100 COFFEE.. CACAO 



Gardens into the country by Scotch planters in 1876, and 

 flourished so abundantly that the hope of the State seemed to 

 be in its coffee plantations ; to such an extent was this the 

 case that the coffee-tree was adopted as the badge of British 

 Central Africa, in which Protectorate Nyasaland was at that 

 time included. Nowadays cotton and tobacco are serious 

 rivals to coffee, though it still manages to hold its own. 



Of the Malay States, Selangor produces most coffee ; in 

 West Africa, Sierra Leone ; in British South America, Guiana. 

 British North Borneo, too, has a certain amount of land 

 under coffee. 



The eastern slopes of the Queensland Mountains would seem 

 a suitable locality for coffee plantations, but though a certain 

 amount is grown it is not one of Queensland's leading products, 

 and the same is true of Natal. 



SUMMARY. We buy most of our coffee from foreign countries, 

 chiefly from Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Guatemala, and 

 Mexico ; no less than twenty-two countries contribute to 

 our needs. 



Of our own possessions, India sends us most, though we 

 receive supplies also from Kenya Colony, the West Indies, 

 and Aden ; while smaller amounts are sent from British Guiana, 

 Nyasaland, Malaya, and Uganda. 



CACAO. ' The Emperor took no other beverage than the 

 chocolath, a potation of chocolate, flavoured with vanilla and 

 other spices, and so prepared as to be reduced to a froth of 

 the consistency of honey, which gradually dissolved in the 

 mouth. This beverage, if so it could be called, was served in 

 golden goblets, with spoons of the same metal, or of tortoise- 

 shell, finely wrought. The Emperor was exceedingly fond of 

 it, to judge from the quantity, no less than fifty jars or pitchers, 

 prepared for his own daily consumption. Two thousand more 

 were allowed for that of his own household.' x 



The emperor mentioned in the above description is the 

 Mexican emperor, Montezuma, who was Emperor of Mexico 

 in 1519. The chocolath (chocolate) is prepared from the fruit 



1 Prescott'e Conquest of Mexico. 



