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Show 934 = TEA TEA TREE. TREE. is a bad succedaneum for beer; and a meal onvit, including sugar and butter, is so expensive, they must forgo what is more necessary for their support, in order to enjoy.it. When the Chinesefirst began to make useof tea as a beverage, we are not able to say; butit is probable that theill taste of the water in many parts of the empire would induce them to look out for some vegetable to correct. it, soon after they arrivedat a state of civilization. Theearliest account that we have of it is from two Arabiantravellers, who visited China about the year 850, and relate that the inhabitants of that empire had a medi- cinal beverage, named chah or sak, which was prepared bypouring boiling water on the dried Icaves of a certain herb, which infusion was reckoned anefficacious remedyin various diseases *, Fromthe great revenue which these travellers inform us was lee vied from the consumption of tea, it seems then to have beenas universally the favourite beverage of the Chinese in the ninth 934 wr seeking, about that time, for such objects as might fetch a price in China, and hearing of the general usage there of a beverage from a plant of the country, bethonght themselves of trying how far an European plant, of supposed great virtues, might also be relished by the Chinese, and thereby becomeasaleable commodity amongst them; and accordingly introduced to them the herb Sage, so much once extolled by the Salernian school of physic, as a powerful preservative of health ; the Dutch accepting in return the Chinese Tea, which they brought to Europe. The European herb did not continue, long at least, in use in China; but the consumption of tea has been gradually increasing in Europe ever since *, In 1641, Tulpius, a celebrated physician, and consul at Amsterdam, wrote in praise of the good qualities of tea. It is asserted that he did so by desire of the Dutch Kast India Com. pany, who rewarded him with a considerable sum of money. Giovanni Botaro, an eminent Italian author, observes, that the Chinese have a herb, out of which they press adelicate In 1667, Jonquet, a French physician, extolled its virtues. In 1678, Bontetre, physician to the elector of Brandenburgh, who had acquired great reputation, bestowed high encomiums on its juice, which serves them for drink instead of wine: it also pre- qualities, in a dissertation which he published on tea, coffee, and century, as it is at present T. serves their health, and frees them fromall those evils that the immoderate use of wine doth breedin us {. About the year 1600, Texeia, a Spaniard, saw the dried leaves in Malacca, where he was informed that the Chinese prepared a drink from this vegetable: and in 1633 Olearius found this practice prevalent amongst the Persians, who procured the plant under the name of cha orchia, from China, by means of the Usbeck Tartars. In 1639, Stirkaw, the Russian ambassa- dor at the court of the Mogul Chau Altyn, partook of the in- fusion of tea; andat his departure was offered a quantity of it, asa present for the Czar Michael Romanoff, which the ambassador refused, as being an article for which they had no use ia Russia §. Tea was not known in Europe as a beverage, before the commencement of the seventeenth century. Some Dutch adventurers Renaudot Anciennes Relations, Par. 1718, p. 31. bot. i. 176. Lettsom, p. 21. + Robertson’s India, p. 96. Engl. Trans. 1530. Anderson’s Commerce. 4 Lettsom, p. 20. Taller, Bibl. chocolate. This work was attended with great success, and contributed not a little to render the use of it more general; and before the end of the century the consumption of it was considerable, The introduction of tea into England was about the year 1660, when the first mention of it was madeinthe statute-book, and aduty of fourpence agallon laid on the liquor madeandsoldin coffee-houses. A quantity of it being brought over from Hollandin the year 1666 by lord Arlington and lord Ossory, tea soon came into request among people of fashion, andits use by degreessince that period has become general+. Hanway informs us, that at this lime it sold for sixty shillings a pound+. From these small beginnings we haveseen the infusion of a leaf from the furthest extremity of the earth become in a manner 4 necessary of life, in several parts of Europe, and the passion for it descend from the most elevated to the lowest orders in so- Gety, In 1785 it was computed that the whole quantity of tea as * Staunton’s Embassy, vol. i. p. 21. t Journal, vol, ii, p- 2). + Ibid. |