INTRODUCTION INTO AMERICA. 27 



The history of the first introduction of the coffee plant 

 into the new world is as romantic as it is interesting. In 

 the year 17 14 the French king, Louis XIV, was pre- 

 sented by the magistrates of Amsterdam with a fine 

 specimen of the Coffee plant, almost five feet high and in 

 full foliage, from the botanic garden of that city. This 

 plant was carefully nursed, and from it some sprouts were 

 sent to Martinique in 17 17, being committed to the care 

 of De Clieux, an officer in the French naval service, who 

 subsequently proved himself worthy of the trust reposed 

 in him. The voyage being long and the weather unfa- 

 vorable, the whole ship's crew were at length reduced to 

 a short allowance of water, all the young plants dying 

 except one for lack of nourishment. It was at this 

 juncture that this zealous patriot divided his own scanty 

 allowance with the plant committed to his care, happily 

 succeeding in bringing it safe to Martinique uninjured, 

 where it afterwards flourished and from which was 

 propagated sufficient to supply the adjacent islands, De 

 Tour claiming that from this single plant was produced the 

 almost innumerable varieties now to be found on the 

 American continent. 



In 1718, however, the Dutch colony of Surinam began 

 to introduce and cultivate Coffee, from plants received 

 from Java. In 1722 the French governor of the adjoining 

 colony of Cayenne, having business in Surinam, contrived, 

 by an artifice, to bring away with him from there a small 

 Coffee plant, which, in the year 1725, had produced many 

 thousands, which were distributed among all the French 

 colonies on the mainland, its cultivation being extended 

 to Para from Cayenne, by the French, in 1732; the first 



