]Q8 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



dity to themselves, they destroyed the vegetable quality 

 of the seeds ; but Nicholas Witsen, burgomaster of Am- 

 sterdam and governor of the East-India Company, desired 

 Van Hoorn, governor of Batavia, to procure from Mocha, 

 in Arabia Felix, some berries of the coffee-tree, which 

 were obtained and sown at Batavia ; and about the year 

 1690, several plants having been raised from seeds, Van 

 Hoorn sent one over to Governor Witsen, who presented 

 it to the garden at Amsterdam. It there bore fruit, 

 which in a short time produced many young plants : from 

 these the East Indies and most of the gardens in Europe 

 have been furnished. In 1696, it was cultivated at Ful- 

 ham, by Bishop Compton; and in 1714, the magistrates 

 of Amsterdam presented Louis the Fourteenth with a 

 coffee-tree, which was sent to the royal garden at Marli. 

 In 1718, the Dutch colony, at Surinam, began first to 

 plant coffee; and in 1722, M. de la Motte Aigron, go- 

 vernor of Cayenne, contrived by an artifice to bring 

 away a plant from Surinam, which, by the year 1725, 

 had produced many thousands. The French authors 

 affirm that it was planted in the Isle of Bourbon, in the 

 year 1718, having been obtained from Mocha. This seems 

 doubtful ; but it is ascertained that M. Declieux carried 

 the first coffee-plant to Martinico in 1720. 



This passage was long and dreary, and fresh water 

 being scarce in the vessel, made it necessary to limit 

 every one to a small portion daily, to make it last out the 

 voyage, when this gentleman deprived himself of a great 

 part of his allowance in order to keep these valuable 

 trees alive. M. Fusee Aublet states that one tree only 

 survived in the Isle of Bourbon, which bore fruit in 1720. 

 From Martinico it spread to the neighbouring islands. 

 Sir Nicholas Laws first introduced it into Jamaica, in the 

 year 1728, and planted it at Townwell Estate, now called 

 Temple Hall, in Liguanea: the first berries produced 



