EARLY USE OF CITOCOIATE. 
59 
cultivation of the cacao-tree, sheltered, in its. youth by the 
milage of the erythrina and plantain ;* the fabrication of 
cakes ot chocolatl. and the use of the liquid of the same 
name, m course ot their communications with Mexico, Gua- . 
timala, and JN icaragua. 
Down to the sixteenth century travellers differed in 
opinion respecting the chocolatl. Benzoni plainly says that 
5 “ ^ ter for hogs than men ”f The Jesuit 
tb , at “Ac Spaniards who inhabit America 
accnstmL?! e C ?l?°l a m *? f XCesB ’ hut that it requires to he 
the men ' i\ h^tblack beverage not to be disgusted at 
n which swims on it like yeast 
on a fermented liquor.” He adds, « the cacao is a prejudice 
uTceTS 0 P U) °' M “’ the coca K pre! 
MadLe d^ Sv/ e ^ anS -r .. Thesc °P b ? ioils remind us of 
Fernando Corto^ s ,P 1 ' e . < t 1ctl0n respecting the use of coffee. 
SrirS and 118 .P a ge, the f/entilhombre del gran 
on the conh-^° V '?? moxrs were Published by Eamusio, 
am-eeable P™ 186 ° hocolatc > not only as an 
greea ble dnng, though prepared cohl.t but in particular 
™ tntloUB substance. “He who has drunk one cun ” 
th , e P a g e of Fernando Cortez, “can travel a whole day 
shalltrtr oSLSS o^v “'on a tim S ' ’ ** *5 
conveyed and readily T 1 cho «date. It is easily 
large quantity of nutritive as . an fl hment it contains a 
smlll coinp2. Itt u and stimulating particles in a 
East rice mini -nirl i een said with truth, that in the 
crossing tlfe desert ” ,,,e (clarified butter), assist man in 
. * deserts ; and so, in the New World, cho- 
Caracas^dSbed £ e iJ e * ican , cul f ators, practised on the coast of 
xione di certo Gentilnnm^l i ™f molr8 „ known under the title of “ Rela- 
(Ramusio, tom. ii p 134)^ ® l ® nor Cortez, Conquistadore del Messico.” 
: Patw" del ^ ondo Naovo, 1572, p. 104. 
mada (Monaranin Tn l^ cI 5?f' y sl \ own , from two passages in Torque- 
infusion cold lind thin the - X1 j' • that , the MexicaD9 prepared the 
chocolate b y boding ^ ° f prepari “« 
