The Mexicans, in preparing the chocolate paste, add some long pepper, a little annatto, and lastly vanilla; some add cinnamon, cloves and anise, and those who love perfumes, musk and ambergris.

The finest American cacao is said to be that of Soconusco, but the principal imports are from Caracas and Guayaquil, which is of a very good quality. The province of Barcelona, adjoining Caracas exports annually from 200,000 to 300,000 cwt.

The very large shipments from Guayaquil are shown by the following return. Of this quantity Spain takes the largest portion, Mexico the next, and England receives but a very small quantity.

Cacao exported from Guayaquil:—
lbs.
18336,605,786
183410,999,853
183513,800,851
183610,918,565
18378,520,121
18387,199,057
183912,169,787
184014,266,942

The exports of cacao from the port of La Guayra, has been as follows in the years ending December 31.

Fanegas.
185040,181
185147,951
185254,083

Five fanegas are equal to one English quarter. The price of cacao was, at the close of 1852, sixteen dollars the fanega.

The province of Caracas, according to Humboldt, at the end of the last century, produced annually 150,000 fanegas of cacao, of which two-thirds were exported to Spain, and the remainder locally consumed. The shipments from the port of La Guayra alone averaged 80,000 to 100,000, or nearly double the present shipments. In the early part of the present century the captain-generalship of Caracas produced nearly 200,000 fanegas, of which about 145,000 were sent direct to Europe. The province of Caracas then produced 150,000 fanegas; Maracaibo, 20,000; Cumana, 18,000, and New Barcelona, 5,000.

The vallies of Aragua, in the province of Caracas, those of Cariaco, Campano, of Rio Caribe and the banks of the river Caroni, in Spanish Guiana, produce excellent cacao in abundance.

The tree there bears fruit in four years after it has been planted, the following year still more, and increases in fecundity until the ninth or tenth year, when it is in full bearing.