Coca and Cocaine

by William Martindale

“The watering of the Coca plantations greatly increases their productiveness. Forty days are then sufficient, I have been told, for naked shrubs to become covered with new leaves; but these leaves are not equal in their properties to those produced without irrigation; their colour also is less deep, and they frequently blacken in drying. Artificial watering is needful, moreover, only during the dry season, and the cultivators who have the means of employing it realise nearly always four, and sometimes even five, crops in the year. This is particularly the case in the districts of Irupana, where there are facilities for obtaining water that do not exist elsewhere.

“I have examined the soil in which Coca is cultivated, and almost everywhere have found it composed of sandy, argillaceous earth, softish to the touch; it originates in the decay of the schists which form the chief geological feature of these mountains. The soil of the Coca plantation is, in one word, formed of what we call primitive or normal earth, but it is naturally mixed with an abundance of angular fragments of unaltered schist which, if not removed, would interfere with the growth of the roots. This is therefore done by the cultivator while preparing the furrows for the reception of the shrubs, the stones being employed for the little walls before spoken of; indeed, these little walls, or umachas, are often formed entirely of the stones thus met with. I need hardly say that it is to the greater or less perfection to which this preliminary operation is carried, and to the labours incurred subsequently in stirring up the soil from time to time, and in keeping it free from weeds, that the haciendero owes the abundance of his crops. The last operation I have mentioned is especially needful while the shrubs are young. The weeding, which is regularly performed after each crop has been collected, is called mazi.

“The collection of the leaves of the Erythroxylon is performed much in the same way as that of tea. It is, in general, women and children that are employed upon this operation, which is all the easier from the presence of the little walls separating the furrows of the plantation. The gatherer squats down, and, holding with one hand the branch she wishes to pluck, removes with the other all the leaves, often one by one. The leaves are deposited in a cloth, which each Indian carries with her, and afterwards collected in sacks or some other recipients to be carried from the plantation.

“Nothing is now easier than the preparation of the Coca. The leaves are carried from the plantation to the house, or casa de hacienda, where they are spread out in the sun, in little courts constructed especially for the purpose, and the floors of which are formed of slabs of black schist (pizara); if the weather is fine, they are left there until completely dry, which takes place without their shape becoming altered. They are then packed with strong pressure into bags made of the sheath of the banana leaf, strengthened with an outer covering of coarse woollen canvas. The bales thus formed contain, on an average, twenty-four pounds of leaves, and go by the name of cestos. The tambor is a bale of double the size of the cesto, whose price at La Paz varies from 4½ to 6 piastres” (18s. to 24s.).[15]

“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 acullicar, i.e. 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, as I shall have occasion to repeat further on, that to the Indian the use of Coca is a real source of enjoyment and not the simple consequence of want.

“As the Indian deposits the leaves in his mouth he wets them by turning them over with the tongue, forming them into a sort of little ball, which he places against the cheek as a sailor does his tobacco. This done, he takes from his chuspa a little box which generally accompanies the Coca, and removes from it a very small quantity of an alkaline paste, called llipta, which is the ordinary condiment to the leaf. The llipta which the Peruvians, and especially the Bolivians, are in the habit of using, is made of the ashes of the Quinoa (Chenopodium Quinoa) or of those of the common Cereus. The ashes of several other plants, however, are used for the same purpose, they are often sold in the markets in the form of little flat cakes. In some parts of America lime is substituted for them.

“From the constancy with which the Indians employ an alkali with the Coca, one might presume that it favours the solution of the active matter of the leaf; but on this head we know nothing positive. Others have said that the llipta was intended to neutralise the acid of the leaf; but it is easy to convince oneself that the Coca contains no principle of this nature in appreciable quantity.

“The leaves of the Erythroxylon approach in shape and size those of tea, but they have never the dentated margin; on the under side, a prominent and curved line on each side of the midrib serves to distinguish them from most other leaves known. When dried well, they are of a very pale green, deeper on the upper than on the under side; their odour is then agreeable, and even analogous to that of tea. When, on the contrary, the Coca has been dried less perfectly, this agreeable aroma is hardly perceptible, or rather is overpowered by a pungent odour, sui generis, recalling the abominable smell exhaled by the breath of the masticators of Coca, which is, in fact, this odour in a concentrated state. This bouquet, if I may so term it, is very perceptible on tasting the Coca, and serves, according to its abundance, in indicating its quality. On the other hand, in a concentrated infusion, and still more so in a decoction, it is a bitterness mixed with something styptic that more particularly strikes the palate.

“As to the immediate physiological effects of this infusion, frequently-repeated trials enable me to assert that they are in general limited to a slight excitement, succeeded in most cases by some degree of sleeplessness.

“The questions relative to the effects resulting from the use of Coca are less easily determined; we may begin, nevertheless, by stating that an immense majority of authors, both ancient and modern, who have written on the subject, have agreed in attributing to the Coca-leaf thus employed, virtues whose well-ascertained existence would warrant it being placed among the more beneficial products of the vegetable kingdom; and such would doubtless remain the admitted opinion, had not a modern traveller (Pöppig) completely shaken it by supporting an opposite view, that is to say, in attributing to Coca very pernicious effects, comparable, in fact, to those brought about by the excessive use of opium.