The Hawaiian gazette., 1868-12-02
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

1.-THE HISTORY OF SUGAR AND SUGAR YIELD
ING PLANTS, Together Nth an Epitome o
ege1y notable process Of Sugar Extraction dRt
Manufacture, from the earliest times 10 Hi
present. By WILLIAM REED. London
Longman, Green 81 Co."
This is the title of work recently pub
lished, and highly recommended by the press
The subject being one of special interest tC
many of our readers, We shall publish q Sc
ries of the most important chapters, begin
ming with the first.
SUGAR, ITS ORIGIN AND EARLIEST INTRO
DUcTIoN TO VARIOUS COUNTRIES
Sugar is supposed to have been known at
very carly period to the inhabitants of India
and China; probably it was also known tc
the ancient Jews. In several parts of the
Old Testament the "sweet cane" is referred
to, and it was apparently an article of mer
chandise coming from q far country.
The sugar-cane was first made known to
the western parts of the world by the con
quests of Alexander the Great. Nearchus,
the admiral, sent down the Indus to explore
the Indian seas, found it in the East Indies
in the year 325 BIC, and describes it as q
"kind of honey" growing in canes or reeds.
From India, the sugar-cane was introduced
into Arabia, Egypt, and the western parts OF
Asia, and it is occasionally mentioned by sew
eral of the early writers. Dioscorides. about
the period of the reign of Nero, So BIC, is
said TO be the first writer who uses the word
Saccharatna, or sugar. He says: "There is a
sort Of concreted honey which is called su-
gar, found upon canes in India and Arabia
Felix; it is in conscience like salt, and is
brittle between the teeth.n
In the first century of the Christian Era,
Pliny, the natural historian, speaks of sugar
lac hAr oil saI g. -
that it is used for medicine only 1t appears
to have been employed for medicinal pur-
poses alone for many years Paul Egineta, q
physician, 625 AID, describes sugar as the
Indian Salt" and recommends that piece
be kept in the mouth during feyers. Ii was
also called Indian Salt" by the Greeks and
Romans, who obtained it in small quantities
at an enormous cost from India.
AT What date the introduction of the sugar
cane into Europe should be fixed, seems to
be doubtful point; but it was certainly
known in the Morea, Rhodes, Malta, and
Syria before the Holy Wars. There is evil
dence that it was cultivated in Egypt, around
Assouan, as early as the year 766, and that il
was first introduced into Sicily between 1860
and 1000. About the year HOS, Monkish
writer, Albertus Agnensis, says that sweet
honied reeds" which were called "zucra.n
were found in great quantities in the mead
ows about Tripoli These reeds were sucked
by the Crusaders army, who found much
nourishment In them. The same author
gives an account of the use of the sugar
canes by the inhabitants of the country.
" This plant" he says, "is cultivated with
great labor Of the husbandmen every wear.
At the time of harvest they bruise it when
ripe in mortars, and set by the juice in YES
sells till it is concreted in the form of snow,
or OF white salt. This, when scraped, they
mix with bread or occasionally with water,
and take it as pottagen Another historian,
In 1124, speaks of the juice by the pressure
OF screw-engine and concreted by fire, be-
coming sugar This is the first account
known of the use of heat or fire in preparing
sugar. About the same time sugar is men
TONED as being made in the neighborhood of
Tyre, and sent thence to the farthest parts of
the world
The sugar-cane was introduced into Spain
By the Moors soon after their settlement in
the Peninsula in the year IA. BY this active
and enterprising race the cultivation of sugar
was greatly fostered and most successfully
pursued their sugar plantations extending
over great part of the southern shores Of
Valencia and Granada.
considerable amount of sugar is manu-
featured i'll southern Spain even now. The
sugar producing tract lies between the Sierra
Nevada and the sea- Its width varies from
three to six miles; its length extends to
about eighty. The largest concentrated man
ufacture is at Almuneca. Loaves and Jumps
are not made, the result of manufacture be-
ing soft clayed sugar.
1t is moot point whether the sugar-cane
be native Of America or the West Indies.
Many eminent authors, after investigating
this subject with attention, maintain that ii
is indigenous both to the islands and the
of America. Labat, Dominican
supports this opinion with much
appearance of truth; and in particular he
appeals to the testimony of Thomas Gage,
an EDglishman, who visited New Spain in
1928. Gage enumerates sugar-canes among
the provisions with which the Charaibes of
Guadalupe supplied his ship. "But," con-
tinues Labat, "we have surer testimony, and |
such as proves beyond all contradiction that |
the sugar-cane is the natural production of |
America. For, besides the evidence of Fran
els Ximenes, who, in treatise on American |
plants, printed at Mexico, asserts that the |
sugar cane grows without cultivation, and to |
40 extraordinary size, on the banks of the |
River Plata; Jean de Lery, Protestant min
ster, who was chaplain in 1856 to the Dutch
garrison in the fort of Coligny, on the River
Janeiro, asserts that he himself found sugar
canes in great abundance in many places on
The banks of that river, in situations never
Visited by the Portuguese. Father Henne-
zen and other vOyagers bear testimony in
ike manner TO the growth of the cane near
he mouth of the Mississippi; and Jean de
Laet testifes to its spontaneous production
n the Island of St. Vincent The West India
Islands were discovered in 1892, and the con-
inent of America shortly afterwards; but
ct it not be supposed that Europe suddenly
became richer on that account in the matter
If sugar. There were no breadths of sugar
ane in the West Indies until the Spaniards
md Portuguese planted them there. We have
lready seen that the Saracens introduced the
ugar-cane to Spain, and, as already OBJ
erved, a considerable breadth of cane is
,rown and sugar extracted in Spain, even up
o the present time.
Other writers maintain that the sugar-cane
vas not known in America OF the West India
Stands till the Europeans transplanted il
hither. They assert that about the year
40 the Portuguese took it to Madeira, in
SOB to the Canary Island, and in 1910 to the
Vest Indies
However this may be, it appears by the
of Peter Martyr, in the third book
f his first decade, composed during the
econd voyage of Columbus, which COM
aenced in 1893, and ended in 1895, that the
ugarcane was known at that time in His
aniola
Without entering too infinitely into the
radual development of this important art
lie of commerce, few detached facts will
Efficiently indicate the changes which the .
rade in sugar underwent dnring the 18th,
9Th, and 18th centuries
In 1420, when the Island of Madeira was
iscoyered by the Regent Of Portugal, be