Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1856-10-23

CurFEE.-A Brazil correspondent Of the
Ncw-York Journal of Commerce gives an i'm
teresting sketch Of the history of this univer-
sal beverage so popular among all nations,
whether civilized or sfmi-civilized, which have
become acquainted with its properties, Wher-
ever it has gained foothold its advance has
been most sure. II has never made q retro
gade movement, though assailed Ivy ecclesias-
tical bodies. or by colleges of physicians of
every school Mohammedan muftis thunder
ed anathemas against it more than three cen
turics ago the wittiest writers of the Court
of Louis XIV souibbed it, The illustrious
DR. Murray, (Allopathic,) reproached coffee,
when udnlged in TOO freely, with producing
vertigo, trembling of the limbs, cutaneous erul-
tons on the face, Mysteries, hypochondria, &c.
Hahnemann, the great high priest of hom9o-
pathv, accuses it even OF causing the decline
Of the German (his own; race.
Coffee is a native of Abyssinia, and not of
Araba, as many believe, and abounds in the
province Of kaffa, whence il derives its name
The coffee tree was not transplanted from Abys-
sinia into Ahia until the fifteenth century, when
i,s culture was begun in Arabia Felix, where
in the enyirons # Mocha, it grows to perfec-
ton. The Western world learned the use of
coffee from the Orieutals but how the Orien-
tails learned to use it is difficult question to
solve. An Arabian author of the fifteenth
century records that it was Mufti of Aden
who, in the ninth century, was the first to use
coffee. At this epoch it was already known
in Persia, where common tradition ascribes Its
discovery TO one Molah Chadelly, a pous Mus
selman. who was much troubled with drowsi-
ness during his nocturnal meditations He in
yoked Nahomet to come to his aid who Caus-
ed his faithful Mollah TO meet with 4 goat
herd, who led him to q coffee tree, and inform
cd him that whenever his goats ate OF the bcr-
rv of that tree, they passed the whole night
wide awake, lenping and capering.
The devout Molleh prepared all infusion Of
the berry which, after drinking gave him for
the whole night a most delectable state of
sIrCplessness He made known his discovery
which was adopted by all the derTlshcs and
doctors Of the land, and the new beverage
rupdly became popular over the whole Orient
There are other versions Of the discovery of
tho use of coffee as beverage 1t is believed
that the dervishes learned the means OF over
coming sleep from the Cenobte Christians of
Thebes and Ethiopis who adopted the prac-
.ice Of drinking coffee. The Mohammedan
priests soon became enemies of the new beve-
rage, however, as it led the people to forsake
the mosques and flock to the coffce-houscs, and
they hurled the fereest aDathemas against it,
but without avail.
Before the seventeenth century coffee was
only known by name in France, and it did not
become fashionable until Solomon Aga the
Turkish Ambassador to the Court of Louis
NV, gave an ccLat to coffee by Offering it to
the high-born danes of the realm. Curiosity
and vanity led them 10 the Agas residence,
where he received them with oriental magnif-
eence, and coffee was the rage. About the
same time it became favoFite in Vienna, the
method of its preparation having been learned
from some Turks captured in battle. Twenty
years before it was introduced into England
by British merchant, returned from ConStan-
tinople.
In France the coffee house became exceed
iF..ylv popular, and notwithstanding the immense
quantities of wine drank in France, there is
probably no country, except Turkey and the
United States, so thoroughly given to coffee.
Tea is hardly known outside the great cities.
A significant index OF the uni, ersal use OF cof-
fec is the fact that, what we call teaspoon
the French invariably call coffee-spoon.
Up to the 18th century all the coffee which
was consumed in Europe came from Arabia,
but in l699 the Dutch introduced the plant in
to BATAVIA, where IT grew 10 periectlon, anu
In ITO plant was sent to the botanical gar
dens of Amsterdam, where it hourlshed. An
9ffshoot was presented to Louis NV, who
sent it to the Jarden des Plants, and it became
the ancestor of all the coffee plantations in
the West Indies the French government sue
ceeded in 1920, in introducing it into Mar
Unique.
h is uncertain when the coffee plant was
carried to Brazil. but nowhere has its growth
and cultivation been so extensive and vapiG-
There are merchants living who saw the hrst
small cargo shipped from Rio Janeiro, and now
that port is the largest coffee mart in the world,
The exports from that port, for the year end
ing June 80, 1855, were 2,352,2S4 bags, (of
100 lbs Portuguese nearly one-half ofwhich
irancnse amount came to, the United States.-
Good " old washed Rio " is said to be equal
TO the best Java.