SECTION VIII. 



CULTURE IN" THE WEST INDIES AND AMERICA. 



Itf 1720, a small coffee-plant, raised in the garden of the 

 King at Paris, was transported to the Antilles by Captain 

 Declieux, who, during a long passage, shared each day his 

 small allowance of water with the young coffee plant. From 

 this tree have sprung all those since cultivated in Martinique, 

 Q-uadaloupe, Cayenne, St. Domingo, and the other islands. 

 The fall of St. Domingo, in 1789, which formerly furnished 

 80,000,000 Ibs., the disfavour the culture has fallen into in 

 Martinique and G-uadaloupe islands, which used to supply 

 16,000,000 or 17,000,000 Ibs., together with the greater at- 

 tention given to sugar cultivation in the West Indies, have 

 transferred the production of coffee chiefly to Brazil, Ceylon, 

 and Java. 



In 1801, 526,000 cwts. of coffee were imported into Great 

 Britain from the West Indies, and the average annual im- 

 ports in the six years ending 1806 was 364,000 cwts. The 

 decrease of production is shown by the following figures : 



JAMAICA. The coffee-plant is said to have "been first in- 

 troduced into Jamaica by Sir Nicholas Lawes, in 1728, when 



