ernels or berries. When fully developed, the pericarp or seed-vessel
is a pod, which grows not only from the branches, but the stem of the
tree, and is from six to seven inches in length, and shaped like a
cucumber. Its color is green when growing, like that of the leaf; but
when ripe, is yellow, smooth, clear, and thin. When arrived at its
full growth, and before it is ripe, it is gathered and eaten like any
other fruit, the taste being subacid. If allowed to ripen, the kernels
become hard; and, when taken out of the seed-vessel, are preserved in
skins, or, more frequently, laid on the vijahua leaves, and placed in
the air to dry. When fully dry, they are put in leathern bags, and
sent to market: this is the Spanish mode of taking in the crop. A
somewhat different method is followed in Trinidad and Jamaica (in the
latter island it can scarcely be said to be cultivated now); but it
differs in no essential degree from the principle of gradual
exsiccation, and protection from moisture.

_Chocolate_, properly so called, and so prized both in the Spanish
continent and in the West Indies, never reaches Great Britain except
as a contraband article, being, like nearly all colonial manufactured
articles, prohibited by the Custom-house laws. What is generally drank
under that name is simply the cacao boiled in milk, gruel, or even
water, and is as much like the Spanish or West India chocolate as
vinegar is to Burgundy. It is, without any exception, of all domestic
drinks the most alimentary; and the Spaniards esteem it so necessary
to the health and support of the body, that it is considered the
severest punishment to withhold it, even from criminals; nay, to be
unable to procure chocolate, is deemed the greatest misfortune in
life! Yet, notwithstanding this estimation in which it is held, the
quantity made in the neighbourhood of Carthagena is insufficient for
the demands of the population, and is so highly priced that none is
exported but as presents! The manner in which the Spaniards first
manufactured this veritable Theobroma--this food for gods (from
_Theos_, God, and _broma_, food)--was very simple. They employed the
cacao, maize, Indian corn (_Zea Mays_), and raw cane-juice, and
coloured it with arnatto, which they called _achiotti_ or _rocou_, but
which was known in Europe at that time by the name of _Terra
Orellana_. These four substances were levigated between two stones,
and afterwards, in certain proportions, mixed t