EARLY USE OF C1IOCOJ.A.TE. 59 



cultivation of the cacao-tree, sheltered in its youth by the 

 foliage of the crythrina and plantain;* the fabrication of 

 cakes of chocolatl, and the use of the liquid of the same 

 name, in course of their communications with Mexico, Goia- 

 timahi, and Nicaragua. 



Down to the sixteenth century travellers differed in 

 opinion respecting the chocolatl. Benzoni plainly says that 

 it is a drink "titter for hogs than men."t The Jesuit 

 Acosta asserts, that " the Spaniards who inhabit America 

 are fond of chocolate to excess ; but that it requires to be 

 accustomed to that black beverage not to be disgusted at 

 the mere sight of its froth, which swims on it like yeast 

 on a fermented liquor." He adds, "the cacao is a prejudice 

 (una supersticion) of the Mexicans, as the coca is a pre- 

 judice of the Peruvians." These opinions remind us of 

 Madame de Sevigne's prediction respecting the use of coffee. 

 Fernando Cortez and his page, the gentilhombre del gran 

 Conquistador, whose memoirs were published by Eamusio, 

 on the contrary, highly praise chocolate, not only as an 

 agreeable drink, though prepared cold,J but in particular 

 as a nutritious substance. "He who has drunk one cup," 

 says the page of Fernando Cortez, " can travel a whole day 

 without any other food, especially in very hot climates ; for 

 chocolate is by its nature cold and refreshing." We shall 

 not subscribe to the latter part of this assertion ; but we 

 shall spon have occasion, in our voyage on the Orinoco, and 

 our excursions towards the summit of the Cordilleras, to 

 celebrate the salutary properties of chocolate. It is easily 

 conveyed and readily employed : as an aliment it contains a 

 large quantity of nutritive and stimulating particles in a 

 small compass. It has been said with truth, that in the 

 East, rice, gum, and ghee (clarified butter), assist man in 

 crossing the deserts; and so, in the New World, cho- 



* This process of the Mexican cultivators, practised on the coast of 

 Caracas, is desciibed in the memoirs known under the title of " Rela- 

 ione di certo Gentiluomo del Signor Cortez, Conquistadore del Messico." 

 (Ramusio, torn, ii, p. 134). 



f Benzoni, Istoria del Mondo Nuovo, 1572, p. 104. 



Father Gili has very clearly shown, from two passages in Torque- 

 mada (Monarquia Indiana, lib. xiv.) that the Mexicans prepared th 

 infusion cold, and that the Spaniards introduced the custom of preparing 

 chocolate by boiling water with the paste of cacao. 



