EARLY USE. 29 



mix the better. Every one of these ingredi- 

 ents must be beaten by itself, and then all be 

 put into the vessel where the cacao is, 

 which you must stir together with a spoon, 

 and then take out that paste, and put it 

 into the mortar, under which there must 

 be a little fire, after the confection is made ; 

 but if more fire be put under than will only 

 warm it, then the unctuous part will dry 

 away. The Achiotte also must be put in 

 in the beating, that it may the better take 

 the colour. All the ingredients must be 

 searced, save only the cacao, and if from 

 the cacao the dry shell be taken, it will be 

 the better. When it is well beaten and in- 

 corporated (which will be known by the 

 shortnesse of it) then with a spoon (so in 

 the Indias is used) is taken up some of the 

 paste, which will be almost liquid, and 

 made into tablets, or else without a spoon 

 put into boxes, and when it is cold it will 

 be hard. 



"Those that make it into tablets put a 



