PLANTATIONS OF CACAO. 



157 



happened to be the time of carnival, and all was 

 gayety. The games in which the common people 

 indulged were occasionally not of the most pleasant 

 kind. Some led about an ass laden with water, with 

 which they sprinkled the apartments wherever they 

 found an open winaow ; while others, carrying bags 

 full of the hairs of the Dolichos pruriens, which ex- 

 cite great irritation of the skin, blew them into the 

 faces of those who were passing by. From Gua- 

 cara they returned to New-Valencia, where they 

 found a few French emigrants, the only ones they 

 saw during five years in the Spanish colonies. 



The cacao-plantations have always been consid- 

 ered as the principal source of the prosperity of 

 these countries. The tree (Theobroma cacao) which 

 produces this substance is not now found wild in the 

 woods to the north of the Orinoco, and begins to be 

 seen only beyond the cataracts of Atures and May- 

 pures ; but it abounds near the Ventuaro, and on the 

 Upper Orinoco. In the plantations it vegetates so 

 vigorously, that flowers spring out even from the 

 woody roots wherever they are left uncovered. It 

 suffers from the north-east winds ; and the heavy 

 showers that fall during the winter season, from De- 

 cember to March, are very injurious to it. Great 

 humidity is favourable only when it augments grad- 

 ually, and continues a long time without interrup- 

 tion. In the dry season, when the leaves and young 

 fruit are wetted by a heavy shower, the latter falls 

 to the ground. For these reasons the cacao-har- 

 vest is very uncertain, and the causes of failure are 

 increased by the depredations of worms, insects, 

 birds, and quadrupeds. This branch of agriculture 

 has the disadvantage, moreover, of obliging the new 

 planter to wait eight or ten years for the fruits of 

 his labours, and of yielding an article of very diffi- 

 cult preservation ; but it requires a much less num- 

 ber of slaves than most others, one being sufficient 

 for a thousand trees, which at an average yield 



