38 COFFEE 



fill the cup, and no spoons are served, as sugar and milk are not 

 added. The average Oriental consumes ten to twelve cups of 

 strong coffee each day. 



Coffee-drinking was first repressed in 151 1 by the Viceroy of the 

 Sultan of Egypt (then Governor of Mecca) on the ground that it 

 was a wine. In 1524, the coffee-houses of Mecca were closed by 

 the Kadi. In 1533, the citizens of Cairo were divided into two fac- 

 tions, namely, those who used coffee and the abstainers. In 1554, the 

 coffee-houses of Constantinople were closed on the pretext that 

 charred seeds were charcoal. Coal was forbidden as a food by the 

 Mahometan religion. 



The use of coffee-seeds extended to Venice in 161 5; and in 1644 

 Peter della Valle carried coffee-beans to Marseilles. Later, coffee 

 made its way throughout France and England. The coffee-plant was 

 not introduced for cultivation into countries outside of Arabia until 

 about 1700. In 1690, the world's supply came from Arabia and 

 Abyssinia. In the same year, seeds were taken to Batavia; and soon 

 afterward a plant was carried to Amsterdam. About this time, the 

 Dutch introduced coffee-plants into Java. Coffee was possibly intro- 

 duced into Ceylon by the Arabs prior to the Portuguese invasion. 

 In any case, the Dutch started to cultivate coffee there between 

 1690 and 1700. In 1712, a seedling plant was given to Louis XIV 

 by Ressons of Holland. This plant bore fruit and died. In 17 14, 

 Brancas of Amsterdam, presented Louis XIV with a coffee-tree. 

 The introduction of the coffee-plant into America was accomplished 

 in 1717-1720 by Louis XIV, who commissioned M. Desclieux, 

 Lieutenant of the King, to transport a seedling into Martinique in 

 the West Indies. M. Desclieux deprived himself of a large por- 

 tion of his water allowance aboard ship in order that the plant might 

 survive the journey. This plant, together with later seedlings from 

 the two plants presented to Louis XIV, became the ancestors of 

 American coffee-trees. In 1722, a coffee-plant was brought from the 

 City of Cayenne, French Guiana, to Para, Brazil. A secondary 

 introduction into Java was made by the Portuguese in 1723. In 

 1732, Sir Nicholas Lawes established it in Jamaica. Coffee was 

 taken into Rio de Janeiro in 1774 by a Belgian monk named Molke, 

 who procured his plants from the Maranhao district of Brazil. He 

 planted the first ones in the garden of the Capuchin monastery of 



