Page 97 - #62 eng e-mag

It's a story that could make

a good movie, or a great

episode of Drunk History.

F ollowing the coffee plant’s escape out. De Clieu had to build a small green-

Like all Centrals, these from the Arabian Peninsula, it house of his own, plant the shoot, get it
coffees were, at one would not reach Central America to grow into a sapling, then transport the
time, considered for another 100 years, but it ar- plant, still inside the greenhouse, to
interchangeble with
one another rived in the Caribbean in half that time due Martinique, four thousand miles away.
to the stubborn efforts of a French Naval What could go wrong? Thieves, pirates,
officer, Gabriel de Clieu. storms, poor wind, water rationing, all
In the early part of the eighteenth cen- of these dangers were possible, but
tury, coffee was a luxury, relatively scarce surely not all of them on one voyage.
and imported from far away and mysterious According to de Clieu, the thief
places. De Clieu had a plantation in the north- was a Dutchman, someone who would
west region of Martinique, one of the Carib- clearly understand the value of his
bean islands that rain down on South Amer- cargo and expressed such open jeal-
ica from Puerto Rico. He knew the climate, ousy that the plant could never be left
where cocoa was thriving at the time, was alone. De Clieu kept the plant with him
right for coffee propagation, and he imagined at night and then took it on deck during
growing coffee would make him a wealthy the day. The night before the Dutch
man. passenger disembarked at the island of
The only place for de Clieu to obtain a Madeira, 500 miles off the cost of Mo-
coffee shoot in 1720 was the royal greenhouse rocco, he tore a branch from the plant
of King Louis the XV, who was only 10 years while de Clieu was asleep, causing
old at the time, where coffee plants were kept enough damage that the plant had to be
that had been gifted to Louis the XIV by the carefully nursed back to health.
Dutch. What to do? Although the stories of Then came the Barbary pirates
how de Clieu obtained a coffee shoot from the who attempted to capture the ship. But
greenhouse differ somewhat, the best story the merchantman on which de Clieu
might begin with these words: De Clieu knew was a passenger had an experienced
a woman who knew a man. A doctor in fact, captain who outmaneuvered and then
and not just any doctor, but a royal physician outran the pirates. Unfortunately, the
named Chirac, who had access to the royal evasive maneuvers were violent and the
greenhouse where medicinal plants were small greenhouse was broken. It was
grown. De Clieu convinced a woman friend to repaired, to the extent possible, by the
convince Chirac to give her a shoot from a cof- ship’s carpenter. Free of the pirates,
fee plant. Dr. Chirac did as the woman asked the vessel was then set upon by a pow-
because, it is said, she was a person to whom erful hurricane, which not only caused
the good doctor could never say no, for reasons the little greenhouse to break again, but
history does not record. Some versions claim exposed the soil to seawater. Some of
de Clieu received three shoots from the royal the ship’s drinking water was also con-
greenhouse, but where’s the drama in that? taminated with seawater, so what
Obtaining the shoot was the easy part, it turns drinking water remained was strictly

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