Pedro de Cieza de Leon thus writes,[2] (A.D. 1532 to 1550):— “I have observed in all parts of the _West Indies_, where I have been, that the natives delight in holding herbs, roots, or twigs of trees in their mouths. Thus, in the territory of _Antiocha_, they use a small Herb called _Coca_, and other sorts in the province of _Arma_. In those of _Quimbaya_ and _Anzerma_, they cut twigs off a sort of tender middling trees, which are always green, wherewith they are incessantly rubbing their teeth. In most parts about _Cali_ and _Popayan_, they hold in their mouths the aforesaid small _Coca_, with a composition they keep in little calabashes, or else a sort of earth, like lime. Throughout all _Peru_, from the time they rise in the morning till they go to bed at night, they are never without this _Coca_ in their mouths. The reason some _Indians_, to whom I put the question, gave me for so doing, was, that it made them insensible of hunger, and added to their strength and vigour. Something there may be in it, yet I am rather of opinion it is only an ill habit, and fit for such people as they are. “This _Coca_ is planted on the Mountains _Andes_, from _Guamanga_, to the town of _La Plata_, where it grows up to little trees, which they cherish and nurse up carefully, that they may bear those leaves, resembling our Myrtle. They dry them in the sun, and then lay them in long narrow baskets, each of them holding about a quarter of a hundredweight. So highly was this Coca valued in Peru, in the years 1548, ’49, ’50, and ’51, that I believe no plant in the world, except Spice, could equal it; for at that time most of the plantations about _Cuzco_, _La Paz_, and _La Plata_ yielded some 80, some 60, some 40,000 pieces-of-eight a year, more or less, and all in _Coca_; and whoever had lands assigned him first reckoned how many baskets of _Coca_ they yielded. In fine, it was more esteemed than the best wheat. They carried it to sell at the mines of _Potosi_; and so many fell to planting, that it is now much fallen in the price, but will always be valued. Several _Spaniards_ got estates by buying and selling of _Coca_, or bartering for it in the Indian markets.” [Footnote 2: “The Seventeen Years’ Travels of Pedro de Cieza de Leon through the Mighty Kingdom of Peru,” chap. lxxxiii. p. 211 (English Translation, London, 1709).] Nicholas Monardes,[3] a Spanish physician of the sixteenth century, also quotes Pedro de Cieza de Leon more fully from his Commentaries “on Peruvian Things” under the heading of Betre (Betel), “History of Aromatics,” book i., with annotations:— [Footnote 3: “Simplicium Medicamentorum ex novo orbe delectorum quorum in Medicina usus est Historia.” liber iii. Antwerp, 1582 (translated from the Latin edition of Carolus Clusius). I have been unable to refer to the original “History of Aromatics” by Cieza, and corroborate the statements here made in regard to mastiche, tobacco, and oyster shells.]