SECTION XV.. Bourbon, Java, and the East.

BOURBON, JAVA, AND THE EAST.

It was from Beit-el-Faguil, the European factory near Mocha, that the coffee-tree was transported to the island of Bourbon, in the year 1718, and it is remarkable that the islanders recognised the plant as natural to their own country, and brought the astonished importers abundance from their native mountains. In Bourbon they distinguish four varieties of the coffee-plant.

1. The Mocha, which is very delicate, for the plants degenerate and often perish after a good crop.

2. The Levoy, which is more hardy, but the coffee is inferior in quality.

3. The Myrtle, a variety of the Mocha, very hardy, and yielding abundant crops.

4. The Marron, or wild coffee, with such bitter and narcotic properties that it can only be used by admixture with the berries of one of the other varieties.

JAVA.--In Java, coffee is a government monopoly, and the planters bring their coffee to a central government depôt for sale at a fixed price. The island exports about 1,250,000 cwts. of coffee annually. Java coffee has lost much of its former repute from being largely saturated with moisture, artificially to the extent of 14 per cent.; this increases the weight, but must injure the quality in transport.

At the Paris Exhibition of 1855, the Netherlands Commercial Association contributed a very varied collection of two dozen varieties of coffees from the Dutch government possessions in Java, under the following classification: Brown, clear brown, deep yellow, yellow, yellowish, white, whitish, pale of Havana kind, blue, fine green, handsome green, green, greenish, mottled green, deep green West India kind, green West India kind, pale green West India kind, dark Demerara kind, green Demerara kind, deep grey, triage, common black, greenish Menado, and white Padang. The Netherlands Society sell about 1,000,000 bags or bales of coffee annually.

The following were the exports of coffee from Java in 1862:

piculs. To Holland on private account 128,047 To other countries 165,116 By the Netherlands Trading Company 877,241 --------- 1,170,404

The position of the coffee trade of Java is shown in the figures annexed, for five years:

EXPORT AND VALUE OF COFFEE.

tons. value. 1858 66,575 £2,614,505 1859 59,769 2,565,137 1860 54,638 2,486,115 1861 61,783 2,850,518 1862 63,286 3,465,747

Three kinds of Java coffee are commonly brought to Europe--Jacatra (usually sold as Java), Cheribou, and Samarang. The first is the best, the second is generally a little lighter colour and of somewhat inferior quality, and the third has yellowish brown, or green, flattened beans. What is generally sold in the Dutch markets as Samarang is, however, simply a kind of “triage,” with black beans of a coarse flavour.

SIAM.--On the hilly districts of the east coast of the Gulf of Siam the cultivation of coffee is carried on to a limited extent, and some very fine samples of Siam coffee were shown at the International Exhibition of 1862, sent me by Messrs. Markwold and Co., and by Sir Robert Schomburgk, the British Consul-General.

SUMATRA is one of the worst kinds of coffee received from the Eastern Archipelago. The beans are large, dark yellow or brown, and occasionally even black, and the flavour varies considerably. The production in Sumatra averages about 5 to 6,000,000 lbs., but has often been double that amount.

CELEBES.--With the exception of Menado, which has large beans of a pale greenish or yellow colour, Celebes coffee is greatly inferior to Java, and it is questionable whether the colour when brought to market is not given by artificial means. The production is about 1,000,000 lbs.

PHILIPPINES.--Manilla coffee is one of the best of the Eastern kinds, and quite equal to Java. The average production is about 3,000,000 lbs. The beans are medium-sized, and of a pale greenish colour. The coffee is shipped in bags of about 150 lbs., or in cases or chests of 200 lbs. to 300 lbs.

OTHER SOURCES.--The cultivation of coffee is making rapid progress in the Sandwich Islands. There are now considerably more than half a million trees in bearing on the island, producing upwards of 2,000,000 lbs. annually--the largest proportion of which is shipped to California. Queensland and the northern districts of Australia could raise large quantities of coffee. It is much less laborious than cotton, more fitted for women and children, and, being adapted to the mountain ranges of tropical climates, of course more healthy and invigorating than the sultry plains. The range of mountains varying from twenty-five to thirty miles from the northern coast of Australia, towards Torres Straits, would be admirably suited to the culture.