SUMAT11AN COFFEE LEAVES. 85 



1853. 



article of diet among the natives here, it never occurred to me that 



it might be introduced successfully as such at home, until I learnt jj r . Gardner's 



from the Free Press that a patent had been taken out by Dr. patent. 



Gardner. It then struck me that as its adoption in Europe 



would unquestionably be attended with important advantages to 



the labouring classes, a knowledge of the fact of its general 



use here might be of service, by giving that confidence in it 



which must necessarily be wanting to a new and untried article. 



The fact of its being the only beverage of a whole population, 



and of its having from its nutritive qualities become an important 



necessary of life, will be a sufficient guarantee of its safety as 



an article of diet, and of its freedom from deleterious effects. 



" The natives have a prejudice against the use of water as a 

 beverage, asserting that it does not quench thirst or afford the 

 strength and support the coffee-leaf does. With a little boiled 

 rice and infusion of the coffee-leaf, a man will support the 

 labours of the field in rice-planting for days and weeks suc- 

 cessively, up to the knees in mud, under a burning sun or 

 drenching rains, which he could not do by the use of simple 

 water, or by the aid of spirituous or fermented liquors. I have Advantages. 

 had opportunity of observing for twenty years the comparative 

 use of the coffee-leaf in one class of natives, and of spirituous 

 liquors in another, the native Sumatrans using the former and 

 the natives of British India settled here the latter, and I find 

 that while the former expose themselves with impunity for 

 any period to every degree of heat, cold, and wet, the latter 

 can endure neither wet nor cold for even a short period without 

 danger to their health. 



"Engaged myself in agriculture, and being in consequence Personal 

 much exposed to the weather, I was induced several years ago, testimony. 

 from an occasional use of the coffee-leaf, to adopt it as a daily 

 beverage, and my constant practice has been to take a couple of 

 cups of strong infusion with milk in the evening as a restora- 

 tive after the business of the day. I find from it immediate 

 relief from hunger and fatigue, the bodily strength increased 

 and the mind left for the evening clear and in full possession of 

 all its faculties. On its first use, and when the leaf has not 

 been sufficiently roasted, it is said to produce vigilance, but I 

 am inclined to think that where this is the case, it is rather by 

 adding strength and activity to the mental faculties, than by 

 inducing nervous excitement. I do not recollect this effect on 

 myself except once, and that was when the leaf was insufficiently 

 roasted. 



