III. 



EARLY USE OF COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. 



THE name " chocolate " is nearly the same in most European lan- 

 guages, and is taken from the Mexican name of ihe drink, 

 " chocolatl," or " cacahuatl." Atl is common enough in Mexican 

 words, and is known to signify water. What the first part of the word 

 means is not so clear. A French writer says it signifies noise, and 

 that the drink was so named because it was beaten to a froth before 

 being drunk. 



The Spaniards found chocolate in common use among the Mexicans 

 at the time of the invasion under Cortez, in 1519, and it was introduced 

 into Spain immediately after. The Mexicans not only used chocolate 

 as a staple article of food, but they used the seeds of the cacao tree as 

 a medium of exchange. An early writer says : "In certain provinces 

 called Guatimala and Soconusco there is growing a great store of cacao, 

 which is a berry like unto an almond. It is the best merchandise that 

 is in all the Indies. The Indians make drink of it, and in like man- 

 ner meat to eat. It goeth currently for money in any market, or fair, 

 and may buy flesh, fish, bread or cheese, or other things." 



In the " True History of the Conquest of Mexico," by Bernal Diaz, 

 an officer under Cortez, it is related that " from time to time a liquor 

 prepared from cocoa and of a stimulating or corroborative quality, as 

 we are told, was presented to Montezuma in a golden cup. We could 

 not at the time see if he drank it or not, but I observed a number of 

 jars above fifty brought in and filled with foaming chocolate." 



Thomas Gage, in his " New Survey of the West Indies," first pub- 

 lished in 1648, gives the following interesting account of the Spanish 



