Gabriel De Clieu's Letter in L'Année Littéraire 1774 with English Translation
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Letter from Monsieur de Clieu, former Captain of the Vessel, former Governor of Guadeloupe, & Grand Cross of the Royal & Military Order of Saint Louis, to the Author of these Pages.
I was very surprised, Monsieur, to read in one of your papers this year, an article concerning Coffee. The anonymous author of this letter states that it is false that the coffees grown on the American islands come from the trees growing in the King's garden. In 1720 I was an Infantry Captain in Martinique. Personal matters called me back to France in the same year. But, more concerned with the public good than with my own interests, and without being discouraged by the lack of success of the attempts that had been made for forty years to introduce and naturalize Coffee in our islands, I took new steps to obtain a coffee plant from the King's garden. I returned to the charge several times without being put off; finally, success crowned my consistency. I was obliged to Monsieur de Chirac, first Physician to the King; he could not refuse this shrub at the repeated entreaties of a Lady of Quality, whose credit I used with him.
It is useless to go into detail of the infinite care that I had to give to this delicate plant during a long journey, and of the difficulty that I had in removing it from the hands of a man, struck jealous of the happiness that I was going to taste being useful to my homeland, and who, not having been able to remove this coffee plant from me, tore off a branch. I cannot help but mention that water became scarce on the vessel that carried me. Being distributed to each only in measure, I shared with my beloved plant the little that was given to me.
Gabriel de Clieu sharing his ration of water with his coffee plant on his journey from Nantes to Martinique.
I had barely landed in Martinique when I planted, in suitable and prepared soil, this precious shrub which had become even more dear to me by the dangers it had run and by the care it had cost me. At the end of 18 or 20 months, I had a very abundant harvest. The beans were distributed to the Religious Houses and to various inhabitants who knew the price of this production and knew how much it should enrich them. It spread step by step; I continued to distribute the seeds of the young plants which grew in the shade of their common father. Guadeloupe & Saint-Domingue were soon themselves abundantly provided with them.
As for the city of Cayenne, which, the anonymous writer claims to have been the warehouse of the Coffee originating from Moka, which was planted in the Windward French Colonies, here is what we must stick to. The inhabitants of Cayenne were suspected, and were perhaps unfoundedly accused of taking the covetous precaution of steaming their coffee and even in the oven, or of dipping it in boiling water to remove the germ, in order to prevent them from being deprived of a reliable income by multiplying this commodity elsewhere. Monsieur Chevalier de Fenquières General of Martinique, asked me for about two dozen coffee beans, which he sent them to Monsieur d'Orvilliers Governor of Cayenne, and cheerfully asked him to advise the farmers to advise the farmers to spare themselves from unnecessary care; since we had some coffee of our own; which it was easy to judge from the fresh grains he presented to them.
This new production multiplied everywhere. But what made progress more rapid in Martinique was the mortality which struck all the Cocoa Trees without exception, a disaster which some attributed to the volcanic eruption on the Island where a new mouth opened, others to the abundant and continuous rains which lasted more than two months. In any case, what we call the Little Inhabitants, numbering from five to five thousand; absolutely deprived of a territorial commodity, almost the land that they had to exchange for those of France; found resources only in the culture of coffee, to which they devoted themselves exclusively with a success which exceeded their hopes, and which soon repaired their losses. The island found itself covered in three years with as many millions of coffee trees as it had cocoa trees.
This, Monsieur, is the real process in which coffee was introduced in the Windward Islands; it is an inexhaustible source of wealth for four-fifths of their inhabitants. But it would have been pointless to have cultivated this important branch of commerce without the protection granted to it by the Count of Maurepas (Translators Note: Jean Frédéric Phélypeaux, Count of Maurepas was the son of Jérôme Phélypeaux, Count of Pontchartrain. Both Lake Ponchartrain and Lake Maurepas north of New Orleans are named for them because of their involvement in the colonization of Louisiana). I told this enlightened Minister, who honored me with his kindness, how advantageous this trade would be to France. The Count of Maurepas, always concerned with the public good, favored it, despite the efforts of the East India Company which opposed, for as long as it could, the introduction of this new production in France; he continued to protect this branch of commerce, which owes him the flourishing state it enjoys today. This Minister, I dare say, would, if necessary, guarantee the truth of these facts.
On my return to France in 1749, I was presented to the King by Monsieur Rouillé, then Minister of the Navy, as an Officer to whom the State, Commerce and the Americans were indebted for the planting of Coffee in the Colonies. All of the Creoles in Paris will attest to the truth of this fact and of all those that I announce in this Letter.
If it were necessary to cite authorities to support my assertion, I would find them. Monsieur Valmont de Bomare, in his Dictionary of Natural History, says that it is to I that introduced coffee to the French Islands. Monsieur le Brun, a lawyer, took it upon himself to write to this learned Naturalist, to find out from whom he had cited this fact. Monsieur de Bomare replied that it was after Monsieur Thibauld de Chanvalon, former Intendant of Cayenne, in the work he gave to the public in 1763, entitled Voyage to Martinique (page 122). If Cayenne had been, as the anonymous writer claims, the warehouse of the Café from Moka which was brought to the Leeward French Isles, Monsieur de Chanvalon would have known it, and would not recognize me as the one who naturalized in our islands this valuable production for commerce, and which has prodigiously increased the flow of sugar.
I ask you, Monsieur, to insert this Letter in the first number which will appear on your pages.
I have the honor of being,
&c,
DE CLIEU
Eric Gabourel, the translator, in the Jardin des Plantes where Gabriel de Clieu obtained his coffee plant.