VI 



CINNAMON 207 



cinnamon and cassia were valued in Biblical times, and 

 are often mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. 

 A spice-bark supposed to be cassia is mentioned as 

 imported into Egypt with other Eastern products in 

 the seventeenth century B.C., and cinnamon and cassia 

 are recorded among offerings to Apollo at Miletus by 

 Seleucus II. in 243 B.C. 



There is, however, no record of cinnamon being 

 produced by Ceylon in the annals of China, though there 

 was a constant commercial intercourse between Ceylon 

 and China, nor in the ancient Singhalese writings till 

 A.D. 1275, when it is mentioned by an Arab writer 

 Kaswini, as a product of Ceylon, and in 1292 by a friar, 

 John of Montecorvins, who writes that " a great store 

 of its bark is carried forth from the island near by 

 Malabar." Ibn Batuta, the Mohammedan traveller, in 

 1340, and Nicolo Conti, a century later, mention it as 

 a Ceylon plant, and describe it. 



In 1505, the Portuguese circumnavigating the Cape 

 of Good Hope discovered Ceylon, and occupied the 

 island in 1536 for the sake of the cinnamon. 



The finer quality of the Ceylon cinnamon, as com- 

 pared with that of Malabar, known as Canella trista, 

 was pointed out by Barbosa, and Garcia da Orta says 

 that while 100 Ibs. of Ceylon cinnamon was worth 10 

 gold, 40 Ibs. of the Malabar bark was only worth 1. 



The Ceylon cinnamon at this time was all derived 

 from wild trees, the Portuguese compelling the Singhalese 

 kings to bring it as a tribute. A peculiar caste of 

 Indians, known as Chulias, became the collectors of 

 cinnamon, and were cruelly oppressed by the Portuguese 

 and later by the Dutch, who took Ceylon from them 

 about 1656 and made a monopoly of the spice. In 

 1770 De Koke started the cultivation of the tree, and 

 the Dutch, from the territory which they had annexed, 

 obtained 400,000 Ibs. of cinnamon yearly, completely 

 ruling the trade, burning the cinnamon in Holland when 

 the supply was too large and the price fell. The 

 English in 1796 took Ceylon from the Dutch, and the 



