S u g a r «.
A n t i q u i t y o f .
I t s R e m o v a l s .
fevere nature. It is ufed as the baftinado, and often till death
enfues, in the moil cruel manner.
S u g a r was |originally brought from India, by the introduction
of the plant, the Sa.ccharum Officinarum. I ihall here
give fome account of this ufeful article, and its various removals
from its native place into Europe, where it was for fome ages
cultivated with great fuecefs. “ Arabia,” fays Pliny, lib. xii.
c. 8, “ produces Saccaron, but the beft is in India! It is a honey
“ collected from reeds, a fort o f white gum, brittle between
“ the teeth : the largeft pieces do not exceed the iize of a hazel
“ nut, and it is ufed only in medicine.”'
T h e cane was an article of commerce in very early times.
The prophets Ifaiah* and Jeremiah + make mention o f i t :■
“ Thou haft brought me no fweet cane,, with money,” fays the
firft : and the fecond, “ To what purpofe cometh there to
u me the fweet cane from a far country ?” Brought for the
luxury o f the juice, either extrailed by Tuition or by fome
other means. In the note on the elegant poem, the Sugar
Cane J, Doitor Grainger informs us, that at firft the raw
juice was made ufe of; they afterwards boiled it, into a fyrup,
and, in procefs of time, an inebriating ipirit was prepared
therefrom, by fermentation.
S u g a r was firft made from the reed in Egypt, from thence
the plant was carried into Sicily, which, in the twelfth century,
fupplied many parts of Europe with that commodity; and from
thence, at a period unknown, it was probably brought into Spain,
by the Moors. From Spain the reed was planted in the Canary
* Ch.,xlv. 24* f Cb. vi. 20. t Note in Book ix. 22.
iflands,
iflands, and in the Madeira, by the Portuguefe. This happened
about the year 1506. In the fame year, Ferdinand the Catholic
ordered the cane to be carried from the Canaries to
St. Domingo. From thofe iflands the art of making fugar
was introduced into the iflands of Hifpaniola, and in about
the year 1613 into the Brazils-, the reed itfelf growing
fpontaneoufly in both thofe countries. Till that time fugar
was a moil expenfive luxury, and. ufed only, as Mr. Anderfon
obferves, in feafts, and phyfical neceflities.
I s h a l l here anticipate the accounj of the ftate of fugar in Into
Spain, where in Europe it firft became ftationary, borrowing it
from the ninth volume of my Outlines of the Globe. It was,
till of late years, cultivated to great advantage in the kingdom
o f Granada, and great quantities of fugar made in the
ingenios, or mills. In the year 1723, in the city o f Mefril, were
eight hundred families: . Their principal commerce was in
fugars and fyrups, made in four fugar works, from the plantations
of canes, which reached from the fouth fide down to the
fea fide; but thefe and the other fugar works are greatly
decayed, by reafon of the exeeflive duties. This, with the
increafed demand for fugar, on the prevaling ufe of chocolate.
in the kingdom, which requires double the quantity o f that
article, has occafioned a drain of a million o f dollars out of the
country, in payment for fugar, preferves, and other confectionaries.
This is very extraordinary, confidering that Spain
is poffefled of fome o f the fineft fugar iflands, befides the power
©f manufacturing it within its home dominions *.
I n o w digrefs feveral leagues to the weft, to the Laccadive Lavc;
ifles, a confiderable group, the centre o f which is nearly op- IsLES'
* Uztariz, ii. ch.-94.
U a polite
Sp a in .
S'
IDJVB