Colombia: an out-house for preparation of food. Coloured lithograph by C. Empson, 1836.

"The tenement represented in this sketch is variously denominated, according to the purposes to which it is applied: when the building is attached to a mansion, it is a cocina, or kitchen; when only used as an occasional residence, it is termed ranchero, or hut; and if constantly occupied by a family who have no other dwelling, it is called caseta, or villager's cottage. This was our kitchen, store-room, and housekeeper's apartment. The kitchen was partially open to admit the light, and facilitate the escape of the smoke: the furniture was entirely of domestic manufacture. There were coarse dishes of earthenware in great abundance; large stones placed like tripods, for burning charcoal; flappers of palm-leaves for fanning the fire ; brooms of the fragant heliotrope for sweeping the floor; immense jars of porous clay for cooling water; bowls formed of the rind of melons; cups made of cocoa-nut shell; spoons of the bulimeos shell or orange-tree wood; basins formed of the calabash; petecas, or boxes for tobacco, and trunks of flexible bark for tomatos. A large flat stone, resting on a stump of the cactus, was provided with a polished conical piece of granite, for crushing coffee, or preparing chocolate, by bruising the cocoa-nut, and mixing it with sugar and cinnamon. " (Empson. loc. cit.)