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Page 19
"Cocoa is now a commodity to be regarded in our colonies,
though at first it was the principal invitation to the peopling
of Jamaica, for those walks the Spaniards left behind them
there, when we conquered it, produced such prodigious profit
with so little trouble that Sir Thomas Modiford and several
others set up their rests to grow wealthy therein, and fell to
planting much of it, which the Spanish slaves had always
foretold would never thrive, and so it happened: for, though it
promised fair and throve finely for five or six years, yet
still at that age, when so long hopes and cares had been wasted
upon it, withered and died away by some unaccountable cause,
though they imputed it to a black worm or grub, which they
found clinging to its roots.... And did it not almost
constantly die before, it would come into perfection in fifteen
years' growth and last till thirty, thereby becoming the most
profitable tree in the world, there having been �200 sterling
made in one year of an acre of it. But the old trees, being
gone by age and few new thriving, as the Spanish negroes
foretold, little or none now is produced worthy the care and
pains in planting and expecting it. Those slaves gave a
superstitious reason for its not thriving, many religious
rites being performed at its planting by the Spaniards, which
their slaves were not permitted to see. But it is probable
that, where a nation as they removed the art of making
cochineal and curing vanilloes into their inland provinces,
which were the commodities of those islands in the Indians'
time, and forbade the opening of any mines in them for fear
some maritime nation might be invited to the conquering of
them, so they might, likewise, in their transplanting cocoa
from the Caracas and Guatemala, conceal wilfully some secret in
its planting from their slaves, lest it might teach them to set
up for themselves by being able to produce a commodity of such
excellent use for the support of man's life, with which alone
and water some persons have been necessitated to live ten weeks
together, without finding the least diminution of health or
strength."
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Grenada, B.W.I.: Samaritan Estate
(Showing trays which slide on rails; the iron covers slide over the
whole in case of wet.)]
However valuable this last quality rendered the newly-discovered
drink, its method of preparation and the unwonted spices employed
prevented its ready adoption abroad, although the Spaniards and
Portuguese took to it more kindly than some of the northern races.
Joseph Acosta, writing of Mexico and Peru, says:
"The cocoa is a fruite little less than almonds, yet more
fatte, the which being roasted hath no ill taste. It is so much
esteemed among the Indians (yea, among the Spaniards), that it
is one of the richest and the greatest traffickes of New Spain.
The chief use of this cocoa is in a drincke which they call
chocholat�, whereof they make great account, foolishly and
without reason: for it is loathsome to such as are not
acquainted with it, having a skumme or frothe that is very
unpleasant to taste, if they be not well conceited thereof. Yet
it is a drincke very much esteemed among the Indians, whereof
they feast noble men as they passe through their country. The
Spaniards, both men and women, that are accustomed to the
country, are very greedy of this chocholat�. They say they make
diverse sortes of it, some hote, some colde, and put therein
much of that chili: yea, they make paste thereof, the which
they say is good for the stomacke, and against the catarre."
But this was not the only medicinal property attributed to "the food
of the gods," for the Aztecs used to prescribe as a cure for
diarrhoea and dysentery a potion prepared of cacao mixed with the
ground bones of their giant ancestors, exhumed in the mountains. Such
a very active principle was sure to make its enemies too, and several
amusing attacks have survived to witness their own refutation. It was
regarded by some as a violent inflamer of the passions, which should
be prohibited to the monks; for, as one writer puts it, "if such an
interdiction had existed, the scandal with which that holy order has
been branded might have proved groundless." As late as 1712, after its
use had become established in this country, the mentor of the
_Spectator_ writes: "I shall also advise my fair readers to be in a
particular manner careful how they meddle with romances, chocolates,
novels, and the like inflamers, which I look upon as very dangerous to
be made use of during this great carnival" (the month of May).
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