48 COFFEE. 
Coffee is an article of only late introduction. To the 
Greeks and Romans it was wholly unknown. Its use 
appears to have originated in Ethiopia; and, in 1554-, 
it is stated to have been first introduced into Con- 
stantinople, whence it was gradually adopted in the 
western parts of Europe. In 1652 Mr. Daniel Edwards, 
a Turkey merchant, brought with him to England a 
Greek servant, whose name was Pasqua, and who un- 
derstood the methods of roasting coffee, and making it 
into a beverage. This man was the first who publicly 
sold coffee in this country ; and he kept a house for 
that purpose in George Yard, Lombard Street. At 
Paris, coffee was nearly unknown until the arrival of 
the Turkish ambassador^ Solomon Aga, in 1669; about 
three years after which the first coffee-house is said to 
have been established in that city. The coffee shrub 
was originally planted in Jamaica in 1732. 
Great attention is paid to the culture of coffee in 
Arabia. The trees are raised from seed sown in nurse- 
ries, and afterwards planted out, in moist and shady 
situations, on sloping grounds, or at the foot of moun- 
tains. Care is taken to conduct little rills of water to 
the roots of the trees, which at certain seasons require 
to be constantly surrounded with moisture. As soon 
as the fruit is nearly ripe, the water is turned off, lest 
the fruit should be rendered too succulent. In places 
much exposed to the south, the trees are planted in 
rows, and are shaded from the otherwise too intense 
heat of the sun, by a branching kind of poplar tree. 
When the fruit has attained its maturity, cloths are 
placed under the trees, and, upon these, the labourers 
shake it down. They afterwards spread the berries on 
mats, and expose them to the sun to dry. The husk is 
then broken off by large and heavy rollers of wood or 
iron. When the coffee has been thus cleared of its 
husk, it is again dried in the sun, and lastly winnowed 
with a large fan, for the purpose of clearing it from the 
pieces of husks with which it is intermingled. A pound 
of coffee is generally more than the produce of one 
