

E-text prepared by Robert Cicconetti, Louise Pryor, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)



Transcriber's note:

   Spelling is inconsistent and has been neither modernised nor
   corrected.

   In the original, footnotes are marked with lower case letters,
   numbers, or asterisks. In this transcription, the asterisks
   have been replaced by the number of the page on which the
   footnote appears.

   Contractions (such as atq; for atque) have not been expanded.




THE
Natural HISTORY
OF
CHOCOLATE:

BEING

A Distinct and Particular Account of the COCOA-TREE, its Growth and
  Culture, and the Preparation, Excellent Properties, and Medicinal
  Vertues of its Fruit.

Wherein the Errors of those who have wrote upon this Subject are
  discover'd; the Best Way of Making CHOCOLATE is explain'd; and
  several Uncommon MEDICINES drawn from it, are communicated.

_Translated from the last EDITION of the _French_,
_By_ R. BROOKES, M. D._







The SECOND EDITION.

_LONDON:_

Printed for J. ROBERTS, near the _Oxford-Arms_ in _Warwick-Lane_.
M DCC.XXX.




PREFACE


If the Merit of a Natural History depends upon the Truth of the Facts
which are brought to support it, then an unprejudiced Eye-Witness is
more proper to write it, than any other Person; and I dare even flatter
myself, that this will not be disagreeable to the Publick
notwithstanding its Resemblance to the particular Treatises of
_Colmenero_[1], _Dufour_[2], and several others who have wrote upon the
same Subject. Upon examination, so great a Difference will appear, that
no one can justly accuse me of having borrow'd any thing from these
Writers.

This small Treatise is nothing but the Substance and Result of the
Observations that I made in the _American Islands_, during the fifteen
Years which I was obliged to stay there, upon the account of his
Majesty's Service. The great Trade they drive there in _Chocolate_,
excited my Curiosity to examine more strictly than ordinary into its
Origin, Culture, Properties, and Uses. I was not a little surprized when
I every day discover'd, as to the Nature of the Plant, and the Customs
of the Country, a great Number of Facts contrary to the Ideas, and
Prejudices, for which the Writers on this Subject have given room.

For this reason, I resolved to examine every thing myself, and to
represent nothing but as it really was in Nature, to advance nothing but
what I had experienced, and even to doubt of the Experiments themselves,
till I had repeated them with the utmost Exactness. Without these
Precautions, there can be no great Dependance on the greatest Part of
the Facts, which are produced by those who write upon any Historical
Matter from Memorandums; which, from the Nature of the Subject, they
cannot fully comprehend.

As for my Reasonings upon the Nature, Vertues, and Uses of Chocolate,
perhaps they may be suspected by some People, because they relate to an
Art which I do not profess; but let that be as it will, the Facts upon
which they are founded are certain, and every one is at liberty to make
what other Inferences they like best.

As there are several Names of Plants, and Terms of Art used in those
Countries, which I have been obliged to make use of, and which it was
necessary to explain somewhat at large, that they might be rightly
understood; rather than make frequent Digressions, and interrupt the
Discourse, I have thought fit to number these Terms, and to explain them
at the End of this Treatise: the Reader must therefore look forward for
those Remarks under their particular Numbers.


FOOTNOTES:

[1] De Chocolata Inda.

[2] Du The, du Caffe, & du Chocolat.




THE TABLE.


The First PART.

  Chap. I. The Description of the _Cocao-Tree_.                 Pag. 2

  Chap. II. Of the Choice and Disposition of the Place
    to plant a Nursery.                                             10

  Chap. III. Of the Method of Planting a Nursery, and of
    its Cultivation, till the Fruit comes to Maturity.              16

  Chap. IV. Of the gathering the _Cocao-Nuts_, and of the
    Manner of making the Kernels sweat; and also