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rationed. The coffee plant did not It’s a story that could make a
receive a water ration. But so deter- good movie, or a great episode of
mined was de Clieu, he shared his Drunk History. While much of the
water ration with his plant. story of Gabriel de Clieu has likely
Sharing his water ration would been exaggerated (we rely on de
be difficult, but not impossible, if Clieu’s journals for much of it), what
the voyage could get back on sched- can be said with some certainty is that
ule … if de Clieu were a luckier man. de Clieu did bring a coffee plant, or
Following the hurricane, the plants, from France and his plantings
ship carrying de Clieu, his coffee were the progenitors of most Central
plant, and limited fresh water, hit a American coffee, including those
dead calm. Brutal heat and no wind. countries that began commercial pro-
De Clieu was already sharing his duction first, “The Four Horsemen”
water ration with his coffee plant from Part 1 of this article.
and the windless sea added days to Following The Four Horsemen,
the journey. For some time after his we would like to name the three Cen-
Now each soul fears to prove death in 1774, poems were written tral American countries that came
Tantalus torment first. to celebrate de Clieu’s epic journey later to commercial production of
De Clieu alone defies: While still for the sake of coffee and ultimate- coffee: Honduras, Nicaragua, and
that fatal thirst.
Fierce, stifling, day by day his noble ly the coffee drinkers of France. Panama. Like all Centrals, these cof-
strength devours. One poem in particular fo- fees were, at one time, considered
And still a heaven of brass inflames cused on this final tribulation. interchangeable with one another but
the burning hours. Note, in Greek mythology, Tantalus
With that refreshing draught his tortured someone by surrounding
life he will not cheer.
But drop by drop revives the plant them with water but not letting
he holds more dear. them take a drink.
De Clieu, and the plant he held
----- Esmenard so dear, survived their encounter
with Tantalus and landed safely if
not soundly on Martinique. He
planted his coffee baby in the gar-
den where he could keep an eye on
it, surrounded it with thorn bushes,
and had a guard stand watch 24/7.
His first crop yielded two pounds
of seed, which he distributed for
planting. Exponentially ensued and
by the time he died there were 18
million coffee trees on Martinique,
coffee had spread throughout the
Antilles and would finally arrive in
Central America in 1779.
In 1927, the island of Marti-
nique, somewhat like the voyage of
de Clieu, suffered several calami-
ties. First, there was what seems to
have been a very significant earth-
quake, the ground ripping and sink-
ing variety. Then there was a large
hurricane and following the hurri-
cane almost all of the cocoa trees
that remained after the earthquake
and flood died of disease. Virtually
all cocoa plants were gone and cof-
fee plants took their place.

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