100,000, or nearly double the present shipments. In the early part of
the present century the captain-generalship of Caracas produced nearly
200,000 fanegas, of which about 145,000 were sent direct to Europe.
The province of Caracas then produced 150,000 fanegas; Maracaibo,
20,000; Cumana, 18,000, and New Barcelona, 5,000.

The vallies of Aragua, in the province of Caracas, those of Cariaco,
Campano, of Rio Caribe and the banks of the river Caroni, in Spanish
Guiana, produce excellent cacao in abundance.

The tree there bears fruit in four years after it has been planted,
the following year still more, and increases in fecundity until the
ninth or tenth year, when it is in full bearing.

The banks of the Magdalena, in the vicinity of Santa Martha and
Carthagena, are famed for the excellent cacao they produce. "This
tree," says Bonnycastle (Spanish America, vol. 1, p. 257), "is
indigenous, seldom exceeds the diameter of seven inches, and is
extremely beautiful when laden with its fruit, which are disposed on
short stalks over the stem and round the great branches, resembling
citrons, from their yellow color, and warty appearance. The leaves are
attenuate, stalked, drooping, about a foot long and three inches
broad, elliptic, oblong, pointed, slightly wavy, entire, and very
smooth on both sides; with one mid-rib and many transverse ones,
connected by innumerable veins. The petals of the flower are yellow,
the calyx of a light rose-color, and the flowers themselves are small
and placed on tufts on the sides of the branches, with single
foot-stalks, about an inch long. Its fruit is red, or a mixture of red
and yellow, and about three inches in diameter, with a fleshy rind
half-an-inch thick; the pulp is whitish and of the consistence of