34 
ON  THE  LEAVES  OF  THE  COCA. 
occurs  wild,  I  am  told,  in  several  parts  of  Bolivia;  but  I  have 
myself  studied  it  only  in  the  cultivated  state,  and  it  is  this  culti- 
vated plant  alone  that  will  be  here  in  question. 
The  employment  of  Coca  as  a  masticatory*  goes  back  to  the 
time  of  the  first  Incas,  a  period  when  it  was  reserved  essentially 
for  the  solemnities  of  religionf  and  for  the  use  of  the  monarch ; 
none  other  might  raise  it  to  his  mouth,  unless  he  had  rendered 
himself  worthy  by  his  services,  of  partaking  this  honor  with  his 
sovereign. 
The  localities  in  the  Peruvian  empire  where  the  plant  could 
be  cultivated,  were  then  few  in  number  ;  but  in  proportion  as  its 
territories  became  extended  by  new  conquests,  plantations  were 
multiplied,  and  the  use  of  Coca,  spreading  more  and  more,  be- 
came at  last  general ;  so  that  at  the  period  of  the  Spanish  inva- 
sion, the  Peruvians  were  accustomed  to  use  the  article  as  a  me- 
dium of  exchange  ;  and  when  money  of  gold  and  silver  entered 
into  circulation,  Coca  was  the  principal  object  of  commerce  in 
the  country. 
The  Spanish  speculators  appreciating  the  advantages  they 
might  derive  from  the  culture  of  the  plant,  were  not  slow  in  ap- 
propriating it  to  themselves  as  a  monopoly ;  and  so  great  were 
the  profits  they  obtained,  that,  the  number  of  plantations  having 
increased  beyond  measure,  there  were  soon  not  hands  enough  in 
the  valleys  to  give  them  the  requisite  care.  They  then  employed 
the  Indians  of  the  Cordillera,  enrolling  them  by  force  as  for  the 
labor  of  the  mines.  But  the  transition  from  a  cold  and  dry 
climate  to  one  both  warm  and  moist,  reacted  so  fatally  on  the 
health  of  the  new  workmen  that  the  central  government,  roused 
by  the  numerous  complaints  addressed  to  them  on  the  subject, 
Khoka,  signifying  tree  of  plant.  The  shrub  producing  the  Paraguay  Tea  (I/ex 
Para  guar ienm)  is  called  la  Yerba,  i.e.  the  plant;  and  the  same  may  be  the 
•case  with  the  Peruvian  Coca, 
.  *  In  accordance  with  usage,  I  designate  Coca  a  masticatory.  In  its  use,  it 
is  however  distinguished,  from  ordinary  masticatories,  and  especially  from 
tobacco,  by  one  peculiarity,  which  is,  that  the  saliva,  the  secretion  of  which 
it  excites,  is  never  rejected. 
f  The  sacrificing  priests  never  consulted  the  oracles  without  holding  some 
Coca  leaves  in  the  mouth,  and  throwing  some  into  the  fire  which  consumed 
the  victims. 
