GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 21 



It is cultivated in Natal and on the Zambesi river as 

 well as in Usumbara, opposite to Zanzibar, which pre- 

 sents a splendid field for Coffee planting, containing as it 

 does admirable soil, cheap labor, easy transport and land 

 which is to be had for next to nothing, the missionaries 

 distributing the Coffee seed among the inhabitants to 

 induce them to cultivate it more extensively. While 

 further into the interior, towards Pare, Nyanza and Killi- 

 manjaro, there are increasingly fine sites and suitable soil 

 for successful and profitable Coffee planting only owned 

 as yet by the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. It 

 is to be found both in a wild state as well as in a state of 

 cultivation in Abyssinia and the Nyassa district, being 

 also cultivated for commercial purposes further north in 

 lower Egypt, Nubia, Somali and the Soudan, as well as 

 in Mozambique, and the islands of Madagascar, Bourbon 

 and Mauritius. But the total yield of Africa so far as 

 its influence on the world's supply is concerned is com- 

 paratively insignificant, the export capacity of the latter 

 countries not exceeding 800 tons annually. The total 

 product of the eastern provinces of Africa taken in con- 

 nection with the small quantities raised on the west coast 

 making' Africa contribute only between 3,000 to 4,000 

 tons to the world's production, this amount including 

 all the Coffee grown in Egypt and the interior countries 

 of that continent. 



From Africa the coffee plant was undoubtedly carried 

 to Arabia, but at what period of the world's history or 

 under what circumstances is not definitely known. It 

 was introduced from Arabia to Java in 1690, according 

 to Boerhave, who tells us that " Nicholas Wilser, Burgo- 

 master of Amsterdam and Governor of the Dutch East 

 India Company, in that year instructed Van Horn, the 

 then Governor of Batavia, to procure some plants or 



