At the discovery of America, the natives of the narrower portion of the continent bordering on the Caribbean Sea, were found in possession of two luxuries which have been everywhere recognized as worthy of extensive cultivation; namely, tobacco and chocolate. The former of these has made its way into climates totally unlike that of its early home; the other of these plants, since it cannot bear the low temperature occasionally experienced in our subtropics, is more restricted in its range. The chocolate-plant is confined to the warmer regions of the globe, where it finds the congenial climatic conditions which it enjoyed and still enjoys in its earliest home in America. The first references to the chocolate-plant and its products are found in the accounts of the explorers and conquerors who followed Columbus. These first descriptions of this singular tree, of its fruits and seeds, of its uses and the methods of cultivation, are remarkably accurate in all essential particulars. [Illustration] One of the earliest, if not indeed the very earliest, delineations of the chocolate-tree is in a rare volume by Bontekoe. The engraving, which is here reproduced with fidelity, represents the chocolate-tree with its comparatively large fruits or pods borne on the main stem. This might be thought at first to be an error of the artist, but it is in fact a rude expression of one of the most remarkable peculiarities of the plant. As will be shown presently, when a fuller description of the plant is given, the fruits are, as a rule, formed on the older parts. Another interesting feature is shown in the engraving:[1] the chocolate-tree is sheltered by a larger tree of some other kind near it. We shall see shortly, that this practice of planting a sheltering tree to shade the young chocolate plants for a time, is still kept up wherever the plant is successfully cultivated. It is certainly interesting that this point in cultivation, which might easily have been thought to be accidental or local, was delineated more than three centuries ago. By the natives of tropical America, the seeds of the chocolate-plant, which will be more particularly described in a later chapter, were first roasted and then rudely ground. For this purpose they employed the flat or curved surface of the sort of stone used by them to grind their maize, or Indian corn. In the engraving, one of the most simple mills or flat mortars is seen with its roller. The roller was merely a short thick stone of a cylindrical shape, which could be used with one or both hands somewhat after the manner of the common rolling-pin everywhere used in kitchens. By this simple appliance, the crushed seeds were mixed with various ingredients, among which may be mentioned spices of different kinds. A modification of this was later used in Spain. See page 15.