CHAPTER XVI. SOME of the most important circumstances in the history of mankind have arisen out of their desire to possess the luxuries of distant countries. This desire has sometimes appeared to interfere with human happiness, by engendering wars of commercial rivalry ;-but upon the whole it has steadily advanced civilization by binding nations together by ties of mutual interest. If we were to follow out this observation, the history of Spices, of Coffee, of Tea, of Sugar, would form a large and instructive volume. But we cannot so treat the subject here, whatever we may do at some future time in accounts of nations such as the Hindoos and the Chinese. We must here content ourselves with a brief sketch of each production, to complete our notice of "Vegetable Substances used for the food of man." SPICES. THE plants which produce the more esteemed of these are all natives of tropical climates; and, with the exception of some of the capsicums, none of them can be fruited in the open air in this country, nor can the choicer sorts be brought to maturity even by artificial heat. These substances are either simply hot and acrid, in which case they get the name of peppers, or they have aromatic flavour in addition; and when they have this, they are called spices,-though, in some cases, the names are applied indiscriminately to the same substance. Spices have always been regarded as luxurious acquisitions, while their small comparative bulk, and consequent facility of transport, caused them to be among the first articles of commerce obtained from remote countries. The inhabitant of more temperate regions has therefore, for ages, been in the enjoyment of most of the delicious aromatics, fostered by a tropical sun. The higher classes of the Romans used spices in more costly profuseness than the moderns, though the better knowledge of navigation, by producing a direct and frequent intercourse between nations, has now caused them to be sufficiently cheap to place them within the reach of all ranks of society. Among the ancients, spices of all kinds, as well as frankincense and myrrh, were made to lend their perfume to the wreathed smoke which ascended both from the altars of their gods, and the funereal piles of their nobles. Prodigious quantities of frankincense and spices were thus consumed at the funeral of Sylla; and Nero is said to have lavished more than a whole year's supply in celebrating the obse quies of his wife Poppaa. The country of the Sabeans, situated in Arabia Felix, was celebrated for Among the abundance of these aromatic plants. this people," says Pliny, "no other kinds of wood but those which sent forth sweet odour were used as fuel, and they cooked their food with the branches of trees yielding frankincense and myrrh*." The very ocean, it was said, was perfumed with the fragrance of their spices and aromatics. Agatharchides, an ancient author, who wrote about two thousand years ago, probable that his panegyric suggested to Milton the gave a glowing description of this country. It is following simile : *Pliny, lib. xii. cap. 18. Tacitus, Ann. lib. xvi. cap.6. "As when to them who sail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past Of Araby the Blest: with such delay Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league Although the ancient writers all agree that Arabia Felix has thus obtained its name from its odourbreathing plants, it is probable that their accounts are mostly fabulous, and that being but imperfectly acquainted with the regions beyond, they concluded that the country whence they procured their spicy luxuries must, of necessity, be the country of production. The spices which Queen Sheba presented to Solomon * were not known in Jerusalem, and were probably obtained from Ceylon, or the islands still farther to the east. It is, however, most certain, that, with but one or two exceptions, those of familiar use among the moderns were all originally derived from these latter countries. CINNAMON-Laurus Cinnamomum-is said to be indigenous only to the island of Ceylon, and even there confined to a small district in the south-western part of that island. There are however doubts, whether the inferior sorts, found in other places, known by the name of Cassia, and considered by botanists as a distinct species (Laurus Cassia), be not the very same tree, deteriorated by being produced on a soil and in a climate less adapted for the developement of its finer qualities. Whether it be cinnamon or cassia, the bark of the tree, freed from the external part, forms the spice. Although, ever since the Dutch first had a settle *Chron. ii. 9. True Cinnamon-Laurus cinnamomum. ment in Ceylon, cinnamon was made by them a lucrative article of trade, and one which they strove by every means wholly to monopolize, this tree was not made by them an object of cultivation in Ceylon until 1766. Before that period cinnamon was collected in the forests and jungles, since an idea prevailed that its excellence depended on its spontaneous growth, and that if once subjected to culture it would no longer be genuine. When Falk was appointed Governor of Ceylon, he felt the inconvenience of depending for a regular supply on such a resource, the more especially as the greater part of the cinnamon-trees lay in the dominions of the King of Candy, who frequently, with or without apparent reason, refused the cinnamon peelers admission into his dominions, and the Dutch were, in consequence, often restricted to less than half their required annual exports. Governor Falk, in his attempt to remedy this evil, by cultivating the cinnamon-tree in the territory belonging to the Dutch, was discouraged by the prejudices of the natives, and discountenanced by the parsimony of the Supreme Government of Batavia. It was said, "for one hundred and fifty years Ceylon had supplied the requisite quantity of cinnamon, the expense of which was ascertained and limited: why then risk the success of a new plan, attended with extraordinary charges." This public-spirited governor nevertheless persevered in his undertaking, and to his success the English owe the flourishing state in which they found the cinnamon plantations of Ceylon, when they captured that island. This tree is now cultivated in four or five very large gardens, the extent of which may in some measure be imagined by the quantity of cinnamon annually exported thence, amounting to more than 400,000 lbs.; and from the number of people who are employed in the cinnamon department, these being from twenty-five to twenty-six thousand persons*. The trade in this produce had always been a monopoly; during the government of the Dutch this was enforced with an excessive degree of rigour, at which humanity revolts. It is painful to contemplate man, when greediness for exclusive gains, the meanest of all motives, incites him to acts of oppression and tyranny. "The selling or giving away the smallest quantity of cinnamon (even were it but *Trans. of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. i. |