acknowledge that they owe the chief source of their wealth. Clieu was the first person who succeeded in introducing the coffee plant into those islands, and he had the satisfaction of living to see his experiments so successful, that the Antilles from this trifling cause alone rose to be among the most prosperous of colonial possessions. A letter of this excellent man exists, in which he gives a simple and interesting narrative of the efforts which secured this happy result.
Clieu was a captain of infantry, stationed with his company at Martinico, one of the islands refered to. Though possessing high mountains covered with trees, several rivers, and fertile valleys, the island would produce neither wheat nor vines, and was in some respects unfavourable to agriculture. Clieu, who was aware of these defects, determined to make an effort to discover some useful crop suited to its soil and climate. It happened that private affairs called him to France, but the captain of infantry had no business more important in his eyes than that of procuring a coffee plant of a species adapted for cultivation in Martinico. "More occupied" (he says) "with the public good than with my own interests, I was not discouraged at the failure of the attempts that had been made during forty years to introduce and naturalize the coffee-tree in our islands. I made fresh efforts to obtain a plant from the Royal Botanic Garden, but was for a long time unsuccessful. I returned many times to the charge without being disheartened, till at length success crowned my perseverance. It would be useless to enter into details of the infinite care I gave to this delicate plant during a long voyage, and the difficulty I had to save it from' the
