COCOA 



CHAPTER I 



HISTORICAL 



Early Use of Cocoa in Mexico. Cocoa or Cacao of com- 

 merce is manufactured from the beans of two or three 

 species of small trees indigenous to the forests of tropical 

 Central America. It was cultivated and highly appre- 

 ciated as a beverage in Mexico and Peru long before 

 Columbus discovered the New World, and he was re- 

 sponsible for bringing the first tidings of the virtues of 

 this important food product to Europe. 



Bernando de Castile, who accompanied Cortez when 

 he subjugated Mexico in 1521, describes one of Monte- 

 zuma's feasts, at which some fifty jars of cocoa were 

 brought in and drunk. The word chocolate is derived 

 from the Mexican chocolatl, a sweetmeat, which the 

 Mexicans made from cocoa, flavoured with cayenne 

 pepper, vanilla, etc. 



In conjunction with various other Mexican products, 

 samples of cocoa were sent by Cortez to his royal master, 

 Charles V. of Spain, shortly after the conquest of Mexico. 



Under the name of Amygdalae pecuniarce, cocoa beans 

 were used by the Mexicans as money, and in Antonio 

 de Herrera's History of the West Indies it is stated that 

 one of Montezuma's store houses contained 40,000 loads 

 of cocoa which had been received as tribute from the 

 provinces subject to him. Prescott's Conquest of Peru 

 relates that Pizarro's followers saw, as they sailed along 

 the Pacific coast, "hill-sides covered with the yellow 

 maize and the potato, or checkered in the lower levels 

 with blooming plantations of cocoa." 



The Introduction of Cocoa to Europe. Spain was the 

 first country in Europe to manufacture cocoa, and mono- 

 J 



