113 



London might rival Grand Cairo in the 

 number of it's coffee-houses, so rapidly had 

 it come into use ; and it is thought that they 

 were augmented and established more firmly 

 by the ill-judged proclamation of Charles the 

 Second, in 1675, to shut up coffee-houses as 

 seminaries of sedition : this act was suspended 

 in a few days. 



The first mention of coffee in our statute 

 books, is in i860, (xn. Char. II. cap. 24.) 

 by which, a duty of fourpence was laid upon 

 every gallon of coffee bought or sold. 



The Arabs seem to have been very jea- 

 lous of letting this tree be known, and in order 

 to confine the commodity 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 cof- 

 fee-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 



