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, coffee had not been seen at Paris, except at M. Thevenot's, and some of his friends'; nor scarce heard of but from the account of travellers. In that year, Soliman Aga, ambassador from the Sultan Mahomet the Fourth, arrived, who, with his retinue, brought a considerable quantity of coffee with them, and made presents of it to persons both of the court and city, and it is supposed to have established the custom of drinking it. Two years afterwards, an Armenian of the name of Pascal, set up a coffee-house, but meeting with little encouragement, left Paris and came to London. From Anderson's _Chronological History of Commerce_, it appears that the use of coffee was introduced into London some years earlier than into Paris. For in 1652 one Mr. Edwards, a Turkey merchant, brought home with him a Greek servant, whose name was Pasqua, who understood the roasting and making of coffee, till then unknown in England. This servant was the first who sold coffee, and kept a house for that purpose in George Yard Lombard Street.