And all my days are trances; And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy dark eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams:
In what etherial dances,
By what eternal streams.
E. A. Poe.
To the Peruvian the province of Yongas de la Paz in the North-East of Bolivia is an El Dorado, because there grows in the greatest profusion and luxuriance his favorite Coca. We may look with delight towards the island of Ceylon, and, in imagination, snuff the fragrant breezes that have passed over the cinnamon groves and coffee plantations; or direct the gaze of our children across the map of the world to South-Eastern China, and inform them that from thence our good dames receive their tea; and thence to the United States, and add that from this place their worthy sires receive the greater part of their tobacco. But the affections of the Peruvian are not so divided; they are located upon one spot, and that the province of the “warm valleys,” or the Yungas de la Paz; there dwells his patron saint, and from thence he receives the286 “keys of Paradise.”
 
At the time of the conquest the Coca was only used by the Incas, and those of the royal, or rather solar, blood. It was cultivated for the monarch and for the solemnities of their religion; none might raise it to his mouth, unless he had rendered himself worthy by his services to partake of this honour with his sovereign. The plant was looked upon as an image of divinity, and no one entered the enclosures where it was cultivated without bending the knee in adoration. The divine sacrifices made at that period were thought not to be acceptable to Heaven, unless the victims were crowned with branches of this tree. The oracles made no reply, and auguries were terrible if the priest did not chew coca at the time of consulting them. It was an unheard of sacrilege to invoke the shades of the departed great without wearing the plant in token of respect, and the Coyas and Mamas who were supposed to preside over gold and silver, rendered the mines impenetrable unless propitiated by it. In the course of time its use extended, and gradually became the companion of the whole Indian population. To this plant the native recurred for relief in his greatest distress; no matter whether want or disease oppressed him, or whether he sought the favours of Fortune or Love, he found consolation in the “divine plant.”
 
The word by which this plant is known has been referred, for its etymology, to the Aymara language, in which Khoka signifies tree or plant. It is known that the shrub producing the Matè or Paraguay tea, the favourite beverage of many South American nations, is called la Yerba, i.e.the plant. As also in Mexico tobacco was called yetl, and by the Peruvians Sagri, meaning in those languages the herb, so we, occasionally, are apt to designate the latter article the weed. Showing,287 that to those persons or nations who have appropriated such names, trivial in themselves, to the different articles of consumption, these plants were in themselves pre-eminent in the vegetable creation, as, in another instance, we have shown our appreciation of one book above all others, century after century, by the simple designation of The Book.
 
In Europe, the historians of the conquest gave the first information of the sacred plant of the Peruvians; this was, however, merely superficial. In 1569, Monardes, and in 1605 Clusius, wrote concerning it, but the leaves of the plant itself were not seen until brought over by one of the companions of La Condamine, Joseph de Jussieu, who nearly lost his life in 1749, while crossing the Cordilleras in search of this plant. He was compelled to cross the mountains, covered as they were with snow, on foot, descending by means of paths cut out like ladders, and overhanging frightful precipices. The intensity of the sun’s rays, reflected by the snow, caused him the most distressing pains in the eyes, and almost blinded him, but the success of his expedition consoled him for the misfortunes that he had endured.
 
This shrub rises to the height of from four to eight feet, the stem covered with whitish tubercles, which appear to be formed of two curved lines set face to face. The leaves are oblong, and acute at each end, from an inch and a half to two inches in length. The leaves are the only parts used, for which purpose they are collected and dried. The shrub is found wild in Peru, according to P?ppig, in the environs of Cuchero, and on the stony summit of the Cerro de San Christobal. It is cultivated extensively in the mild, but very moist climate of the Andes of Peru, at from 2,000 to 5,000 feet above the sea level; in colder situations288 it is apt to be killed, and in warmer to lose the flavour of the leaf.
 
The coca plant is propagated from seed sown in nursery beds and carefully watered. When about sixteen or eighteen inches high they are transplanted into plantations called cocals, in terraces upon the sides of the mountains. At the end of a year and a half the plant affords its first crop, and from this period to the age of forty years or more it continues to yield a supply. Instances have been noticed of coca plantations that have existed for near a century; but the greatest abundance of leaves is obtained from plants between the third and sixth years. There are four gatherings in the season; the first takes place at the period of flowering, and consists of the lower leaves only. These are larger and less finely flavoured than those afterwards collected, and are mostly consumed at once. The next and most abundant harvest takes place in March; the third and most scanty, in June or July, and the last in November. The leaves are collected similarly to those of tea. Women and children are employed for this purpose. The gatherer squats down, and holding the branch with one hand, plucks from it the leaves, one by one, with the other. These are deposited in a cloth, from which they are afterwards collected into sacks to be conveyed from the plantation. The sacks of leaves are carried to the haciendas, where they are spread upon a floor of black slate to dry in the sun. They are then packed up in bales made of banana leaf, closely pressed together, each bale containing on an average twenty-four pounds. The price realised to the cultivator is one shilling per pound.
 
Dr. Weddell endeavoured to obtain reliable information as to the quantity of coca cultivated and collected in the province of Yongas, and states,289 as a result, that the annual produce is about 400,000 bales, or 9,600,000 Spanish pounds. There is also a large cultivation, not only in other parts of Bolivia, and in Peru, but also in parts of Brazil, so that this cannot represent more than half the amount of the annual consumption of coca. It is true that P?ppig estimated fifteen millions of pounds as the quantity consumed, but this would be too small. On the other hand, Johnston estimates the consumption at thirty millions of pounds; this is, probably, erring rather on the contrary side. Of this quantity he estimates the value at one million and a half sterling, and concludes that the chewing of coca is indulged in by about ten millions of the human race. This again is rather a “long bow;” the use of coca seems to be confined to Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil—at any rate, it is confined to South America, and there is no mention of its indulgence in Chili to the South, or in the Columbian Republics to the North. It would, moreover, confer upon us somewhat of a personal favour, were some one to convince us that the male population of South America amounts to the number which the professor has estimated as that of the indulgers in coca. Our own impression is, that the entire population has only been estimated at seventeen and a quarter millions: this is, at least, the mean of four very respectable authorities. Suppose half of these to be children, and half of the residue females, and we have only an adult male population of less than four and a half millions in the southern half of the New World. Ye shades of Cocker and De Morgan! tell us how from these we can subtract ten millions who indulge in coca, and yet show a remainder, be it ever so small, of abstainers. But it has never been affirmed that coca was indulged in, except in290 Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil. The population of these three countries amount, according to the higher authorities, only to ten millions, so that every man, woman, and child, must be a coquero to reach the estimated number. Viewing this subject in another of its phases—Johnston states that the average consumption of the coquero is from one ounce to one ounce and a half per day, or, according to ordinary computation, twenty-two to thirty-three pounds per year, whereas the estimated production, which we have presumed to be too large, is, in fact, too small for the number estimated as indulging therein, as it only allows each coca masticator three pounds per annum. In all deference to so high an authority, we will venture to suggest that were the number indulging in coca limited to two millions, and the supply to twenty millions of pounds, or ten pounds annually to each person, some of these difficulties would be removed; but, out of regard for the patience of our readers, we will forbear detailing any further calculations, or the bases on which they rest.
 
At first the Spaniards strenuously opposed the use of the coca—it was anathematized by them everywhere, as tobacco was by its zealous opponents in the old world, but this opposition only seemed to produce an extension of the habit. Then the Spaniards, appreciating the advantages which might accrue to them in a monopoly of the plant, took the culture into their own hands, and by force, enrolled the Indians of the Cordilleras in their service, much to the discomfort of the latter, who suffered extremely from the change of climate. Complaints to the government being so numerous, the Viceroy, Don Francisco de Toledo, espoused the cause of the Indians, published seventy-one decrees in their favour, and the speculation was abandoned. It is said, that in291 1583 the government of Potosi derived a sum not less than ￡100,000 from the consumption of 90,000 to 100,000 baskets of this leaf. The cultivation of coca is therefore an important feature in Peruvian husbandry, and so lucrative, that a coca plantation, whose original cost and current expenses amounted to ￡500 during the first twenty months, will, at the end of ten months more, bring a clear income of ￡340.
 
The coca possesses a slightly aromatic and agreeable odour, and when chewed, dispenses a grateful fragrance, its taste is moderately bitter and astringent, and somewhat resembles green tea; it tinges the saliva of a greenish hue. Its effects on the system are stomachic and tonic, and it is said to be beneficial in preventing intermittents, which have always prevailed in this country.
 
The mode of employing coca is to mix with it in the mouth a small quantity of lime prepared from shells, much after the manner that the betel is used in the East. With this, a handful of parched corn, and a ball of arrow-root, an Indian will travel on foot a hundred leagues, trotting on ahead of a horse. On the frequented roads, we are informed, that the Indian guides have certain spots where they throw out their quids, which have accumulated into little heaps, that now serve as marks of distance; so that, instead of saying, one place is so many leagues from another, it is common to call it so many quids. Dr. Weddell states that the Bolivians are in the habit of using instead of lime with their leaf, a substance called llipta, which consists of the ashes of the Quinoa plant; in other parts the ashes of other plants are used, as on the Amazon, those of the leaves of the trumpet-tree. These alkaline ashes are made into little cakes, and sold in the markets.
 
292
 
“The Peruvian ordinarily keeps his coca in a little bag called chuspa, which he carries suspended at his side, and which he places in front whenever he intends to renew his chique, which he does at regular intervals, even when travelling. The Indian who prepares himself to chew, in the first place sets himself as perfectly at ease as circumstances permit. If he has a burden, he lays it down; he seats himself, then putting his chuspa on his knees, he draws from it, one by one, the leaves which are to constitute his fresh ‘quid.’ The attention which he gives to this operation is worthy of remark. The complaisance with which the Indian buries his hand in the leaves of a well-filled chuspa, the regret he seems to experience when the bag is nearly empty, deserve observation, for these little points prove that to the Indian the use of coca is a real source of enjoyment, and not the simple consequence of want.” We remember an elderly lady31 who was in the habit of taking snuff with the same amount of ceremony. First, she comfortably seated herself, arranged her dress, and smoothed her apron. The most important occupations always being for the time put aside, and apparently forgotten. The next operation consisted in drawing from some capacious receptacle, the entrance to which was enveloped in the folds of her outer garment, a large brown handkerchief, studded with small yellow spots, just visible, we remember it for years, and never any other; this was laid upon the lap prepared to receive it. Another step consisted in drawing out from the same mysterious receptacle, a black japanned box, circular in shape, and of the diameter of a shaving-box, but scarce an inch in thickness; this was carefully wiped with the handkerchief293 already named, and then grasped in the left hand, resting on the palm, and pressed by the thumb on one side, and the extremities of the fingers on the other. A slight, but smartly repeated rap or two on the top of the box with the knuckles of the right hand constituted the commencement of the fourth operation, which ended by taking hold of the upper portion of the box with the fingers of the right hand, in the same manner that the lower was held by the left, and gently raising it obliquely, as it were, upon a hinge, although it possessed none, and leaving it, when nearly perpendicular, in charge of the now disengaged fore-finger and thumb of the left hand, whilst the right hand was entirely free. How radiant was the smile when the yellow dust filled at least a moiety of the cavity of the opened box. How disconsolate the expression when this devout consummation was not attained. Witness next the extended fingers, and the adroit dexterity with which the finger and thumb collected its accustomed dole, and conveyed it to the olfactory organs. How carefully it was carried, first to the right nostril, and then to the left, and with two hearty inspirations imbibed. The returning fingers now closed the box, which received another wipe, and was then returned into the receptacle. The fingers first, and then the nose, underwent the same purifying process by means of the brown handkerchief. Then, although no particle of dust could anywhere be seen, the whole frontispiece, from the chin to the knees, underwent a regular dusting; the handkerchief was replaced among the folds of the dress, the apron smoothed down with both hands, a half-uttered exclamation of satisfaction, and the work which had been temporarily laid aside was now resumed, until another occasion of a like character should arise to demand its suspension.
 
294
 
But to return to coca, the effects of which are described as of the most extraordinary nature, totally distinct from those produced by any other known plant in any part of the world. The exciting principle is said to be so volatile, that leaves, after being kept for twelve months, entirely lose their power, and are good for nothing.
 
Large heaps of the freshly-dried leaves, particularly while the warm rays of the sun are upon them, diffuse a very strong smell, resembling that of hay in which there is a quantity of melilot. The natives never permit strangers to sleep near them, as they would suffer violent headaches in consequence. When kept in small portions, and after............