322 SPICES 



CHAP. 



attendants, was besieged by assailants armed with 

 flowers, fruits, sweetmeats and spices, among which 

 Melegetae are mentioned. 



After this period there are many records of the use 

 of Meleguetta, showing that it was of common occurrence 

 in commerce. Nicolas Myrepsius, physician at the 

 Court of Emperor John III. at Nicea in the thirteenth 

 century, prescribes Menegetai. Grana Paradisi was 

 enumerated among spices sold at Lyons in 1245, and by 

 the Welsh physicians of Myddvai, under the name of 

 Grawn Paris. 



In the early days the spice was conveyed overland 

 from the Mandigo country through the desert to Tripoli 

 and shipped by the Italians from the port of Monti di 

 Barca on the Mediterranean coast, and as they did not 

 know whence it came they called it Grains of Paradise. 



Towards the middle of the fourteenth century there 

 began to be commercial intercourse, direct by sea, with 

 Western Africa, and ships were sent there from Dieppe 

 (1364), and, loaded with ivory and Malaguette, sailed 

 from the mouth of the river Cestos (Sestros). 



In the sixteenth century English voyagers traded to 

 the Gold Coast for gold, ivory, pepper (doubtless that 

 of Piper Clusii), and Grains of Paradise. 



Trade. Grains of Paradise are chiefly shipped from 

 the settlements on the Gold Coast, the most important 

 being Cape Coast Castle and Accra. 



The official Blue book for the Colony of the Gold 

 Coast in 1871 gives the exports as 191,011 Ibs. (1,705 

 cwt.), of which Great Britain received 85,502 Ibs., the 

 United States 35,630 Ibs., Germany 28,501 Ibs., France 

 27,125 Ibs., Holland 14,250 Ibs. In 1872, 620,191 Ibs. 

 were shipped, valued at 10,303 : in 1875 the export 

 fell to 151,783 Ibs., valued at 912. 



Uses. Grains of Paradise seem chiefly to have been 

 used in the early days as a substitute for pepper, and 

 according to Pomet (Livre des drogues) as an adulterant 

 by pepper dealers. It was an ingredient in the spiced 

 wine known as hippocras, and in more recent times used 



