tl8 EAST-INDIAN COFFEE^. 



Unlike tea, coffee was not introduced into India by 

 European enterprise, and even in the present day its cul- 

 tivation there is largely followed by the natives only. The 

 Malabar coast has always enjoyed a direct commerce 

 with Arabia, and at an early date in the world's history 

 gave many converts to Islam, one of whom, Baba 

 Bouden by name, is said to have gone on a pilgrimage 

 to Mecca and to have brought back with him " seven 

 coffee-berries," which he planted on the hill range of 

 Mysore and which is still called after him, and which, 

 according to local tradition, occurred about two centuries 

 ago. The shrubs thus said to be sown lived on, but their 

 systematic cultivation did not spread until the beginning of 

 the present century. While another account states that 

 the coffee-plant was first introduced into India, on the 

 Malabar coast, by the Arabs themselves, as far back as 

 1740, yet no official mention is made of the plant or its 

 product in that country up to 1822, when its cultivation as 

 a curiosity was first began in the Wynaad district, another 

 plantation being formed later in the adjoining district of 

 Manjarabad. The Bai>a Bouden range, in the State of 

 Mysore, also witnessed the first opening of a coffee planta- 

 tion by an English planter in 1840, the success of this 

 experiment leading to the extension of coffee cultivation in 

 the neighboring districts of Madras and Malabar. In 1840, 

 a plantation was also started in Manautoddy, and in 1842 

 it was found growing well in Belgaum. From 1842 to 

 1 860, however, the enterprise made but slow progress, 

 but since the latter date it has spread with great rapidity 

 along the whole line of the Western Ghauts, clearing 

 away the primeval forest and opening up a new era of 



