soon, however,
began to fail. They were renewed; but whether it might be from the
want of attention, or of information in the new colonists, the plants
never succeeded under their management; so that, disgusted with the
troublesome and unprofitable cultivation, they soon substituted
indigo." Yet forests of cacao trees grow wild in Guiana, the Isthmus
of Darien, Yucatan, Honduras, Guatemala, Chiapa, and Nicaragua; while
in Cuba, St. Domingo, and Jamaica, it was once an indigenous plant.

The following were the expenses of a cacao plantation in Jamaica
during the early period of British possession:--

L stg
Letters patent of five hundred acres of land 10
Six negroes 120
Four white persons, their passage and maintenance 80
Maintenance of six slaves for six months 18
Working implements 5
----
L233

In four to five years the produce of one hundred acres would usually
sell for L4,240 sterling. This was a monstrous and most unlooked-for
return; but then, what was it to the profits of sugar, which, owing to
the prodigious increase of the slave trade, was fast coming into
active operation, and eating up and destroying all other sources and
springs of industry? How dearly have the West Indians paid for the
short-lived affluence which the sugar cane conferred!

Blome, in his brief account of Jamaica, published in 1672, speaks of
cacao as being one of the chief articles of export. He states that
there were sixty cacao-walks or plantations, and many more planting;
but, for many years, no cacao plantation has existed in Jamaica, all
the chocolate used being made from imported berries, or the chance
growth of a munificent climate and redundant soil! A few scattered
trees, Edwards says (and as I my self know), here and there, are all
that remain of those flourishing and beautiful groves, which were once
the pride and boast of the country. They have withered with the indigo
manufactory, under the heavy hand of ministerial exaction. _The excise
on cacao, when made into cakes, rose to no less than L12 12s. per
cwt., exclusive of 11s. 111/2d. paid at the Custom-house, amounting
together to upwards of L840 per cent. on its marketable value!_

The mode of cultivating the cac