258 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



Though cacao grows in all the islands of the Carib- 

 bean Sea, I found it most abundant in Grenada, where 

 it shares with sugar exclusive cultivation, finding a 

 soil and climate most suitable for its perfect growth. 

 This plant was discovered in Mexico by the Span- 

 iards, who invaded that country in 15 19; we read, in 

 the "True History of the Conquest of Mexico," by 

 Captain Bernal Diaz, "one of the conquerors," that 

 fruit of all the kinds the country produced was laid 

 before Montezuma ; " he eat very little, but from time 

 to time a liquor prepared from cocoa, and of a stimu- 

 lative or corroborative quality, as we were told, was 

 presented to him in golden cups. We could not at 

 that time see if he drank it or not, but I observed a 

 number of jars, above fifty, brought in filled with 

 foaming chocolate." 



Its adoption and introduction was rapid, and now it 

 flourishes nearly all over the tropical world, and in the 

 Lesser Antilles and along the northern coast of South 

 America it grows in perfection. 



Much confusion exists regarding the names of two 

 totally distinct vegetable productions : the cocoa, the 

 palm w r hich bears the nut, and the cacao, from which 

 chocolate is made — words so nearly alike that even 

 great men have used them interchangeably, much 

 to the bewilderment of the student of tropical flora. 

 The cocoa palm is the Cocos nucifera, and by some 

 the generic name of cocos has been abbreviated into 

 coco, which is the French and Spanish name also. 

 Grand old Linnaeus crave to the cacao the beautiful 

 name, Thcobroma — food for gods — and Thcobroma 

 cacao is the name by which it is known to botanists. 



Unlike the towering cocoa, with smooth shaft, 



