 formed in the axils of the leaves, are pure white and 

 fragrant. A coffee-plantation in full bloom is a beauti- 



