July  i,  1892.] 
THE.  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
59 
fusing  the  seeds,  one  writer  saying  that  “ it  was 
held  in  religious  veneration.”  Cortez,  when  settled 
in  Mexico,  sent  the  products  of  the  newly  conquered 
country  to  his  rnsster,  Charles  V.,  and  in  this  con- 
signment cocoa  occupied  a very  important  position. 
It  was  minutely  described,  and  the  medical  men  of 
the  day,  who  became  acquainted  with  its  virtues, 
recommended  it  to  such  of  their  patients  as  pos- 
sessed sufficient  wealth  to  purchase  it.  Hoffman 
pointed  out  that  it  had  cured  Cardinal  Richelieu  of 
a dangerous  disease,  and  that  proved  so  good  an 
advertisement  that  it  quickly  became  popular.  It 
was  thus  known  and  used  in  Europe  before  the  in- 
troduction of  tea  or  coffee,  and  for  many  years  the 
Spaniards  secretly  manufactured  it  for  the  supply 
of  the  rest  of  Europe.  In  1533  Peru  was  conquered 
by  the  Spaniards,  and  cocoa  was  found  to  be  of  as 
good  repute  in  that  country  as  in  Mexico.  On  the 
authority  of  Barnal  Diaz,  it  was  stated  that  the 
Mexican  Emperor  had  fifty  large  jars  filled  with  the 
drink  prepared  for  his  exclusive  use  every  day.  It 
was  paid  as  tribute  by  many  of  the  towns  of  the 
Empire,  and  Torquemada  gave  the  amount  annually 
consumed  in  the  palace  at  Mexico,  on  the  authority 
of  a royal  account-book  which  came  into  his  pos- 
session, as  about  2,744,000  cwt.  Humboldt  estimated 
that  the  consumption  in  Spain  in  1806  was  from 
6,000,000  to  9,000,0001b.,  and  in  the  rest  of  Europe 
from  14,000,000  to  17,000,000  lb.  Prom  this  it  will  be 
gathered  that  the  quantity  said  to  have  been  con- 
sumed in  Mexico  was  thirteen  times  what  was  used 
in  Europe  250  years  afterwards — an  evident  exag- 
geration. It  would  appear  that  the  natives  had  to 
surmount  the  same  difficulties  as  the  modern  manu- 
facturers in  covering  the  strong  taste  of  the  seeds  and 
the  large  quantity  of  oil  or  fat  present  in  them. 
This  they  did  by  an  admixture  of  maize  flour  and 
sugar,  as  well  as  vanilla  and  other  species,  and  it 
was  so  prepared  as  to  be  “reduced  to  a froth  of 
the  consistency  of  honey,  which  dissolved  in  the 
mouth  and  was  taken  cold.”  In  Rees'  Cyclopaedia 
(1819),  it  was  stated  that  the  South  American  Indians 
prepared  the  chocolatl  or  chocolate  by  mixing  it 
with  maize  and  raw  sugar  as  expressed  from  the 
cane.  It  was  then  made  into  a kind  of  bread, 
which  was  either  eaten  as  it  was,  or  dipped  into 
hot  water  for  a drink.  The  proportion  given  was  a 
pound  of  the  roasted  nuts  with  half  a pound  of 
sugar  dissolved  in  rose-water  and  half  a pound  of 
flour  or  maize. 
In  1657  cocoa  was  publicly  sold  in  London  under 
the  name  of  chocolate,  and  an  advertisement  ap- 
peared in  the  Public  Advertiser  of  Tuesday,  June  16, 
and  six  following  days,  that  “ In  Bishopsgate  Street, 
in  Queen’s  Head-alley,  at  a Frenchman’s  house, 
is  an  excellent  West  Indian  drink  called  chocolate 
to  be  sold,  where  you  may  have  it  ready  at  any 
time,  and  also  unmade,  at  reasonable  rates.”  A few 
ears  later  other  houses  were  opened,  and  it  soon 
eeaine  a favourite  with  the  rich  and  fashionable, 
together  with  tea  and  coffee.  Chocolate  paste  was 
sold  in  1660  at  10s  to  15s.  per  lb.  Imitations  of  the 
best  qualities  were  sold  cheaper,  and  in  1662  “ at 
the  coffee-house  in  Exchange-alley”  chocolatta  was 
sold  by  retail  at  2s.  per  lb.  in  the  ordinary  pound 
boxes.  The  habits  and  fashions  of  life  at  the  Res- 
toration led  the  people  to  think  less  of  home  and 
more  of  club-life,  and  any  such  institutions  as  cocoa 
or  coffee-houses  became  very  popular.  From  these 
the  present  large  clubs  developed.  Many  of  the 
houses  became  identified  with  the  political  parties 
and  Defoe  'wrote : “ A Whig  will  no  more  go  to  the 
Coffee  Tree  or  Ozenda’s  than  a Tory  will  be  seen 
at  the  coffee-house  at  St.  James.”  A famous  club, 
of  which  Byron  was  a member,  was  the  “ Tory  Cocoa 
Tree  Club.”  At  this  period  gambling  became  as- 
sociated with  the  clubs,  and  Horace  Walpole  re- 
corded in  1780  that  one  man  had  lost  180,000/.  in 
one  throw,  and  regained  it  again  the  next  night. 
Gradually  these  clubs  became  more  and  more  ex- 
clusive, and  drinks,  which  were  not  non-intoxicating, 
took  the  place  of  the  harmless  coffee,  tea,  and  cocoa. 
In  course  of  time  these  drinks  were  looked  upon 
as  necessities  of  life,  and  their  sale  got  into  the 
hands  of  the  grocer,  and  they  were  thoroughly  di- 
vorced from  their  improper  alliance  with  the  club 
and  fashionable  life  of  the  last  century.  The  result 
had  been  that  every  politician  of  the  last  generation 
had  made  it  a part  of  his  financial  policy  to  tax 
spirits  to  the  utmost,  but  to  reduce  the  duty  on 
non-intoxicants  to  the  lowest  possible  point.  The 
effect  of  this  policy  had  been  a reduction  in  the 
price  of  these  articles,  and  a rise  in  the  price  of 
intoxicants,  with  a consequent  rise  and  fall  in  the 
consumption  of  the  two  classes  of  drinks.  In  1793 
cocoa  was  charged  with  a duty  of  twelve  guineas 
er  cwt..,  and  a further  customs  duty  of  11s  11  ±<7. 
uch  a tax  was  prohibitive,  and  had  the  result  that 
the  trees  were  allowed  to  die  out  in  those  English 
colonies  where  it  would  grow,  and  sugar  was  made 
the  staple  crop.  When  the  fiscal  changes  in  Europe 
almost  ruined  the  sugar  planters,  the  cocoa  planta- 
tions had  disappeared  through  neglect,  and  with  the 
exception  of  Trinidad  and  Grenada  the  West  India 
Islands  did  not  now  practically  produce  cocoa  as  an 
article  of  commerce,  although  it  was  still  being 
carried  on  experimentally. 
Cocoa  was  found  by  analysis  to  be  very  nourishing, 
although  many  of  the  soluble  substances  were  prac- 
tically locked  up  in  the  large  quantity  of  fat  present. 
It  would  appear  that  our  manufacturers  of  to-day 
were  working  on  the  same  lines  as  the  natives  of 
Mexico  did  300  years  ago,  and  though  good  machinery 
and  manipulative  skill  gave  them  great  advantage, 
yet  the  addition  of  sugar  and  starch,  and  the  flavour- 
ing with  vanilla  and  other  spices  were  only  imita- 
tions of  what  was  done  in  early  times  to  make  the 
cocoa  more  serviceable  as  a food,  better  suited  to 
human  requirements  as  an  ordinary  beverage,  and 
adapted  for  consumption  as  a condiment  or  sweet- 
meat by  the  young  and  old.  The  plant  was  an  ever- 
green, indigenous  to  tropical  America,  although  now 
growm  in  Asia  and  Africa.  Its  height  was  fifteen  to 
forty  feet,  but  in  plantations  it  was  kept  down  to 
seventeen  to  eighteen  feet.  Its  limits  of  cultivation 
were  25°  N.  or  S.,  and  the  range  of  altitude  2,000  feet. 
It  belonged  to  the  natural  order  Butriacece,  genus 
Tlieobroma,  and  was  quite  distinct  from  the  cocoa 
nut  ( Cocos  nucifera)  and  the  coca  (Erythroxylon 
coca).  Its  mode  of  growth  was  peculiar,  as  the  leaves 
which  were  from  eight  to  nine  inches  long  and  two 
to  two  and-a-half  broad,  were  all  at  the  ends  of 
the  branches,  and  the  small  saffron  or  pink  odour- 
less flowers  were  often  thickly  clustered  on  the  old 
wood  of  the  branches  and  trunk.  The  major  part 
of  the  flowers  fall,  and  usually  only  one  pod  was 
produced  from  each  cluster.  The  pod,  which  was 
often  seen  ripe  on  the  same  bough  as  flowers,  was 
of  an  elongated  pear  shape,  rather  blunt  at  the  base, 
and  tapering  towards  the  end,  and  five  to  ten  inches 
in  length.  The  outside  was  usually  marked  by  ten 
shallow  furrows  with  blunt  sometimes  warty  edges. 
The  colour,  when  ripe,  was,  according  to  variety, 
greenish  yellow,  golden,  dark  purple,  or  bright  red. 
The  shell  contained  five  cells,  the  outer  walls  of 
which  were  of  a tough  fleshy  substance,  about  half 
to  three-quarters  of  an  inch  in  thickness.  The  seeds 
ranged  from  twenty-five  to  fortv,  closely  packed  in 
tiers,  about  the  size  of  almonds,  but  more  irregular 
in  form.  The  seed<  were  immersed  in  a copious  aci- 
dulous sweetish  pulp,  and  had  two  coats,  the  inner 
portion  yielding  the  “nib  ” of  commerce.  There  were 
many  varieties,  but  the  two  best-  were  the  Creole 
or  “Crioflo”  and  the  Caracas.  An  average  of  ten 
to  twelve  Creole  fruits  would  yield  rather  more  than 
one  pound  of  cocoa.  The  pods  were  yellow,  and  the 
seeds  short,  thick,  and  almost  globular,  of  slightly 
bitter  but  very  agreeable  flavour.  The  Caracas  was 
much  planted,  and  was  preferred  by  many  persons. 
The  beans  were  more  spongy  than  in  the  other 
variety,  and  it  took  fourteen  to  sixteen  fruits  to 
yield  a pound  of  cocoa.  The  seeds  were  planted  in 
low  moist  ground,  from  which  the  plants  were  trans- 
planted, when  from  twelve  to  eighteen  inches  high, 
to  a field,  preferably  on  a gently  sloping  sheltered 
hill-side.  In  order  to  give  the  necessary  shade  to 
the  plants  the  field  was  planted  with  coral  beans, 
manioc,  and  plantains.  In  the  second  year  all  flowers 
were  removed,  and  in  the  third  all  undergrowth  was 
removed  and  the  plants  carefully  pruned.  The  aver. 
