“The Erythroxylon Coca, a plant which grows in moist and woody regions on the eastern slopes of the Andes, is highly valued by the inhabitants of Peru, Chili, and Bolivia, not only as a medicine, but also as an article of food; and serves with them as a substitute for the tea, coffee, betel, tobacco, haschisch, and opium used by other nations. Its culture, upon which, since the time of Pizarro’s conquest, much care has been bestowed, has recently increased to such a degree, that in the year 1856 the revenue of the Republic of Bolivia, from the sale of this herb, amounted to thirteen millions of francs—a very large sum if compared with the small number of consumers (800,000). According to the account of M. Pöppig and of other well known travellers, the natives use the dried leaves of the Coca-plant either by themselves or in combination with a highly-alkaline substance called _llipta_, which is prepared from roasted potatoes and the ashes of different other plants; they masticate them like the Malays and the inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago do the calcined leaves of the _Chavica Betle_. The use of this masticatory, which is considered a great delicacy, is not, however, confined to the rich; on the contrary, it is particularly among the hard-working Indians that the Coca enjoys a high reputation as a nutriment and restorative, and its use is considered absolutely essential for the endurance of fatigue and exertion, so that a labourer, in making his contract, has a view not only to wages, but to the amount of Coca to be furnished. The Inca, who lives at a height of seven to fifteen thousand feet above the level of the sea, and whose meagre fare consists principally of maize, some dried meat, and potatoes of bad quality, believes that he can sustain his strength solely by the use of Coca; the porter, who carries the mail, and accompanies the traveller over the roughest roads at the quick pace of the mule, invigorates and strengthens himself by chewing Coca; the Indian, who works half-naked in the silver and quicksilver mines, looks upon this plant as an ambrosia capable of imparting new life, and of stimulating to new exertions. It is not surprising, under such circumstances, that this article should be very much abused, and that the evil of intemperance in the use of Coca, known as coquear, should be quite as prevailing among the natives of those districts as intemperance in the use of tobacco, alcoholic liquors, and opium is among other nations. They intoxicate themselves for several weeks, hide in the deepest forests in order not to be disturbed in their enjoyment, and not rarely return home to their family suffering from delirium or decided idiocy.”