ree great French travelers for much valuable
knowledge about coffee; and these gallant gentlemen first fired the
imagination of the French people in regard to the beverage that was
destined to play so important a part in the French revolution. They are
Tavernier (1605-89), Thevenot (1633-67), and Bernier (1625-88).

Then there is Jean La Roque (1661-1745), who made a famous "Voyage to
Arabia the Happy" (_Voyage de l'Arabie Heureuse_) in 1708-13 and to
whose father, P. de la Roque, is due the honor of having brought the
first coffee into France in 1644. Also, there is Antoine Galland
(1646-1715), the French Orientalist, first translator of the _Arabian
Nights_ and antiquary to the king, who, in 1699, published an analysis
and translation from the Arabic of the Abd-al-Kadir manuscript (1587),
giving the first authentic account of the origin of coffee.

Probably the earliest reference to coffee in France is to be found in
the simple statement that Onorio Belli (Bellus), the Italian botanist
and author, in 1596 sent to Charles de l'Ecluse (1526-1609), a French
physician, botanist and traveler, "seeds used by the Egyptians to make a
liquid they call _cave_.[44]"

P. de la Roque accompanied M. de la Haye, the French ambassador, to
Constantinople; and afterward traveled into the Levant. Upon his return
to Marseilles in 1644, he brought with him not only some coffee, but
"all the little implements used about it in Turkey, which were then
looked upon as great curiosities in France." There were included in the
coffee service some findjans, or china dishes, and small pieces of
muslin embroidered with gold, silver, and silk, which the Turks used as
napkins.

Jean La Roque gives credit to Jean de Thevenot for introducing coffee
privately into Paris in 1657, and for teaching the French how to use
coffee.

De Thevenot writes in this entertaining fashion concerning the use of
the drink in Turkey in the middle of the seventeenth century:

They have another drink in ordinary use. They call it _cahve_ and
take it all hours of the day. This drink is made from a berry
roasted in a pan or other utensil over the fire. They pound it into
a very fine powder.

When they wish to drink it, they take a boiler made expressly for
the purpose, which they call an _ibrik_; and having filled it with
water, they let it boil. When it boils, they add to about three
cups of water a heaping spoonful of the powde