(From _Traitez Nouveaux et Curieux du Cafe, du The, 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 specially for the purpose
(see page 6). Thomas Gage suggests that _choco, choco, choco_ is a
vocal representation of the sound made by stirring chocolate. The suffix
_atl_ means water. According to Mr. W.J. Gordon, we owe the name of
chocolate to a misprint. He states that Joseph Acosta, who wrote as
early as 1604 of chocolatl, was made by the printer to write
_chocolate_, from which the English eliminated the accent, and the
French the final letter.

[Illustration: NATIVE AMERICAN INDIANS ROASTING AND GRINDING THE BEANS,
AND MIXING THE CHOCOLATE IN A JUG WITH A WHISK. (From Ogilvy's
_America_, 1671)]



_First Cacao in Europe._

The Spanish discoverers of the New World brought home to Spain
quantities of cacao, which the curious tasted. We may conclude that they
drank the preparation cold, as Montezuma did, _hot_ chocolate being a
later invention. The new drink, eagerly sought by some, did not meet
with universal approval, and, as was natural, the most diverse opinions
existed as to the pleasantness and wholesomeness of the beverage when it
was first known. Thus Joseph Acosta (1604) wrote: "The chief use of this
cocoa is in a drincke which they call Chocholate, whereof they make
great account, foolishly and without reason; for it is loathsome to such
as are not acquainted with it, having a skumme or frothe that is very
unpleasant to taste, if they be not well conceited thereof. Yet it is a
drincke very much esteemed among the Indians, whereof they feast noble