livres tournois*. In the Spanish Colonies, chocolate is not considered an object of luxury, but of prime necessity. It is in fact, a very healthy and nutritive aliment, and is of particular assistance to travellers. The chocolate prepared at Mexico is of a superior quality, because the commerce of Vera Cruz and Acapulco, brings into New Spain the famous cocoa of Soconusco, (Xoconochco) from the coast of Guatimala; the cocoa of Gualan from the gulph of Honduras near Omoa; of Uritucu near St. Sebastian in the province of Caracas; of Capiriqual in the province of New Barcelona; and of Esmeralda in the Kingdom of Quito.

In the time of the Aztec kings, cocoa seeds were made use of as money in the great mar-, ket of Tlatelolco, as shells were in the Maldivian Islands. The cocoa of Soconusco, cultivated at the eastern extremity of the Mexican Empire, was used for chocolate, and the small seed called Tlalcacahuatl. The kinds of inferior quality were used for money. Knowing," says Cortez in his first letter to the Emperor Charles the V., "that in the province of

66

Malinaltebeque, there was gold in abundance, "I engaged the Lord Montezuma to esta"blish there à farm for your Majesty. He "went to work with so much zeal, that in

* £1,900,152 Sterling. Trans.

Two

"less than two months, sixty fanegas of maize "and ten of beans were already sown. "thousand cacap trees (cocoa) were also plan"ted, yielding a fruit similar to the almond, "which is sold after being ground. This "fruit is in such estimation, that throughout "all the country it is used as money, and "employed in purchases in the markets and "every where else." The cocoa is still made use of as a sort of inferior coin in Mexico; and as the smallest coin of the Spanish Colonies is a demi-real (un medio) equal to twelve sous, the common people find the employment of cocoa as a circulating medium, extremely convenient. A sou is represented by six grains.

The use of vanilla passed from the Aztecs to the Spaniards. The Mexican chocolate, as we have already observed, was perfumed with several aromatics, among which the pod of the vanilla occupied the first place. At this day the Spaniards deal in this precious production, for the purpose of selling it to the other European nations. The Spanish chocolate contains no vanilla; and there is even a prejudice at Mexico, that this perfume is hurtful to the health, especially to those whose nervous system is very irritable. They say quite gravely that the vanilla occasions ner

* Lorenzana, p. 91. § 26. Clavigero, I. p. 4; II. p. 209; IV. p. 207.

vous disorders (la baynilla da pasmo). A few years ago the same thing was said of the use of coffee, which begins however to spread among the natives.

When we consider the excessive price at which the vanilla has constantly been sold in Europe, we are astonished at the negligence of the inhabitants of Spanish America, who neglect the cultivation of a plant, which nature spontaneously produces between the tropics, almost wherever there is heat, shade, and much humidity. All the vanilla consumed in Europe comes from Mexico, by the way of Vera Cruz alone. It is produced on an extent of ground of a few square leagues. There is not a doubt, however, that the coast of Caracas, and even the Havannah might carry on a very considerable trade. We found in the course of our herborizations very aromatic pods of vanilla, exceedingly aromatic, and of an traordinary size in the mountains of Caripe, on the coast of Paria; in the fine valley of Bordones near Cumana; in the environs of Portocabello and Guaiguaza; in the forests of Turbaco near Carthagena; in the Province of Jaen on the banks of the river Amazons; and in Guayana at the foot of the granite rocks, which form the great cataracts of the Orinoco. The inhabitants of Xalapa, who carry on the commerce of the fine Mexican vanilla of

Misantla, were struck with the excellence of that brought by M. Boupland from the Orinoco, gathered by us in the woods which surround the Raudal de Maypure. Vanilla plants are to be found in the Island of Cuba, (Epidendrum Vanilla) on the coast of Bahia, Honda, and at Mariel. That of St. Domingo has a very long fruit, but is not very odoriferous; for frequently great humidity, while it is favourable to the vegetation, is unfavourable to the developement of the aromatic. However botanical travellers must not judge of the quality of the vanilla, from the odour which it gives out in the forests of America; for this odour is in a great measure owing to the flower, which in the deep and humid vallies of the Andes, is sometimes four or five centimetres in length*.

The author of the Philosophical History of the East and West Indiest, complains of being unable to procure satisfactory information respecting the cultivation of the vanilla in Mexico. He did not even know the districts where it was produced. Having been on the spots, I was able to obtain more accurate and detailed

* From an inch and a half, to 2 inches. Trans.

Raynal, T. II. p. 68. § 16. Thiery de Menonville, de la Culture du Nopal, p. 142. A small quantity of vanilla is also cultivated in Jamaica, in the parishes of St. Anne and St. Mary. Brown, p. 326.

information; and I consulted at Xalapa and Vera Cruz persons, who for thirty years have carried on the commerce in vanilla of Misantla, Colipa and Papantla. The following is the result of my researches as to the actual state of this interesting branch of national industry.

The

All the vanilla supplied by Mexico to Europe is produced in the two intendancies of Vera Cruz and Oaxaca. This plant principally abounds on the eastern slope of the Cordillera of Anahuac between 19° and 20° of latitude. natives early perceived that notwithstanding the abundance, the harvest was very difficult, on account of the vast extent of ground necessary to to be gone over annually, and they collected a great number of the plants into a narrower space. This operation did not demand much care; it was merely necessary to clear a little the soil, and to plant two slips of epidendrum at the foot of a tree, or to fix parts cut from the stalk to the trunk of a Liquidambar, an Ocotea or an arborescent Piper.

The slips are in general from four to five decimetres in length*. They are tied to the trees up which the new stalk must climb. Each slip yields fruit in the third year. They calculate fifty pods on each for thirty or forty years, especially if the vegetation of the vanilla is *About a foot. Trans.

on