CHAPTER XIV. COCA-CULTIVATION. THE Coca-leaf is the great source of comfort and enjoyment to the Peruvian Indian; it is to him what betel is to the Hindoo, kava to the South Sea Islander, and tobacco to the rest of mankind; but its use produces invigorating effects which are not possessed by the other stimulants. From the most ancient times the Peruvians have used this beloved leaf, and they still look upon it with feelings of superstitious veneration. In the time of the Incas it was sacrificed to the Sun, the Huillac Umu or high priest chewing the leaf during the ceremony; and, before the arrival of the Spaniards, it was used, as the cacao in Mexico, instead of money. After the conquest, although its virtues were extolled by the Inca Garcilasso de la Vega,' and by the Jesuit Acosta, some fanatics proposed to proscribe its use, and to root up the plants, because they had been used in the ancient superstitions, and because its cultivation took away the Indians from other work. The second council of Lima, consisting of bishops from all parts of South America, condemned the use of coca in 1569 because it was a "useless and pernicious leaf, and on account of the belief stated to be entertained by the Indians that the habit of chewing coca gave them strength, which is an illusion of the devil."3 In speaking of the strength the coca gives to those who G. de la Vega, Com. Real. i. lib. viii. cap. 15. Acosta, lib. iv. cap. 22, who cannot agree with those who believe its re puted virtues to be the effects of imagination. 3 Cedula, 18 Oct. 1569. chew it, Garcilasso de la Vega relates the following anecdote. "I remember a story which I heard in my native land of Peru, of a gentleman of rank and honour, named Rodrigo Pantoja, who, travelling from Cuzco to Rimac (Lima), met a poor Spaniard (for there are poor people there as well as here) who was going on foot, with a little girl aged two years on his back. The man was known to Pantoja, and they thus conversed. Why do you go laden thus?' said the knight. The poor man answered that he was unable to hire an Indian to carry the child, and for that reason he carried it himself. While he spoke Pantoja looked in his mouth, and saw that it was full of coca; and, as the Spaniards abominate all that the Indians eat and drink, as though it savoured of idolatry, particularly the chewing of coca, which seems to them a low and vile habit, he said, 'It may be as you say, but why do you eat coca like an Indian, a thing so hateful to Spaniards?' The man answered, 'In truth, my lord, I detest it as much as any one, but necessity obliges me to imitate the Indians, and keep coca in my mouth; for I would have you to know that, if I did not do so, I could not carry this burden; while the coca gives me sufficient strength to endure the fatigue.' Pantoja was astonished to hear this, and told the story wherever he went; and from that time credit was giving to the Indians for using coca from necessity, and not from vicious gluttony." The Spanish Government interfered with the cultivation from more worthy motives, and mitas of Indians, for the purpose of collecting coca-leaves, were forbidden in 1569, owing to the reputed unhealthiness of the valleys. Finally Don Francisco Toledo, viceroy of Peru, permitted the cultivation with voluntary labour, on condition that the Indians were well paid, and that care was taken of their healths. This most prolific of Peruvian legislators issued no less than + Solorzano, Polit. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 10, quoted by Unanue. seventy ordenanzas on this subject alone, between the years 1570 and 1574. Coca has always been one of the most valuable articles of commerce in Peru, and it is used by about 8,000,000 of the human race. The coca-plant (Erythoxylon coca)5 is cultivated between 5000 and 6000 feet above the level of the sea, in the warm valleys of the eastern slopes of the Andes, where almost the only variation of climate is from wet to dry, where frost is unknown, and where it rains more or less every month in the year. It is a shrub from four to six feet high, with lichens, called lacco in Quichua, usually growing on the older trunks. The branches are straight and alternate; leaves alternate and entire, in form and size like tea-leaves; flowers solitary with a small yellowish-white corolla in five petals, ten filaments the length of the corolla, anthers heart-shaped, and three pistils. Sowing is commenced in December and January, when the rains begin, which continue until April. The seeds are spread on the surface of the soil in a small nursery or raising-ground called almaciga, over which there is generally a thatch roof (huasichi). At the end of about a fortnight they come up; the young plants being continually watered, and protected from the sun by the huasichi. The following year they are transplanted to a soil specially prepared by thorough weeding, and breaking up the clods very fine by hand; often in terraces only affording room for a single row of plants, up the sides of the mountains, which are kept up by small stone walls. The plants are generally placed in square holes called aspi, a foot deep, with stones on the sides to prevent the earth from falling in. Three or four are planted in each hole, and 5 J. de Jussieu was the first botanist who sent specimens of coca to Europe, in 1750. Dr. Weddell suggests that the word comes from the Aymara khoka, a tree, i. e. the tree par excellence, like yerba, the plant of Paraguay. The Inca historian Garcilasso, however, spells the word cuca. grow up together. In Caravaya and Bolivia the soil in which the coca grows is composed of a blackish clay, formed from the decomposition of the schists, which form the principal geological features of the mountains. On level ground the plants are placed in furrows called uachos, separated by little walls of earth umachas, at the foot of each of which a row of plants is placed; but this is a modern innovation, the terrace cultivation being the most ancient. At the end of eighteen months the plants yield their first harvest, and continue to yield for upwards of forty years. The first harvest is called quita calzon, and the leaves are then picked very carefully, one by one, to avoid disturbing the roots of the young tender plants. The following harvests are called mitta ("time" or "season"), and take place three times and even four times in the year. The most abundant harvest takes place in March, immediately after the rains; the worst at the end of June, called the mitta de San Juan. The third, called mitta de Santos, is in October or November. With plenty of watering, forty days suffice to cover the plants with leaves afresh. It is necessary to weed the ground very carefully, especially while the plants are young, and the harvest is gathered by women and children. The green leaves, called matu, are deposited in a piece of cloth which each picker carries, and are then spread out in the drying-yard, called matu-cancha, and carefully dried in the sun. The dried leaf is called coca. The drying-yard is formed of slate-flags, called pizarra; and, when the leaves are thoroughly dry, they are sewn up in cestos or sacks made of banana-leaves, of twenty pounds each, strengthened by an exterior covering of bayeta or cloth. They are also packed in tambores of fifty pounds each, pressed tightly down. Dr. 6 The cesto of coca sells at 8 dollars in Sandia. In Huanuco it is 5 dollars the arroba of 25 lbs. Poeppig reckoned the profits of a coca-farm to be forty-five per cent. The harvest is greatest in a hot moist situation; but the leaf generally considered the best flavoured by consumers, grows in drier parts, on the sides of hills. The greatest care is required in the drying; for too much sun causes the leaves to dry up and lose their flavour, while, if packed up moist, they become fetid. They are generally exposed to the sun in thin layers. Acosta says that in his time the trade in coca at Potosi was worth 500,000 dollars annually; and that in 1583 the Indians consumed 100,000 cestos of coca, worth 2 dollars each in Cuzco, and 4 dollars in Potosi. In 1591' an excise of 5 per cent. was imposed on coca; and in the years 1746 and 1750 this duty yielded 800 and 500 dollars respectively, from Caravaya alone. Between 1785 and 1795 the coca traffic was calculated at 1,207,430 dollars in the Peruvian viceroyalty; and, including that of Buenos Ayres, 2,641,487 dollars. In the district of Sandia, in Caravaya, there are two kinds of coca, that of Ypara and that of Hatun-yunca, which has a larger leaf. The yield is 45,000 cestos a year. In the yungus of La Paz, in Bolivia, the yield is about 400,000 cestos. The coca-trade is a government monopoly in Bolivia, the state reserving the right of purchasing from the grower, and reselling to the consumer. This right is generally farmed out to the highest bidder. In 1850 the coca-duty yielded 200,000 dollars to the Bolivian revenue. 8 The approximate annual produce of coca in Peru is about 15,000,000 lbs., the average yield being about 800 lbs. an More than 10,000,000 lbs. are produced annually in Bolivia, according to Dr. Booth of La Paz; so that the acre. 7 Report of the Prince of Esquilache. Poeppig calculates the yield of Huanuco at 500,000 lbs. |