In 1726 Daniel Defoe described a tradesman involved in the "buying of cochineal, indigo, galls, shumach, logwood, fustick, madder, and the like" as both dry-salter and salter.
It could be obtained from the domestically harvested Polish cochineal, although imported alternatives were also available: kermes from the Mediterranean Basin (hence karmazyn, the Polish name of the color) and Mexican cochineal after the discovery of the New World.
Among these riches were chests filled with jewels and pearls, gold and silver coins, ambergris, rolls of the highest-quality cloth, fine tapestries, 425 tons of pepper, 45 tons of cloves, 35 tons of cinnamon, 3 tons of mace and 3 of nutmeg, 2.5 tons of benjamin (a highly aromatic balsamic resin used for perfumes and medicines), 25 tons of cochineal and 15 tons of ebony.
Thiéry de Menonville, with the image of Jason and the Golden Fleece constantly in his mind's eye, slipped over the ramparts of Veracruz one evening and set out, in the guise of a Catalan in order to account for his Frenchified Spanish and his dress, for Oaxaca where the best cochineal was produced.
After some musket volleys from Dutch sloops the crews of the galleons also surrendered and Hein captured 11,509,524 guilders of booty in gold, silver, and other expensive trade goods, such as indigo and cochineal, without any bloodshed.
In the early summer, the larvae attack the flower buds, flowers, young fruit, and young growth of Opuntia species, while in the late summer and autumn they are predacious on cochineal mealy bugs of the Dactylopius genus, which feed on prickly pear.