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So that it would feem not only that the firft CoifFee-Berries came 
to us by the Way of Venice^ but that the firft Trade for that 
Commodity was likewife undertaken there. And further, as it 
could be worth no Merchant’s while to import Coffee for Sale 
before the Cuftom of drinking it was begun, we may fafely ven- 
ture to place the beginning thereof before the laft mentioned 
Year. It was indeed, in all probability, but very fparingly ufed 
at that time, and perhaps only when prefcribed by Phyficians 
the hrft Step it made from the Cabinets of the Curious, as an 
exotick Seed, having been into the Apothecaries Shops as a Drug. 
We are affur’d by Mr. Houghton, that in the Year 1651. there 
was a publick Coffee-Houie at Leghorn, which is the firll: that I 
have heard of any where in Crijfendom but this is far from* 
being the greateft Curiofity contain’d in that ingenious Author*s 
Paper : He has befides acquainted us with the true Time and 
Manner in which theTJfe of Coffee was introduced into England *, 
and what we learn from him, join’d to fome other Informations 
which I have had from Perfons of unqueftionable Veracity, will 
fet this Part of my Hiftory in as full a light as can be defir’d. 
^ How the Arahians fell firff into the Ufe of Coffee, fays 
‘ Mr, Houghton, is hard to tell 5 perhaps it was their Succedaneu?n 
^ for Wine, which Mahomet had prohibited : or how they came 
* to roaft it before boiling, whicn, it is probable, is owing to 
* Chance, or perhaps a debauch’d Palate, as fome with us love 
* the burnt Parc of broil’d Meat 5 and from fome Great-one it 
^ might grow into a Fafliion, as the Ufe of Tobacco and Coffee 
^ with us ; altho’, had they been impos’d by a Law of the State 
‘ or by a Phyfician, it would have been thought very fevere. 
* However, it got head j for by its effential Heat it refrefh’d the 
^ Weary, and did feveral other Services, as Wine that aeffed by a 
* potential Heat. The general Ufe of it quickly made it a Trade 
in great Towns, and the frequent Ufe of it made it be defir’d 
‘ more and more, till the excefhve Drinkers would take whole 
‘ Spoonfuls of Oil that fwims on the top, as our great Drinkers 
‘ arrive from Wine to Brandy, and from thence to more burning 
Spirits. Into thofe PubJick-Houfes they would come by 
^ hundreds, and among them Strangers would venture, where 
^ they learned the Cuffom, and carry’d it to their own Coun- 
^ tries y for one Mr. Rajial, an Englijh Merchant whom I kneW> 
‘ went to Leghorn in 1^51. and there found a Coffee-Houfe. 
‘ To the fame Houfe of Merchandize where Mr. RaJlal was, 
‘ came Mr. Daniel Edwards, a Merchant from Smyrna, where 
‘ Coffee had been ufed immemorially, who brought with him 
‘ An. 
