42 COCOA : ALL ABOUT IT, 



Sir Hans Sloane, in his "Voyages" (1725), tells us that " The 

 Indians of the desolate province of Soconusco pay the King their 

 tribute in Cacao, giving him 400 cargas, and every carga is 24,000 

 almonds, which is worth 30 pieces of Real of Plate." 



The tribute paid to the Lords of Mexico was principally in 

 Cocoa seeds, or prepared Chocolate, which men counted or 

 weighed into baskets or chests. They were charged for tribute to 

 repair the church called Huiznahuac, in the city of Tlatilulco 

 (which is called by the Spaniards, St. James). 



The coloured prints are from the collection and interpretation 

 of Mendoza's Hieroglyphics, and are nearly all tables of tribute to 

 be paid to the Mexican King, comprising facsimiles of ancient 

 Mexican paintings preserved in the Royal Libraries of Paris, 

 Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, and in the Vatican, at Rome, and in 

 the Bodleian, at Oxford."^^ 



is the sign of 20. The ear of corn inserted signifies 400. 



E 



The large basket contained half a fanega (a Spanish measure 

 for dry goods, containing about 100 Spanish pounds) of Chocolate 

 ground with the meal of maize, which they called Cacuhuapinol. 

 Each basket was required to have 1,600 dried almonds of Cocoa. 



*" At the time of the arrival of the Spaniards great quantities of these manuscripts 

 were treasured up in the country. Numerous persons were employed in painting, and the 

 dexterity of their operations excited the astonishment of their conquerors. Unfortunately 

 this was mingled with other and unworthy feelings. They were looked upon as magic 

 scrolls ; and were regarded in the same light with the idols and temples, and as the 

 symbols of a pestilent superstition." Prescott's " Mexico." 



Consequently the first Archbishop of Mexico had them all "piled up in a 'mountain- 

 heap' in the market place of Tlatelolco, and reduced them all to ashes." A few Mexican 

 manuscripts found their way to Europe. The most important is the one mentioned above, 

 which, after a disappearance for more than a century, has at length found its way to the 

 Bodleian Library. 



