The Natural History of Chocolate Part 1

The Natural History of Chocolate.

by D. de Quelus.

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 Natural HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE.

Of the Division of this Treatise.

I Shall divide this Treatise on Chocolate into three Parts: In the _First_, after I have given a Description of the _Cocao Tree_, I shall explain how it is cultivated, and give an Account how its Fruit is prepared: In the _Second_, I shall speak of the Properties of _Chocolate_; and in the _Third_, of its Uses.

PART I.

CHAP. I.

The Description of the _Cocao-Tree_.

The _Cocao-Tree_ is moderately tall and thick, and either thrives, or not, according to the Quality of the Soil wherein it grows: Upon the Coast of _Caraqua_, for instance, it grows considerably larger than in the Islands belonging to the _French_.

Its _Wood_ is porous, and very light; the _Bark_ is pretty firm, and of the Colour of _Cinnamon_, more or less dark, according to the Age of the Tree. The _Leaves_ are about nine Inches long, and four in breadth, where they are broadest; for they grow less towards the two Extremities, where they terminate in a point: their Colour is a little darkish, but more bright above than underneath; they are joined to Stalks three Inches long, and the tenth part of an Inch broad. This Stalk, as it enters the Leaf, makes a strait Rib, a little raised along the Middle, which grows proportionably less the nearer it comes to the End. From each side of this Rib proceed thirteen or fourteen crooked Threads alternately.

As these Leaves only fall off successively, and in proportion as others grow again, this Tree never appears naked: It is always flourishing, but more especially so towards the two _Solstices_, than in the other Seasons.

The _Blossoms_, which are regular and like a Rose, but very small, and without smell, proceed from the Places from which the old Leaves fall, as it were in Bunches. A large Quant.i.ty of these fall off, for hardly Ten of a Thousand come to good, insomuch that the Earth underneath seems cover'd over with them.

Every _Blossom_ is joined to the Tree by a slender Stalk half an Inch or a little more in length; when it is yet in the Bud, it is one Fifth of an Inch broad, and about one fourth or a little more in length: when it was least, in proportion to the Tree and the Fruit, the more strange it appeared to me, and more worthy of Attention[a].

When the Buds begin to blow, one may consider the _Calix_, the _Foliage_, and the Heart of the Blossom. The _Calix_ is formed of the Cover of the Bud, divided into five Parts, or Leaves, of a very pale flesh-colour. These are succeeded by the five true Leaves of the same Colour, which fill up the empty s.p.a.ces or Part.i.tions of the _Calix_.

These Leaves have two Parts, the undermost of which is like an oblong Cup, striped with Purple; on the inside, it bends towards the Center by the help of a _Stamen_, which serves to fasten it; from this proceeds outwardly, the other Part of the Leaf, which seems to be separate from it, and is formed like the End of a Pike.

The Heart is composed of five Threads and five _Stamina_, with the _Pistilla_ in the middle. The Threads are strait, and of a purple Colour, and placed over-against the Intervals of the Leaves. The _Stamina_ are white, and bend outwardly with a kind of a b.u.t.ton on the top, which insinuates itself into the middle of each Leaf to sustain itself.

When one looks at these small Objects through a Microscope, one is ready to say, That the Point of the Threads is like Silver, and that the _Stamina_ are Chrystal; as well as the _Pistilla_, which Nature seems to have placed in the Center, either to be the _Primitiae_ of the young Fruit, or to serve to defend it, if it be true that this Embryo unfolds itself, and is produced in no other place but the Base.

For want of observing these small Parts, as well as the Bulk of the Blossom, _F. Plumier_ had no distinct Knowledge of them, nor has he exactly design'd them, any more than _Mons. Tournefort_, who has done them after his Draught[b].

The _Cocao-Tree_ almost all the Year bears Fruit of all Ages, which ripen successively, but never grow on the end of little Branches, as our Fruits in _Europe_ do, but along the Trunk and the chief Boughs, which is not rare in these Countries, where several Trees do the like; such as the [1]_Cocoeiers_, the [2]_Apricots_ of St. _Domingo_, the [3]_Calebashes_, the [4]_Papaws_, &c.

Such an unusual Appearance would seem strange in the Eyes of _Europeans_, who had never seen any thing of that kind; but if one examines the Matter a little, the philosophical Reason of this Disposition is very obvious. One may easily apprehend, that if Nature had placed such bulky Fruit at the Ends of the Branches, their great Weight must necessarily break them, and the Fruit would fall before it came to Maturity.

The Fruit of the _Cocao-Tree_ is contained in a Husk or Sh.e.l.l, which from an exceeding small Beginning, attains, in the s.p.a.ce of four Months, to the Bigness and Shape of a Cuc.u.mber; the lower End is sharp and furrow'd length-ways like a Melon[c].

This Sh.e.l.l in the first Months is either red or white, or a Mixture of red and yellow: This Variety of Colours makes three sorts of _Cocao-Trees_, which have nothing else to distinguish them but this, which I do not think sufficient to make in reality three different kinds of _Cocao-Nuts_[d].

The First is of a dark vinous Red, chiefly on the sides, which becomes more bright and pale as the Fruit ripens.

The Second, which is the White, or rather is at first of so pale a Green, that it may be mistaken for White; by little and little it a.s.sumes a Citron Colour, which still growing deeper and deeper, at length becomes entirely yellow.

The Third, which is Red and Yellow mix'd together, unites the Properties of the other two; for as they grow ripe, the Red becomes pale, and the Yellow grows more deep.

I have observed that the white Sh.e.l.ls are thicker and shorter than the other, especially on the side towards the Tree, and that these sorts of Trees commonly bear most.

If one cleaves one of these Sh.e.l.ls length-ways, it will appear almost half an Inch thick, and its Capacity full of Chocolate Kernels; the Intervals of which, before they are ripe, are fill'd with a hard white Substance, which at length turns into a Mucilage of a very grateful Acidity: For this reason, it is common for People to take some of the Kernels with their Covers, and hold them in their Mouths, which is mighty refreshing, and proper to quench Thirst. But they take heed of biting them, because the Films of the Kernels are extreamly bitter.

When one nicely examines the inward Structure of these Sh.e.l.ls, and anatomizes, as it were, all their Parts; one shall find that the Fibres of the Stalk of the Fruit pa.s.sing through the Sh.e.l.l, are divided into five Branches; that each of these Branches is subdivided into several Filaments, every one of which terminates at the larger End of these Kernels, and all together resemble a Bunch of Grapes, containing from twenty to thirty-five single ones, or more, ranged and placed in an admirable Order.

I cannot help observing here, what Inconsistency there is in the Accounts concerning the Number of Kernels in each Sh.e.l.l. [e]_Dampier_, for instance, says there is commonly near a Hundred; other Moderns[f]

60, 70 or 80, ranged like the Seeds of a Pomgranate. [g]_Thomas Gage_, 30 or 40; _Colmenero_[h] 10 or 12; and _Oexmelin_[i] 10 or 12, to 14.

I can affirm, after a thousand Tryals, that I never found more nor less than twenty-five. Perhaps if one was to seek out the largest Sh.e.l.ls in the most fruitful Soil, and growing on the most flourishing Trees, one might find forty Kernels; but as it is not likely one should ever meet with more, so, on the other hand, it is not probable one should ever find less than fifteen, except they are abortive, or the Fruit of a Tree worn out with Age in a barren Soil, or without Culture.

When one takes off the Film that covers one of the Kernels, the Substance of it appears; which is tender, smooth, and inclining to a violet Colour, and is seemingly divided into several Lobes, tho' in reality they are but two; but very irregular, and difficult to be disengaged from each other, which we shall explain more clearly in speaking of its Vegetation. [k]_Oexmelin_ and several others have imagined, that a _Cocao_-Kernel was composed of five or six Parts sticking fast together; Father _Plumier_ himself fell into this Error, and has led others into it[l]. If the Kernel be cut in two length-ways, one finds at the Extremity of the great end, a kind of a longish [m]Grain, one fifth of an Inch long, and one fourth Part as broad, which is the _Germ_, or first Rudiments of the Plant; but in _European_ Kernels this Part is placed at the other end.

One may even see in _France_ this Irregularity of the Lobes, and also the _Germ_ in the Kernels that are roasted and cleaned to make Chocolate.