CHAP. IV.] WEST INDIES. 
i33 
HAVING thus copiously treated of the culti¬ 
vation of those products which chiefly give 
value and importance to the British colonies in 
the West Indies, and contribute, in a very emi¬ 
nent degree, to the wealth, commerce, and 
navigation of the parent state, it is the less 
necessary for me to dwell at great length on 
minor staples} yet these cannot be wholly 
overlooked in a comprehensive survey of the 
tropical kingdom; neither indeed are they to 
be considered as unimportant, except by com¬ 
parison with those rich and profitable commo¬ 
dities, of which so much has been said in this 
and the preceding chapters. The remaining 
classes, of which I shall briefly treat, are 
cacao, ginger, arnotto, aloes, and piemento. 
As my observations will be few, they will be 
chiefly practical and commercial; a systema¬ 
tical description of each being to be found in 
Sloane, Brown, Hughes, and other writers. 
CACAO. 
THE Cacao or chocolate nut, a production equal¬ 
ly delicate, wholesome and nutritive, is a native of 
South America, and is said to have been origi¬ 
nally conveyed to Hispaniola from some of the pro- 
