After the Spanish conquest the cultivation of Coca much increased for a time, as described by Pedro de Cieza and Garcilasso de la Vega, the Inca historian (who spells its name as Cuca); the latter and Acosta exalted its virtues, yet some fanatics proposed to proscribe its use, and root up the plants, because it had been used in the ancient superstitions, and its cultivation took the Indians away from their other work. The reverence rendered by the natives to it induced the Spaniards to believe that it possessed some demoniacal influence. “The second Council of Lima, consisting of bishops from all parts of South America,” therefore “condemned the use of Coca in 1567. It was described ‘as a worthless object, fitted for the misuse and superstition of the Indians;’ and a royal decree of October 18, 1569, expressly declares that the notion entertained by the natives is an illusion of the devil.” In addition, numerous complaints were made to the home government, who espoused the cause of the Indians, the latter having been driven from the high Andes and employed by forced labour in its cultivation in the Cocals, situated on moist, warm slopes. This was a change of climate which proved fatal to their health. The Peruvian mine owners were the first to discover the importance of _chacchar_, or Coca-chewing, in assisting the Indians to go through their excessive labour, and they, together with the plantation owners, became the most earnest defenders of Coca. The consequence was that in defiance of royal and ecclesiastical ordinances (like tobacco after King James’s “Counterblast”) its use rather increased than diminished. One of the warmest advocates of the plant was the Jesuit Don Antonio Julian, who, in a work entitled “Perla de America,” laments that Coca is not introduced into Europe instead of tea and coffee. “It is,” he observes, “melancholy to reflect that the poor of Europe cannot obtain this preservative against hunger and thirst; that our working people are not supported by this strengthening plant in their long-continued labours.” Under Don Francisco de Toledo, Viceroy of Peru, the cultivation continued, conditionally on voluntary and well-paid labourers only being employed in the Cocals. At this period of its prosperity, which is much exceeded at the present day, in the mines of Cerro de Potosi alone, Dr. Weddell, the quinologist, says it was consumed to the extent of one million kilogrammes (2,204,860 lbs. Eng.) annually. But after this the culture of Coca greatly decreased, as, owing to the hardships endured by the Indians tending its growth and to other occupations, their race suffered a great depopulation. CHAPTER III. COCA IN LITERATURE.