“We were now (he says) in the great cacao region, which, for an extent of several hundred square miles, borders the river.  The cacao trees are low, not rising above fifteen or twenty feet, and are distinguishable from a distance by the yellowish green of their leaves, so different from aught else around them.  They are planted at intervals of about twelve feet, and, at first, are protected from the sun’s fierceness by banana trees, which, with their broad leaves, form a complete shelter.  Three years after planting the trees yield, and therefore require little attention, or, rather, receive not any.  From an idea that the sun is injurious to the berry, the tree-tops are suffered to mat together until the whole becomes dense as thatch-work.  The sun never penetrates this, and the ground below is constantly wet.  The trunk of the tree grows irregularly, without beauty, although perhaps by careful training it might be made as graceful as an apple tree.  The leaf is thin, much resembling our beech, excepting that it is smooth-edged.  The flower is very small, and the berry grows direct from the trunk or branches.  It is eight inches in length, five in diameter, and shaped much like a rounded double cone.  When ripe, it turns from light green to a deep yellow, and at that time ornaments the tree finely.  Within the berry is a white acid pulp, and embedded in this are from thirty to forty seeds, an inch in length, narrow and flat.  These 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 cafes.  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:—­