WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 225 



district it contains more than 60 indigo laboratories producing indigo 

 dye ; they raise much fruit, and in their rivers they get abundance 

 of delicious fish and crayfish. 



641. This is followed on the same coast by the Alcaldia Mayor of 

 Sonsonate, to which His Majesty appoints in consultation with the 

 Supreme Council of the Indies. This is hot country, very rich in 

 cacao ; in the villages of its district — Los Izalcos, Naulingo, Caluco, 

 and others — they gather the greatest amount in all that country ; in 

 fact, within a district of 2 leagues of these cacao plantations or groves, 

 they harvest 50,000 loads, worth at the very lowest 500,000 ducats. 

 And since the reputation and the richness of this bean, from which 

 chocolate is made, are so well known and quite unique in the world, 

 it will be well for me to explain the method of reckoning by cacaos, 

 and describe the nature of the tree. 



642. A load of cacao contains 3 xiquipiles ; each xiquipil consists 

 of 8,000 cacao beans, making 200 zontles ; thus each zontle has 400 

 cacao beans and each load, 24,000; that is their system of computa- 

 tion. At the harvest they sell 200 seeds or beans for i real or less, 

 depending on the crop and the circumstances. It is so abundant in 

 the district of the Diocese of Guatemala that every year this district 

 takes in over 1,500,000 ducats, in the Provinces of Soconusco, Suchite- 

 pequez, Guazacapan, Sonsonate, Zacatecoluca, and Chiquimula, which 

 are the chief producers ; the other parts of this jurisdiction are held in 

 less esteem. 



643. The cacao tree is of medium size, like an apple tree ; it is of 

 a delicate constitution, requiring much attention ; it will only grow 

 in the hot country and nowhere else. When they plant it, it is in the 

 shade of a large tree which is called the cacao mother, to protect 

 it from the sun and the wind ; they have to keep watering it with 

 care or else it dries out. The leaves are long and broad, about the 

 distance from the end of one's thumb to that of the forefinger, and 

 sharp-pointed, very green and delicate. It is a tree which spon- 

 taneously gives great satisfaction, for it repays its owner for all the 

 care he has taken in its cultivation ; beans ripen every month the 

 whole year through. There are two chief crops, one at St. John's 

 Day, and the other at All Saints. The fruit grows out from the 

 stem or trunk and along all the branches in a sort of pointed ears 

 shaped like large pine cones and looking like overripe cucumbers ; 

 this divides up into slices (tajadas) like a melon, but more pointed. 

 The outer skin is hard and almost a finger thick ; some are red, others 

 yellowish, others red and white, still others green. Inside it is very 



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