Excerpt from A Cup of Tea, Containing a History of the Tea Plant From Its Discovery to the Present Time, Including Its Botanical Characteristics and Embracing Mr. William Saunders Pamphlet on Tea-Culture a Probable American IndustryTaxiere also a native of Portugal, states that he saw the dried leaves of the tea-plant at Malacca, prior to the year A. D. 1600.The article is also mentioned in one of the earliest privileges or licenses accorded to the Portuguese for trad ing, in A. D. 1518, yet it was not until the expiration of more than a century from the beginning of that trade that we find a distinct account from a European pen of the use of tea as a beverage.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.