1 6 INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE. 



duced it into Mohammedan countries early in the tenth 

 century, and other travelers in China in the seventeenth 

 give most extravagant accounts of its virtues, which ap- 

 pears to have been in very general use throughout the 

 greater part of Asia at that time. 



Father de Rhodes, a Jesuit missionary, who entered 

 China in 1633, states that "the use of Tea is common 

 throughout the East, and begins, I perceive, to be known 

 in Europe. It is in all the world to be found only in two 

 provinces of China, where the gathering of it occupies 

 the people as the vintage does us." Adding that he 

 found it in his own case to be an instantaneous remedy 

 for headache, and when compelled to sit up all night to 

 hear confessions its use saved him from drowsiness and 

 fatigue. Adam Olearius, describing the travels of an 

 embassy to Persia in 1631, says of the Persians : " They 

 are great frequenters of taverns, called Tzai Chattai, where 

 they drink Thea or Cha, which the Tartars bring from 

 China, and to which they assign extravagant qualities, 

 imagining that it alone will keep a man in perfect health, 

 and are sure to treat all who visit them to this drink at 

 all hours." These strong expressions as to the use of 

 Tea, applying as they do to a period not later than 1640, 

 are sufficient to prove that the ordinary accounts place 

 the introduction of that beverage as regards Europe, 

 particularly the Continent, as too late. 



INTRODUCTION INTO ETJROPIE. 



The earliest European notice of Tea is that found in 

 a work by Ramusio, first printed in 1550, though written 

 several years prior to that year. In it he quotes Hazzi 

 Mohamed in effect, "And these people of Cathay (China) 

 do say that if these in our parts of the world only knew 



