and for the same purposes of religion.

The inhabitants of Mecca were at last so fond of this liquor, that,
without regarding the intention of the religious, and other studious
persons, they at length drank it publicly in coffee-houses, where they
assembled in crowds to pass the time agreeably, making that the
pretense. From hence the custom extended itself to many other towns of
Arabia, particularly to Medina, and then to Grand Cairo in Egypt, where
the Dervises of Yemen, who lived in a district by themselves, drank
coffee on the nights they intended to spend in devotion.

Coffee continued its progress through Syria, and was received at
Damascus and Aleppo without opposition; and in the year 1554, under the
reign of Solyman, one hundred years after its introduction by the Mufti
of Aden, became known to the inhabitants of Constantinople, when two
private persons of the names of Schems and Hekin, the one coming from
Damascus, and the other from Aleppo, opened coffee-houses.

"It is not easy," says Ellis, "to determine at what time, or upon what
occasion, the use of coffee passed from Constantinople to the western
parts of Europe. It is, however, likely that the Venetians, upon account
of the proximity of their dominions, and their great trade to the
Levant, were the first acquainted with it; which appears from part of a
letter wrote by Peter della Valle, a Venetian, in 1615, from
Constantinople; in which he tells his friend, that, upon his return he
should {26} bring with him some coffee, which he believed was a thing
unknown in his country."

Mr. Garland tells us he was informed by M. de la Croix, the King's
interpreter, that M. Thevenot, who had travelled through the East, at
his return in 1657, brought with him to Paris some coffee for his own
use, and often treated his friends with it.

It was known some years sooner at Marseilles; for, in 1644, some
gentlemen who accompanied M. de la Haye to Constantinople, brought back
with them on their return, not only some coffee, but the proper vessels
and apparatus for making it. However, until 1660, coffee was drunk only
by such as had been accustomed to it in the Levant, and their friends;
but that year some bales were imported from Egypt, which gave a great
number of persons an opportunity of trying it, and contributed very much
to bringing it into general use; and in 1661, a coffee-house was opened
at Marseilles in the neighbourhood of the Exchange.

Before 1669, cof