Weekly drawing: week 4

 William Dampier and the chocolate drinking pirates 

Anchored off the Pearl islands the buccaneers would raid the mainland "to get coppers for each ship, having now so many men, our pots would not boil victuals fast enough, though they kept them boiling all day" They also plundered the sugar works to get extra sugar to cook up with their cocoa.

In 1587 cocoa drinking was a popular drink in the Spanish courts. English privateers and pirates captured a Spanish ship loaded with cocoa beans they dimissed the cargo as useless. However by 1650 cocoa drinking was becoming trendy with Londoners wanting to taste flavours of the New World.

This drawing was inspired after reading:
A pirate of exquiste mind: explorer, naturalist and buccaneer: The life of William Dampier
by Diana and Michael Preston