2 2 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



seeds of the Coffee tree from Arabia and endeavor to 

 cultivate them in that settlement." Although its intro- 

 duction into Java is placed later by Stavornius, who 

 claims that the plant was first carried from Mocha to 

 Batavia as late as 1722 by Zwardekiom, the governor of 

 the colony in that year, other authorities claiming that 

 Zwardekiom only helped to extend its cultivation on that 

 island. The latter account is probably the most correct 

 one, as it is recorded that coffee in the bean, grown in Java, 

 was offered for sale in the Amsterdam market the exact 

 year that Stavornius states that it was first introduced into 

 that island. Be this as it may, the undertaking was 

 successful from the beginning, many plants being propa- 

 gated there, one of which, the first seen in Europe, 

 was sent to the botanic garden in Amsterdam, where it in 

 due time bore fruit. Many young trees were subsequently 

 propagated from this plant and distributed among the 

 gardens and conservatories of Europe, one of these being 

 sent as a rare present to the king of France. The Dutch 

 later extending the cultivation of coffee to Sumatra, 

 Celebes, Bali, Timour and many other of the smaller 

 islands of the Malay archipelago. 



The Coffee plant was introduced into India, on the 

 Malabar coast, about the year 1700, from Aden, although 

 it is claimed to have been grown in that country, in the 

 province of Mysore, long anterior to that year, tradition, 

 relating that the plant was first introduced by Baba 

 Booden, a Musselman pilgrim, who brought "seven 

 berries" with him from Arabia about the year 1600, 

 which he is said to have planted around his hut in the 

 hills of Mysore, near which coffee trees over one hun- 

 dred years old are yet to be seen. The earliest written 

 account of the cultivation of the coffee plant in India is 

 that contained in a Dutch work, entitled " Letters from 



