A SKETCH OF THEIR HISTORY 7 



and returned to Europe feeling they had failed. To 

 our eyes they were not entirely unsuccessful, for whilst 

 they failed to find a city of gold, they discovered the 

 home of the golden pod. 



Montezuma the First Great Patron of Chocolate. 



When Columbus discovered the New World he 

 brought back with him to Europe many new and 

 curious things, one of which was cacao. Some years 

 later, in 15 19, the Spanish conquistador, Cortes, landed 

 in Mexico, marched into the interior and discovered 

 to his surprise, not the huts of savages, but a beautiful 

 city, with palaces and museums. This city was the 

 capital of the Aztecs, a remarkable people, notable 

 alike for their ancient civilisation and their wealth. 

 Their national drink was chocolate, and Montezuma, 

 their Emperor, who lived in a state of luxurious mag- 

 nificence, " took no other beverage than the chocolatl, 

 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 and was taken cold. This 

 beverage if so it could be called, was served in golden 

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

 finely wrought. The Emperor was exceedingly fond of 

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

 or pitchers being prepared for his own daily con- 

 sumption : two thousand more were allowed for that 

 of his household."* It is curious that Montezuma took 

 no other beverage than chocolate, especially if it be 

 true that the Aztecs also invented that fascinating 

 drink, the cocktail (xoc-tl). How long this ancient 

 people, students of the mysteries of culinary science, 

 had known the art of preparing a drink from cacao, is 

 not known, but it is evident that the cultivation of 

 cacao received great attention in these parts, for if we 



* Prescott's Conquest of Mexico. 



