enclosing some particular fruits in a light skin, others in a solid bark. Observe the Chesnuts which are designed the food of whole nations, they are still better fortified; if they were not, the little birds would destroy them in their infant state; therefore to preserve them from such insults, nature has shagged their out-side with prickles; and if we are indulged in a modest attempt to discover the reason of such a proceeding, we may clearly perceive how it intimates to us such a precaution, as their delicate food would attract all the birds, and would deprive man of their advantages, did not their shaggy prickly cover prevent those animals from injuring them with their bills. The ear of this corn is armed with a strong thick husk, which not only defends it from heavy and unseasonable rains, but in other parts where it is cultivated, from the night colds, and from birds that would prey upon it in its tender state. Its stalk grows to the height of eight or ten feet, more or less, according to the state of the soil in which it is sown. In the states of Virginia and Maryland, the militia commonly use them instead of muskets. It was to me a truly ludicrous scene to see them exercise with these mock guns. What a happy thing would it be for the human race, if other nations would, in future, adopt their example, and make war with corn stalks only ?— One thing, however, is certain, that the Corsican Usurper could never mount the throne of France with a corn-stalk !

The manner of planting it is in parallel rows about four feet asunder, and continued regularly in the manner of a hop-ground. When it is grown up to a proper height, they cut up the weeds and loosen the earth about it, with a broad hoe, repeating it as often as the weeds make the labour necessary. When the stalk

begins to grow high, a little earth is drawn about it; and upon the sprouting of the ear, as much earth is scraped up as will make a little hill, like a hop-hill; after which no farther trouble is necessary till harvest. In the United States of America they use the plough, and plant it similar to the manner we plant and cultivate potatoes. The husks that grow about the ear, I have observed in my former Travels, the Indian women slit into narrow slips; and weave them into curious baskets of various fashions. The natives of the United States are remarkably fond of the maize, and, when ground, they make it into mush and hommony, and eat it with molasses. The young ears they boil, and eat off the corn, sometimes with butter, and sometimes with molasses; at other times they roast it; so that in the season, which is about July and August, your ears are assailed every evening in the towns, with the cries-" Hot Corn, "Roast Corn," &c. We ought, however, to offer up our gratitude to the great Author of Nature, for a nourishment the most perfect of its kind, and whose production is most easily accomplished.

We are informed by ALCEDO, that this colony produced Cacao or Cocoa, equally as good as that of the province of Caracca, which is esteemed the best by the Spaniards; and Father JOSEPH GUMILLA adds, that the traders preferred it to the latter, but says, "the "plantations, or cocoa walks, have been so neglected "since the year 1727 that there are scarely any left on "the Island." This chocolate nut tree is found in several parts of the West Indies, but nowhere so plentifully as on the coast of Caraccas. It resembles our dwarf apple-tree both in body and branches, but the leaf, which is of a deep green, is considerably broader and larger. The nuts you have seen; they are of the

colour, and about the size of an almond, and hang fifteen or eighteen together by a slender stringy film, inclosed in a pod shaped like a cucumber, but pointed at the upper end. A ripe pod is of a beautiful yellow, intermixed with crimson streaks; when dried it shrivels up and changes to a deep brown; the juice squeezed from the mucilaginous pulp contained in the husk of these nuts appears like cream, and has a very grateful taste of a cordial quality; the nut is said to be so nutritious that an ounce of them contains more real nourishment than a whole pound of beef. I know not how far this is correct, but a French physician of long practice at Cape François, in the Island of St. Domingo, informed me, that he found it a very efficacious regimen after fevers particularly in cases of debility occasioned by the climate. The tree is difficult to cultivate, because the climate it grows in is so hot that, to protect it from the great influence of the sun, they plant it in the shade of another tree, called the Mother of Cacao. The profit arising from the fruit is so considerable that we are told some of the plantations in the Caraccas yield annually 50001. Sterling. In many parts of the Spanish dominions the nuts are used by the natives as money, twelve or fourteen being esteemed equivalent to a Spanish real, or about sevenpence *.

There is another account of this tree in Howard's Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, which, as it is an article of Commerce, ought to be generally known, and the virtues of its fruit widely promulgated; more especially as it supports my plan for a White Population in this Island, and supercedes the slavery of negroes.

Beauties of Nature and Art Displayed, in a Tour through the World, 14th vol.

Cacao Nuts have a light agreeable smell, and an unctuous, bitterish, roughish (not ungrateful) taste; those of Nicaragua and Caracca are the most agreeable and are the largest; those of the French Antilles and our American Islands are the most unctuous. All sorts, thoroughly comminuted and committed to press, yield a considerable quantity of fluid oil, of the same general qualities with those obtained from other seeds and kernels; boiled in water they give out a large proportion, half the weight or more, of a sebaceous matter, which gradually concretes upon the surface as the liquor cools. For obtaining this product to the best advantage, the Faculty of Paris, had directed the nuts to be slightly roasted in an iron pan, cleared from the rind and germ, levigated on a hot stone, then diluted with a proper quantity of hot water, and kept in a warm bath till the oil rises to the top, which, when concreted, looks brown, and, by repeated liquifactions in hot water, becomes white. This vegetable serum is not liable to grow rancid by long keeping, and hence recommended as a basis for odoriferous unguents, and the compositions called Apoplectic Balsams. The principal use of these nuts is for the preparation of the dietetic liquor Chocolate, a mild unctuous fluid, supposed to be serviceable in consumptive disorders, emaciations, and an acrimonious state of the juices in the first passage.

What renders the fruit of this tree most famous is its being the principal ingredient in chocolate, a name given to a drink prepared from a kind of cake or confiture prepared from that nut, of a dusky colour, soft and oily, usually drank hot, and esteemed not only an excellent food, as being very nourishing, but also a good medicine; at least a diet for keeping up the warmth of the stomach and promoting digestion.

The Original Manner of making Chocolate is the very simple method made use of by the Indians. They only used cacao-nut, maize, and raw sugar, as expressed from the canes, with a little achiotl* or rocou *, to give it a colour; of these four drugs ground between two stones, and mixed together in a certain proportion, they make a kind of bread, which serves them equally for solid food and for drink; eating it when hungry, and steeping it in hot water when thirsty.

Method of making Chocolate now in use among the Spaniards of Mexico:-The fruit being gathered from the cacao-tree, is dried in the sun, and the kernel taken out, and roasted at the fire in an iron pan pierced full of holes; then pounded in a mortar; then ground on a marble stone with a grinder of the same matter, till it be brought to the consistence of paste, mixing with it more or less sugar as it is more or less sweet. In proportion as the paste advances, they add some long pepper, a little achiotl, and, lastly, vanilla: some add cinnamon, cloves, and anise; and those who love perfumes, musk and ambergris. The newest chocolate is esteemed the best, the drug never keeping well above two years, but usually degenerating much before that time. It is to be kept in brown paper, put up in a box, and that in another, in a dry place †.

To this account I am tempted to add another, which you will find more explicit and satisfactory: Chocolate,

* Achiotl, or Achiotte, in botany, a name given by some authors to the Uraca or Ornotto, called by other writers Orleana and Orellana. It is used chiefly in dying, but esteemed by physicians a good preservative against retention of urine. In grinding of the cacao, add the quantity of two drams to a pound, to give it a reddish colour, &c.

+ Howard's Dictionary of Arts and Sciences.