248 TRINIDAD. 



dollars, planters not taking the trouble of gathering their crops 

 the expenses of attendance thereon being greater than the price 

 offered. This falling off in the price of Trinidad cacao may 

 be attributed to various causes, general or local. The European 

 and British markets especially became glutted with importations 

 from Brazil and Guayaquil ; Spain, then at peace with her old 

 colonies, began to import cacao from Venezuela and Nueva 

 Grenada, so that the article became a mere drug, except the best 

 Caracas cacao. Unscrupulous speculators in the island also re- 

 sorted to most nefarious practices to defraud purchasers, not only 

 by the admixture of damaged and inferior with good cacao, but 

 by the addition of weighty substances; remunerative prices being 

 paid by them for the heaviest sort, the production of a bad article 

 was thereby encouraged, the Trinidad cacao gradually lost its re- 

 putation, and the producers were ruined. 



Encouraged by the example of the late Mr. Charles Maingot, 

 the generality of planters have tried their best to improve the 

 quality of the article. Undoubtedly that quality has been and 

 may be still further improved by proper care and attention being 

 paid both to selection and the process of curing the seeds. But, 

 with all possible improvements, it seems a mistaken idea to expect 

 that, under present circumstances, " Trinidad might supply cacao 

 equal to anything produced in the best markets of the Magda- 

 lena, Soconusco, and of other places on the Spanish Main/' as 

 assumed by Dr. Lindley in his lecture " On Substances used as 

 Food, illustrated by the Great Exhibition." " Cocoa, or cacao, 

 as we should call it," says the learned professor, " is an article 

 of very large consumption. Enormous quantities of it are now 

 used in the navy, and every one knows how much it is employed 

 daily in private life. It is, moreover, the basis of chocolate ; but 

 we have evidence that we never get good cacao in this country. 

 The consequence is, that all the best chocolate is made in Spain, 

 in France, and in countries where the fine description of cocoa 

 goes. We get a cocoa which is unripe, flinty, and bitter, having 

 undergone changes that cause it to bear a very low price in the 

 market." This may have been true at the time Professor Lindley 

 delivered his lecture; and let me add that this " unripe, flinty* 

 and bitter cocoa " was the one prepared for the British markt 

 The English consumer did not know then the difference betw( 

 good and bad cacao : not the case now, however. 



