seeds are the cacao of commerce. When the berries are ripe, they are
collected into great piles near the house, are cut open with a
tresado, and the seeds, squeezed carelessly from the pulp, are
spread upon mats to dry in the sun. Before being half dried they are
loaded into canoes in bulk, and transmitted to Para. Some of these
vessels will carry four thousand arrobas, of thirty-two pounds
weight each, and, as if such a bulk of damp produce would not
sufficiently spoil itself by its own steaming during a twenty days'
voyage, the captains are in the habit of throwing upon it great
quantities of water, to prevent its loss of weight. As might be
expected, when they arrive at Para it is little more than a heap of
mould, and it is then little wonder that Para cacao is considered
the most inferior in foreign markets. Cacao is very little drunk
throughout the province, and in the city we never saw it except at
the cafés. It is a delicious drink when properly prepared, and one
soon loses relish for that nasty compound known in the States as
chocolate, whose main ingredients are damaged rice and soap fat. The
cacao trees yield two crops annually, and, excepting in harvest
time, the proprietors have nothing to do but lounge in their
hammocks. Most of these people are in debt to traders in Santarem,
who trust them to an unlimited extent, taking a lien upon their
crops. Sometimes the plantations are of vast extent, and one can
walk for miles along the river, from one to another, as freely as
through an orchard. No doubt a scientific cultivator might make the
raising of cacao very profitable, and elevate its quality to that of
Guyaquil."

Cacao shipped from Brazil to the United Kingdom, for nine years,
ending 1835:--