HISTORY OK THK USK OF COCOA. 45 



hib ■■ 1 )iction;iry of tlic luiglish I..in^uagc," s.i_> ^ i.i.i mi-, li;is 

 no connexion whatever with the Mexican word " cac.iuall " (or 

 "ciicavaquahuitl"), "cacao," or its niodern corruption "Cocoa," 

 but is, so far as is known, a railical wortl of the lanj^uaj^e. 



Thomas ( i.i<;('.iM his " New Surxcy ol the West Intiies ^ i 046 j, 

 informs us, " Tlie name is compoumled from atti\ as some say, or 

 as others. atU\ which in th(! Mexican language signifieth 'water,' 

 and from ilie sound which the water (wli(.'rein is put the Chocolate) 

 makes, as c/ioco, choco, choco, when it is stirred in a cu[> l>v an 

 instrument called a 'molinet' or ' moliniiio,' until it bubble and 

 rise unto a froath." 



^(^^^ 



Lh->. jlale .Stirrer (M iliiict), cjpic 1 Ir jm .ui old t.jjlc imliluhcl lo the i;tti te:Uur>". 



The siuiie writer remarks: "Our I^nglisli and llollanders 

 make little use of it when they take a prize at sea, as not knowing 

 the secret virtue and (juality of it for the good of the stomach, 

 of whom I h.ive heard the Spaniards say that when we h.ive taken 

 a good prize, a ship laden with Cocoa, in anger antl wrath we have 

 hurled overboard this good commodity, not regarding the wcjrth 

 of it.' lor many years the culiiv.iiion of the Cocoa tree w.is 

 confmed to the Spanish, who. in South America and some of the 

 West Imlia Islands, carried on the cultivation to a large extent. 

 From their first settlement in Trinidatl. we are told th.it " it seems 

 probable the Spaniards cultiv.ited the tree, and thoroughly under- 

 stotnl its value, the prepared article being always much esteemed 

 in the then opulent mother country. " 



