Cocoa and Chocolate | Page 4

which
smelled so appetising must be good to consume. The name of the man
who discovered the use of cacao must be written in some early chapter
of the history of man, but it is blurred and unreadable: all we know is
that he was an inhabitant of the New World and probably of Central
America.

Original Home of Cacao.
The corner of the earth where the cacao tree originally grew, and still
grows wild to-day, is the country watered by the mighty Amazon and
the Orinoco. This is the very region in which Orellano, the Spanish
adventurer, said that he had truly seen El Dorado, which he described
as a City of Gold, roofed with gold, and standing by a lake with golden
sands. In reality, El Dorado was nothing but a vision, a vision that for a
hundred years fascinated all manner of dreamers and adventurers from
Sir Walter Raleigh downwards, so that many braved great hardships in
search of it, groped through the forests where the cacao tree grew, and
returned to Europe feeling they had failed. To our eyes they were not
entirely unsuccessful, for whilst they failed to find a city of gold, they
discovered the home of the golden pod.
[Illustration: OLD DRAWING OF AN AMERICAN INDIAN; AT HIS
FEET A CHOCOLATE-CUP, CHOCOLATE-POT, AND
CHOCOLATE WHISK OR "MOLINET." (From Traitez Nouveaux et
Curieux du Café, du Thé, et du Chocolate. Dufour, 1693).]

Montezuma--the First Great Patron of Chocolate.

When Columbus discovered the New World he brought back with him
to Europe many new and curious things, one of which was cacao. Some
years later, in 1519, the Spanish conquistador, Cortes, landed in
Mexico, marched into the interior and discovered to his surprise, not
the huts of savages, but a beautiful city, with palaces and museums.
This city was the capital of the Aztecs, a remarkable people, notable
alike for their ancient civilisation and their wealth. Their national drink
was chocolate, and Montezuma, their Emperor, who lived in a state of
luxurious magnificence, "took no other beverage than the chocolatl, a
potation of chocolate, flavoured with vanilla and other spices, and so
prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which
gradually dissolved in the mouth and was taken cold. This beverage if
so it could be called, was served in golden goblets, with spoons of the
same metal or tortoise-shell finely wrought. The Emperor was
exceedingly fond of it, to judge from the quantity--no less than fifty
jars or pitchers being prepared for his own daily consumption: two
thousand more were allowed for that of his household."[1] It is curious
that Montezuma took no other beverage than chocolate, especially if it
be true that the Aztecs also invented that fascinating drink, the cocktail
(xoc-tl). How long this ancient people, students of the mysteries of
culinary science, had known the art of preparing a drink from cacao, is
not known, but it is evident that the cultivation of cacao received great
attention in these parts, for if we read down the list of the tributes paid
by different cities to the Lords of Mexico, we find "20 chests of ground
chocolate, 20 bags of gold dust," again "80 loads of red chocolate, 20
lip-jewels of clear amber," and yet again "200 loads of chocolate."
[1] Prescott's Conquest of Mexico.
Another people that share with the Aztecs the honour of being the first
great cultivators of cacao are the Incas of Peru, that wonderful nation
that knew not poverty.

The Fascination of Chocolate.
That chocolate charmed the ladies of Mexico in the seventeenth century

(even as it charms the ladies of England to-day) is shown by a story
which Gage relates in his New Survey of the West Indias (1648). He
tells us that at Chiapa, southward from Mexico, the women used to
interrupt both sermon and mass by having their maids bring them a cup
of hot chocolate; and when the Bishop, after fair warning,
excommunicated them for this presumption, they changed their church.
The Bishop, he adds, was poisoned for his pains.

Cacao Beans as Money.
Cacao was used by the Aztecs not only for the preparation of a
beverage, but also as a circulating medium of exchange. For example,
one could purchase a "tolerably good slave" for 100 beans. We read
that: "Their currency consisted of transparent quills of gold dust, of bits
of tin cut in the form of a T, and of bags of cacao containing a specified
number of grains." "Blessed money," exclaims Peter Martyr, "which
exempts its possessor from avarice, since it cannot be long hoarded, nor
hidden underground!"

Derivation of Chocolate.
The word was derived from the Mexican chocolatl. The Mexicans used
to froth their chocolatl with curious whisks made