CHIAPA CHOCOLATE
Gage, the Dominican, a great admirer of chocolate, a man who combated with all his energy the objections which medical men of the seventeenth century made to its use, derived its name from atte, the Mexican word for water, and the sound it makes when poured out,—choco, choco, choco, choco!
O Professor Max Müller! what do you say to this? Whatever the derivation of the name may be, the composition of the beverage is well known. Cacao, sugar, long-pepper, vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, almonds, mace, aniseed, are the main constituents, and the cake-chocolate used in Britain is believed to be made of about one-half genuine cacao, the remainder of flour or Castile soap.
We are not going any further into the mysteries of its composition, which may be ascertained from any encyclopaedia, for our business is with a circumstance in connection with its history probably known to few.
And first for our authority—the afore-mentioned Dominican. Thomas Gage was born of a good
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