448 A. D. 1652. 



nious Mr. John Ray afterwards. Some relate, that coffee has not been 

 generally uled in Arabia, where it grows, and in Turkey, much above 

 200 or at mofl 250 years. It was firfl brought to Holland from Mocha 

 in the year 161 6, though it did not come into general ufe there for many 

 years after. About the year 1690 the Dutch began to plant it at Ba- 

 tavia in the ifland of Java : and in 171 9 it was firfl: imported thence 

 into Holland. Since then the Dutch have planted a great deal of coffee 

 in Ceylon as well as in Java ; infomuch that in 1743 they imported 

 into Holland 3,555,877 pounds of it from Java, and at the fame time 

 but 12,368 pounds from Mocha: fo greatly had they improved their 

 Java coffee. The Englifli and French have of late years fuccefsfully 

 planted coffee in their Weft-India iflands, as the Dutch have alio at Su- 

 rinam, &c. although ftill inferior to that of Mocha in Arabia, from 

 whence all coffee originally came. If the European nations Ibould con- 

 tinue, as of late years, to naturalize in their own weftern plantations 

 the fine productions of China, Perfia, Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and Tur- 

 key, it will in time bring the direft commerce to the Levant to a very 

 narrow compafs. The coffee plant is laid nearly to refemble the jeffa- 

 mine tree ; bearing a fruit reiembling a cherry, within which is inclof- 

 ed a fort of kernel which, when ripe, opens and divides into what are 

 ufually called coffee berries. All the coffee brought home by our Tur- 

 key fhips comes only from Arabia, there being no coffee growing in 

 Turkey properly fo called, and is the very fame which is brought home 

 by our Eaft-India fliips who trade up into the Red fea. But as the 

 former is brought over land from Arabia into Syria or Egypt, it is 

 therefor faid not to be efteemed quite fo good as what is brought di- 

 rectly by fea from Mocha in our Eaft-India ftiips. Coffee was unknown 

 to the antients, although, doubtlefs, it grew always wild in Arabia. Mr. 

 Wotton, ia his Refledions on antient and modern learning, conjeclures 

 that the prohibition of wine, by the law of Mahomet, made the Arabs 

 find out its virtues for fupplying the place of wine. 



Tobacco being about the middle of this century grown into much 

 greater efteem than formerly in England, confiderable quantities there- 

 of were planted ia feveral counties, which throve exceeding well, and 

 proved very good in its kind : but as this not only lefl'ened the duty on 

 the importation of tobacco, but likewife greatly obftrufted the fale of 

 that commodity from our own colonies in Virginia, &c. which had coft 

 fo much expenfe in planting them, the loud complaints of the planters 

 occafioned an acl of parliament abiblutely prohibiting the planting of 

 any in England. Cromwell and his council in 1654 appointed com- 

 miffioners for ftriitly putting this ad in execution: and (that we may 

 nor have recourfe again to this fujed) it was again legally enacted, [12 

 Car. 11. c. 34] that from the ift of January i66c-i, no perfon whatever 



