Gabriel mathieu de clieu born in france around 1688, part of the french navy. best known by his love affair of his coffee tree.
- wanted to see it spread, especially in martinique. he went from martinique to paris, petitioned the king to give him a coffee plant to take it back.
- one way or another he ended up leaving with a plant. someone on the boat tore off a branch, trying to kill it.
- his boat was nearly captured by pirates near tunisia, almost sank in storm in the atlantic. limited supply of fresh water, and he gave his water to the plant.
- by the 1720s he planted it in his garden. he had a slave guard it day and night. in
- 1727 there was an earthquake, important because it ripped out all the coco trees, so they got replaced with coffee trees.
- by 1777 there were nearly 19million coffee plants on the island.
- by 1790 the plants found their way to mexico, and eventually to haiti. english brought it to jamaica in 1730, spain to cuba in 1748.
- de clieu is celebrated for his claim to have introduced coffee to the french colonies of the western hemisphere in the 1720s and his support for its cultivation.
