The chief difficulty of exporting the article appears to be the want of knowledge of the proper means of seasoning the tanks in which it is shipped. These have not as yet been well made at Manilla; and some merchants have been in the habit of getting their empty tanks from Batavia, as they are usually better made there than they are procurable in Manilla. The best mode of seasoning them appears to be, to fill them all with oil, and to place them in the sun, after being well coopered, above a large vat or other receptacle to catch all the oil which may leak out of them; and after they have stood for some time in this way, the pores of the wood get filled up by the oil, which prevents further leakage. When filled with water, as has been the practice for some time past at Manilla, on the oil being shipped, the effect, as has been found, is to increase its leakage over what the casks lose when they have not been filled with water, but left altogether alone, as water expands the wood, while oil causes it to shrink. By attention to the preparation of the casks at Colombo in Ceylon in this manner, they are able to send home oil in old beer casks, &c., which, of course, enables them to avoid a great deal of unnecessary expense. Perhaps a small quantity of boiling hot oil poured into a cask, which should then be rolled about so that the oil might wet every part of it, would cause it to shrink more speedily than by exposing it to the sun for about six weeks. I am not aware, however, of this having ever been tried. Cocoa is grown among plaintain-trees, which afford it some shade, and protect it from the excessive slow heat, which kills it. Although the growth of cocoa is at present very small, did any one take the trouble to bestow the necessary care and attention it demands, the crop might be very greatly augmented. The best is now grown in Cebu, although, from Samar, Misamis, and Batangas, the Manilla market is also supplied, but it is only saleable at about twenty-three dollars per pecul, while the Cebu grown fetches about twenty-seven dollars per pecul. Very little is exported, and the chocolate made in Manilla is nearly all consumed there. Supplies occasionally come from Guayaquil of a quality very similar to that of Cebu. All the efforts hitherto made to send cocoa to Spain, without its deteriorating in quality, by getting spotted, &c., have been unsuccessful.