The last quotation, and indeed the first also, shows that the word was then pronounced Bohay. At a later date Bohea sank to be the market name of one of the lowest qualities of tea, and we believe it has ceased altogether to be a name quoted in the tea-market. The following quotations seem to show that it was the general name for "black-tea."
1711.—"Bohea is of little Worth among the Moors and Gentoos of India, Arrabs and Persians ... that of 45 Tale (see [TAEL]) would not fetch the Price of green Tea of 10 Tale a [Pecull]."—Lockyer, 116.
1721.—
"Where Indus and the double Ganges flow,
On odorif'rous plains the leaves do grow,
Chief of the treat, a plant the boast of fame,
Sometimes called green, Bohea's the greater name."
Allan Ramsay's Poems, ed. 1800, i. 213-14.
1726.—"Anno 1670 and 1680 there was knowledge only of Boey Tea and Green Tea, but later they speak of a variety of other sorts ... Congo ... Pego ... Tongge, Rosmaryn Tea, rare and very dear."—Valentijn, iv. 14.
1727.—"In September they strip the Bush of all its Leaves, and, for Want of warm dry Winds to cure it, are forced to lay it on warm Plates of Iron or Copper, and keep it stirring gently, till it is dry, and that Sort is called Bohea."—A. Hamilton, ii. 289; [ed. 1744, ii. 288].