1 8 INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE. 



to China carried thither a good store of Sage and ex- 

 changed it with the Chinese for Tea, receiving three to 

 four pounds of the last for one pound of the first, by 

 calling it a wonderful European herb possessed of as 

 many virtues as the Indians could ascribe to their shrub- 

 leaf. But because they exported not such large quan- 

 tities of Sage as they imported of Tea they also bought 

 a great deal of the latter, giving eight- to tenpence a 

 pound for it in China. And when they first brought 

 it to Paris they sold it for thirty livres the pound ; but 

 thirty years ago the Chinese sold it at threepence, and 

 never above ninepence a pound at any time, frequently 

 mixing it with other herbs to increase the quantity." 

 Macaulay also states in the history of his embassy to 

 China that " early in the seventeenth century some 

 Dutch adventurers, seeking for such objects as might 

 fetch a price in China, and hearing of a general use 

 there of a beverage produced from a plant of the coun- 

 try, bethought themselves of trying how far a European 

 plant of supposed great virtues might also be appreci- 

 ated by the Chinese ; they accordingly introduced to 

 them the herb Sage, the Dutch accepting in exchange 

 the Chinese Tea, which they brought back with them 

 to Holland." These statements but tend to confirm 

 the Portuguese claim, the efforts of the Dutch to open 

 up trade with the Chinese in Tea being evidently made 

 many years subsequent to its introduction by the former; 

 in still further support of which the following may be 

 noted : 



In 1662 CHARLES II. married the Portuguese princess, 

 Catharine of Braganza, who, it is said, was very fond of 

 Tea, having been accustomed to it in her own country. 

 Waller, in a poem celebrating the event, ascribes its first 

 introduction to her country in the appended lines : 



