und bags of cacao, they flung them overboard
in scorn. In considering this scorn of cacao, shown alike by British
buccaneers and Dutch corsairs, together with the critical air of Joseph
Acosta, we should remember that the original chocolatl of the Mexicans
consisted of a mixture of maize and cacao with hot spices like chillies,
and contained no sugar. In this condition few inhabitants of the
temperate zone could relish it. It however only needed one thing, the
addition of sugar, and the introduction of this marked the beginning of
its European popularity. The Spaniards were the first to manufacture and
drink chocolate in any quantity. To this day they serve it in the old
style--thick as porridge and pungent with spices. They endeavoured to
keep secret the method of preparation, and, without success, to retain
the manufacture as a monopoly. Chocolate was introduced into Italy by
Carletti, who praised it and spread the method of its manufacture
abroad. The new drink was introduced by monks from Spain into Germany
and France, and when in 1660 Maria Theresa, Infanta of Spain, married
Louis XIV, she made chocolate well known at the Court of France. She it
was of whom a French historian wrote that Maria Theresa had only two
passions--the king and chocolate.

Chocolate was advocated by the learned physicians of those times as a
cure for many diseases, and it was stated that Cardinal Richelieu had
been cured of general atrophy by its use.

From France the use of chocolate spread into England, where it began to
be drunk as a luxury by the aristocracy about the time of the
Commonwealth. It must have made some progress in public favour by 1673,
for in that year "a Lover of his Country" wrote in the _Harleian
Miscellany_ demanding its prohibition (along with brandy, rum, and tea)
on the ground that this imported article did no good and hindered the
consumption of English-grown barley and wheat. New things appeal to the
imaginative, and the absence of authentic knowledge concerning them
allows free play to the imagination--so it happened that in the early
days, whilst many writers vied with one another in writing glowing
panegyrics on cacao, a few thought it an evil thing. Thus, whilst it was
praised by many for its "wonderful faculty of quenching thirst,
allaying hectic heats, of nourishing and fattening the body," it was
seriously condemned by others as an inflamer of the passions!

_Chocolate Houses and Clubs._

"The