ON  THE  LEAVES  OF  THE  COCA. 
35 
was  on  the  point  of  ordering  the  destruction  en  masse  of  all  the 
plantations  of  the  country.  The  representations  of  the  parties 
interested  in  the  question,  supported  by  the  arguments  of  several 
celebrated  legal  authorities,  diverted  this  threatening  resolution, 
and  the  cultivation  of  the  Coca  remained  authorized,  on  the  con- 
dition of  only  voluntary  and  well-paid  laborers  being  employed 
upon  it. 
One  may  form  some  idea  of  the  warmth  with  which  the  go- 
vernment espoused  the  cause  of  the  Indians  in  this  affair,  from 
the  fact  of  the  viceroy  of  Peru,  Don  Francisco  de  Toledo,  having 
promulgated  no  fewer  than  seventy-one  decrees  in  their  favor. 
This  occurred  in  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century.  In 
the  following  century  the  cultivation  of  Coca  took  a  retrograde 
step,  in  consequence  of  the  diminution  of  the  Indians,  who  were 
its  chief  consumers  ;  but  by  little  and  little  the  trade  afresh  in- 
creased, so  much  so  indeed  that  at  the  present  day.it  appears  to 
.be  about  equal  in  importance  to  what  it  was  at  the  period  of  its 
greatest  prosperity,  when  in  the  mines  of  Cerro  de  Potosi  alone 
it  was  consumed  to  the  extent  of  a  million  kilogrammes  [2,204,- 
860  pounds  (Avoird.)]  annually. 
The  cultivation  of  Erytliroxylon  Coca,  as  carried  on  in  Bolivia 
in  the  present  day,  does  not  appear  to  differ  from  that  which 
prevailed  previous  to  the  conquest ;  and  the  province  of  Yungas 
de  la  Paz*  is  that  which,  since  the  Spanish  occupation,  seems  to 
have  supported  the  most  considerable  plantations.  All  the  slopes 
of  the  mountains,  below  an  elevation  of  2200  metres  [7217  feet,] 
are  literally  covered  with  them,  and  the  traveller  has  continually 
in  view  the  factories  or  haciendas  where  the  leaf  is  prepared  for 
the  purposes  of  trade. 
The  Coca  shrub  is  propagated  from  seed.  For  this  purpose 
the  seeds,  immediately  after  gathering,  are  scattered  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  light  and  frequently  watered  soil  of  a  little  nursery 
{almaciga)  where  they  come  up  generally  at  the  end  of  ten  or 
fifteen  days.  The  waterings  are  continued,  and  should  the  sun 
strike  the  young  plants  too  violently,  they  are  sheltered  with 
mats. 
*  The  word  yungas  signifies  in  the  Aymara  language,  warm  valleys.  The 
medium  temperature  is  from  18°  to  20°  [64^  to  68c  Fahr.] 
