it met with more approbation. The exaggerated praise of its admirers
raised a bitter opposition amongst the opponents of the new drink;
and the priests raised conscientious scruples against the use of so
nourishing an article of food on fast days. The quarrel lasted till
the seventeenth century, by which time cacao had become an everyday
necessity in Spain. It was first introduced into Spain in 1520; but
chocolate, on account of the monopoly of the Conquistadores, was for a
long time secretly prepared on the other side of the ocean. In 1580,
however, it was in common use in Spain, though it was so entirely
unknown in England that, in 1579, an English captain burnt a captured
cargo of it as useless. It reached Italy in 1606, and was introduced
into France by Anne of Austria. The first chocolate-house in London
was opened in 1657, and in 1700 Germany at last followed suit. [81]

[Coffee.] The history of coffee in the Philippines is very similar
to that of cacao. The plant thrives wonderfully, and its berry has
so strongly marked a flavor that the worst Manila coffee commands as
high a price as the best Java. In spite of this, however, the amount
of coffee produced in the Philippines is very insignificant, and,
until lately, scarcely deserved mention. According to the report of an
Englishman in 1828, the coffee-plant was almost unknown forty years
before, and was represented only by a few specimens in the Botanical
Gardens at Manila. It soon, however, increased and multiplied, thanks
to the moderation of a small predatory animal (paradoxurus musanga),
which only nibbled the ripe fruit, and left the hard kernels (the
coffee beans) untouched, as indigestible. The Economical Society
bestirred itself in its turn by offering rewards to encourage the
laying out of large coffee plantations. In 1837 it granted to M. de
la Gironnière a premium of $1,000, for exhibiting a coffee plantation
of sixty thousand plants, which were yielding their second harvest;