THE AVOCADO 15 



that it very early spread through Central America to Peru; 

 then into the Antilles, where its introduction is mentioned by 

 Jacquin; and much later into Brazil." He also remarks that 

 its presence in Peru in pre-Colombian days is indicated by the 

 indigenous name, palta, and the finding of fruits in the graves 

 of the Incas. W. E. Safford, however, says that no vestiges 

 of the avocado are found in the prehistoric graves of the Peru- 

 vian coast, nor is it represented in the casts of fruits and vege- 

 tables discovered among the terra cotta funeral vases so abun- 

 dant in the vicinity of Trujillo and Chimbote. 



While it is probable that the avocado is of relatively recent 

 introduction into Brazil, and that its presence in Peru in pre- 

 Colombian days may be open to question, the existence of 

 native names for it in many different languages, as well as 

 references by the early voyagers, indicate that at the time of the 

 Discovery it was cultivated, if not indigenous, in extreme 

 northern South America and from there through Central 

 America into Mexico. 



The first written account of the avocado, so far as known, 

 is contained in the report of Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo 

 (1526), who saw the tree in Colombia, near the Isthmus of 

 Panama. 



Pedro de Cieza de Leon, who traveled in tropical America 

 between 1532 and 1550, mentions the avocado as one of the 

 fruits used by the Spaniards who had settled in the Isthmus of 

 Panama, and as being an article of food among the natives of 

 Arma and Cali, in Colombia. 



Francisco Cervantes Salazar, one of the earliest chroniclers 

 of Mexico, gives evidence that the avocado was well known in 

 the markets of Mexico City as early as 1554, which was very 

 soon after the Conquest. In a later work, the "Cronica de 

 Xueva Espana," written about the year 1575, he described the 

 fruit. Both in this work and in his earlier one, "Mexico en 

 1554," he uses the name aguacate. 



