DATE COFFEE 147 



England, patented his machinery and the process, 

 and erected a small factory in a place at the back of 

 Regent Street, and made the article in bulk. After 

 being submitted to the analysis of the highest 

 authorities, who passed it as superior coffee, it was 

 placed in one-pound tins, and sold in a small way, 

 more as a sample than otherwise, to the public at 

 i^. 2d. per lb. The Custom House, however, soon 

 put a stop to this practice, on the ground that it 

 was illegal to manufacture any dutiable article in 

 England. The company had then been formed 

 with a capital of 50,000/., which was speedily 

 subscribed ; and it was discussed by the board 

 whether we should make the article in the Channel 

 Islands, or go to India, or some place where dates 

 were grown, and could be bought cheaply. It was 

 then decided to despatch the requisite machinery, 

 and erect works either at Bagdad or Bussorah, in 

 the Persian Gulf The machinery was thereupon 

 sent out in charge of a Mr. Mare, a competent 

 engineer, who had been working it in England, and 

 had been very successful in carrying out the process. 

 When he arrived in the Persian Gulf he found 

 there had been serious riots there with the Arabs, 

 and that several English and other Europeans had 

 been killed by fanatical Mussulmans, with the 

 accompanying destruction of their warehouses and 

 residences. Mr. Mare, therefore, prudently decided 

 not to land the machinery, but to bring it back to 

 Kurrachee, on the Indus, where we had also sug- 

 gested that our works should be erected. He 



