ines. [78] The pulp of the fruit is white,
tender, and of an agreeable acid taste, and contains from eighteen
to twenty-four kernels, arranged in five rows. These kernels are as
large as almonds, and, like them, consist of a couple of husks and a
small core. This is the cacao bean; which, roasted and finely ground,
produces cacao, and with the addition of sugar, and generally of
spice, makes chocolate. Till the last few years, every household
in the Philippines made its own chocolate, of nothing but cacao
and sugar. The natives who eat chocolate often add roasted rice to
it. Nowadays there is a manufactory in Manila, which makes chocolate
in the European way. The inhabitants of the eastern provinces are
very fond of adding roasted pili nuts to their chocolate. [79]

[Chocolate.] Europeans first learnt to make a drink from cacao in
Mexico, where the preparation was called chocolatl. [80] Even so far
back as the days of Cortes, who was a tremendous chocolate drinker,
the cacao-tree was extensively cultivated. The Aztecs used the beans
as money; and Montezuma used to receive part of his tribute in this
peculiar coin. It was only the wealthy among the ancient Mexicans
who ate pure cacao; the poor, on account of the value of the beans
as coins, used to mix maize and mandioca meal with them. Even in our
own day the inhabitants of Central America make use of the beans as
small coins, as they have no copper money, nor smaller silver coins
than the half-real. Both in Central America and in Orinoco there yet
are many unpenetrated forests which are almost entirely composed of
wild cacao-trees. I believe the natives gather some of their fruit,
but it is almost worthless. By itself it has much less flavor than the
cultivated kinds. Certainly it is not picked and dried at the proper
season, and it gets spoilt in its long transit through the damp woods.

[An uncertain venture.] Since the abolition of slavery, the crops in
America have been diminishing year by year, and until a short time ago,
when the French laid out several large plantations in Central America,
were of but trifling value. According to F. Engel, a flourishing
cacao plantation required less outlay and trouble, and yields more
profit than any other tropical plant; yet its harvests, which do not
yield anything for the first five or six years, are very uncertain,
owing to the numerous insects which attack the plants. In short,
cacao plantations are only suited to large c