C O F 
nnd fpirlts daring a whole day’s fatigue, better than a 
loaf of bread, or a meal of meat. It was introduced into 
Aden in Arabia from Perfia, by Gemaleddin, only about 
the middle of the fifteenth century. Not long after, it 
reached Mecca, Medina, &cc. and Grand Cairo. Hence 
it continued its progrefs to Damafcus and Aleppo, and 
in 1554 became known at Conftantinople, being intro¬ 
duced there by two perfons wliofe names were Sliems 
and Hekin; one from Damafcus, the other from Aleppo: 
each of thefe men opened a public cofFee-houfe in that 
city. It is not certain at what time the ufe of coffee 
palled from Conftantinople to the weftern parts of Eu¬ 
rope ; but it is probable that the Venetians, on account 
of the proximity of their dominions, and their great trade 
to the Levant, were the firft acquainted with it; and 
Pietro della Valle, a Venetian, in a letter from Conftan¬ 
tinople written in 16x5, tells his fi'iend, that upon his re¬ 
turn he ftiould bring with him fome coffee, which he be¬ 
lieved was a thing unknown in his country. M.Thevenot, 
the French traveller into the Ealt, at his return in 1657, 
brought with him to Paris fome coffee for his own ufe. 
It was known fome years fooner at Marfeilles, namely, 
in 1644. M. Du Tour, who wrote on coffee in 1685, fays 
that the French knew nothing of it until 1645. M. La 
Roque, who publiflied his journey into Arabia Felix in 
1715, contends that his father, having been with M. de 
la Haye, the French ambaflador at Conftantinople, did, 
when he returned to Marfeilles in 1644, drink coffee every 
day. He allows notwithftanding that Thevenot was the 
firft wdio taught the French to drink it. However, till 
the year 1660, it was drunk only by fuch as had been 
accuitomed to it in the Levant, but that year fome bales 
were imported from Egypt; and in 1671 a coifee-houfe 
was opened at Marfeilles. • Before the year 1669, coffee 
was not known at Paris, except at M. Thevenot’s, and 
fome of his friends. This year it was effectually intro¬ 
duced by Solyman Aga, ambaflador from fultan Maho¬ 
met IV. and, two years after, Palcal, an Armenian, fold 
it publicly at the Foire St. Germain, and afterwards let 
tip a coffee-houle on the Quai de l’Ecole ; but, meeting 
with little encouragement, he left Paris, and came to 
London. However, not long after, fpacious rooms were 
fitted up at Paris in an elegant manner, for felling colfee 
and other refrefhments; and in a fhort time the number 
of coffee-houfes increafed to three hundred. The ufe of 
coffee was introduced into London fome years earlier; 
for, in 1652, Mr. Daniel Edwards, a Turkey merchant, 
brought home with him a Ragufian Greek fervant, wliofe 
name was Palqua Roffee, and who underftood the roaft> 
ing and making of coffee. This fervant was the firft who 
fold coffee, and kept a houfe for this purpofe in George- 
yard, Lombard-ltreet: or rather, according to Mr. Hough¬ 
ton, in a (lied in the church-yard of St. Michael’s, Corn- 
hill, which is now, fays he, (1701,) a fcrivener’s brave 
houfe. Mr. Houghton adds, that one Raftall, whom he 
knew, went to Leghorn in 1651, and there found a coffee- 
houf'e: that he met Mr. Daniel Edwards there, with his 
Greek fervant; and that Mr. Edwards was the firft; who 
brought the ufe of coffee here, except it was the famous 
Dr. Hervey, who fome fay did frequently ufe it. Pafqua 
being no freeman, the ale-fellets petitioned the lord- 
mayor againft him. This made alderman Hodges, wliofe 
daughter Mr. Edwards married, join his coachman, Bow¬ 
man, who was free, as Pafqua’s partner; and thus Mr. 
Raftall found them in 1654. But Pafqua, for fome mif- 
demeanor, was forced to run the country ; and Bowman 
by his trade, and a contribution of 1000 Sixpences, turned 
the flied to a houfe. Bowman’s apprentices were firft 
John Painter, then Humphry, from, whofe wife Mr. 
Houghton had this account. The firft mention of colfee 
in our ftatute books was in 1660; 12 Car. II. c. 24. In 
1688, Mr. Ray affirms, that London might rival Grand 
Cairo in the number of its coffee-houfes; and that they 
were to be found not only in the capital, but in every 
town of note in England» Probably the ill-judged pro- 
Vol. IV, No. 234, 
F E A. 741 
clamation of Charles II. in 1675 againft coffee-houfes, 
contributed much to eftablifli them. 
The firft European author who has made any mention 
of coffee is Rauwolff, who was in the Levant in 1573 ; 
but the firft who has particularly defcribed it is Prolper 
Alpinus, in his Medicina -fEgyptiorum, 1591, and in his 
Hiftory of Egyptian Plants, publiflied at Venice in 1592. 
Fauftus Naironus Bainefius wrote the firft treatile exprefily 
on coflee. It was printed at-Rome in 1671, and inti¬ 
tuled, De faluberrima potione Cahu, feu Cafe, nuncu- 
pata. Two Englifh travellers notice this beverage at the 
very beginning of the feventeenth century : Biddulph 
about 1603, and William Finch in 1607. The former 
fays, “ The Turks have for their moll common drink 
coffa, which is a black kind of drink, made of a kind of 
pulfe like peaf'e, called coanm .” The latter, that “ The 
people in the ifiand of Socotora have, for their bed en¬ 
tertainment, a China difh of echo, a black bitterifli drink, 
made of a berry like a bay-berry, brought from Mecca, 
flipped off hot.” Lord Bacon makes mention of it in 
1624. Mi - . Ray, in his Ilillory of Plants, publiflied in 
1688, fpeaking of it as a drink very much in ufe, fup- 
pol'es that the Arabs deftroyed the vegetable quality of 
the feeds, in order to confine their commodity within 
tiiemfelves; and adds, that he wondered the neighbour¬ 
ing nations did not contrive to bring away fome found 
feeds or living plants, in order to flume in io lucrative a 
trade. This was foon done : for Nicolas Witlon, burgo- 
mafter of Amfterdam, and governor of the Eait-India 
company, defired Van Hoorn, governor of Batavia, to 
procure from Mocha, in Arabia Felix, fome berries of 
the coffee-tree, to be Town at Batavia ; which he having 
accordingly done, and about the year 1690 having raifed 
many plants from leeds, lent one over to governor Wit- 
fen, who prefented it to the garden at Amfterdam : it there 
bore fruit, which in a fhort time produced many young 
plants. From tliel’e the Eaft Indies, and moll of the gar¬ 
dens in Europe, have been furnifhed ; and, fo early as 
the year 1696, the coffee-tree was cultivated at Fulham, 
by bifliop Compton. In 1714, the magiftrates of Amfter¬ 
dam prefented Louis XIV. with a coffee-tree, which was 
fent to the royal garden at Marly, under the care of M, 
de Juffieu, who had written a memoir, printed in the hif¬ 
tory of the academy of fciences for 1713, deferibing the 
chara&ers of the genus, with a figure of it, from a fmaller 
tree, which he had received from M. Pancras, burgo- 
mafter of Amfterdam, and director of the botanic garden 
there. In 1718, the Dutch colony at Surinam began ftrlt 
to-plant coffee; and, in 1722, M. de la Motte Aigron, 
governor of Cayenne, contrived by an artifice to bring 
away a plant from Surinam, which, in the year 1723, had 
produced many thoufands. Rochon, in his account of 
Madagascar, afferts, that in 17x8 the inhabitants of the 
ifle of Bourbon fent to Mocha and Aden for fome young- 
plants of the coffee-tree, which being cultivated with care, 
became in a few years very productive, and the ifiand 
foon afforded the French Eafl-India company a very im¬ 
portant article of trade. In 1727, the French, perceiving 
that this acquifition might be of great advantage in their 
other colonies, conveyed lome of the plants to Martinico. 
M. Fufee Aublet indeed affirms, that M. Clieux carried 
the firft coffee plant to Martinico in 1720; and that the 
French Eafl-India company fent fome plants to the ifle 
of Bourbon in 1717; that one plant only furvived, which 
bore fruit in 1720, and many were produced from it. 
From Martinico it moll probably lpread to the neigh¬ 
bouring iflands; for, in the year 1732, it was cultivated 
in Jamaica, and an a£t was palfed to encourage its growth 
in that ifiand. 
The firft plant which appeared in Jamaica, was carried 
there by fir Nicolas Laws, and placed in the garden of 
Townwell, at prelent called Temple-hall, the property 
of Mr. Lutterell. But he, dying in 1731, did not fee 
the cultivation of it make any confiderabie progrefs. In 
the year 1752, the export of coffee from Jamaica was 
