, 1876-05-13

s9lt, and, like this substance, is brittle between
the teeth. " It may be noted, in passing. that
the word saccbarum is first used by this writer,
who also describes its supposed medicinal vir-
tues. ~ Seneca has the following remarkable
passage; "They say that honey is found
amongst the Indians in the leaves of reeds,
inasmuch as either the dew of that climate or
the Juice of the reed itself is sweet, and grows
richer. In our grasses, also, (they say tue
same virtue lies, but less evident and less
generally known, which creatures FORMED LOT
this purpose search for and collect. ~ 10
the description of Dioscorides, Piny adds;
d" it comes in fragments as larg9 as a hilbert
and is only used in medicine +" while the
poet OF the Silver Age ~ referring to tue
indians over the Gauges, sings:-
"They suck the sweetjuices of the tender reed.
Parlus Egineta. the physician, too, quotes
Archigenes as saying "The Indian salt is like
common salt 10 color and conSistenoa, but
resembles honey in taste, " and he recommends
that a piece b8 kept In the mouth during
fcversl Galen describes 1t as cleansing and
laxative, and as useful to the stomach unless
the habit is bilious. Arabian writers repeat
these particulars, and add that the fumes of
burning augar cure coryz4. They also direct
a mixture of butter and sugar in hot water for
hoarseness, which Is still a popular remedy.
AvioeDna considers surgar less detergent than
honey, and less apt than it to excite thirst
and it Is remarkable that all the southern ma.
tons of Europe employ sugared water, even
at the present day. as peculiarly adapted to
quench thirst.
Ia consequence OF its supposed medicinal
virtues the Greeks and Romans continued to
obtain gradually increasing quantities of the
Indian Salt" at an enormous cost. In the
year 766 the sugar cane itself was cultivated
around Assouan, In Egypt, whence it must
have been transpIanted into Cyprus and the
Islands of the Levant. 1t was also known in
Syria, Malta and Rhodes before the holy wars.
The monk Albertus Axnensis relates how tao
early Crusaders, being short Of provisions,
sucked the luscious canes and found nourlSh.
ment In them, and says that the people living
Ia the meadows about Acre aud Tripoli mixed
sugar with their bread, or occasionally With
water, and took it as pottage. 1t Is generally
asserted that Sicily vas the first place in
Europe where sugar was made. The cane
was brought from Cyprus to Sicily (or, perhaps
directly to the latter island by the Saraoens,)
where, according to Venetian historians, sugar
vas to be had cheaper than in Egypt as early
as the twelfth century. But the Moors intro
duoed the cultivation Of the cane into Spain
soon after their settlement in the Peninsula
90 TIA, and the sugar Plantations OF this enter
nrising people soon extended over the greater
TART Of the shores of Valentia and Grenada.
In 1920 the island Of Madeira was discovered
by Dom Henry, Regent of Portugal, who
caused the sugar cane TO be sent thither from
Sicily. From this period its cultivation spread
with such remarkable rapidIty that it Is impos-
sible to follow it in q limited space with any
degree Of detail, The success attending its
culture in Madeira and the Canaries resulted in
the sugar from these islands, to q great extent,
taking the place Of that from The East in the
supply Of European consumption. The new
World was discovered by Columbus on the
18th October 1902. Between this date and
the 18th March 1893 (when Columbus set sail
on his return voyage) the island of Hispaniola
(Hayti) was ~colonized (abOut Christmas 1892,
10 fact) and Pierre d'Etienne, one of the
o~olonists, first planted the sugar cane which
was brought thither, with other productions of
Spain and the Ca0aiies. According to Peter
Martyr, in the third Book of bis first Decade,
written during the second expedition OF Column
bus. between the years 1893 and 1895, the
cultivation of the sugar cane was then widely
spread IN this island. Very shortly after this
the sugar cane appears to have been imported
into Bra I'll either from the Canaries or from
The Coast of Angola, in Africa, where the Por-
tuguese had a sugar colony. It is also record.
ed that plants were brought to Hayti from the
Brazils and the Oanaries in 1906. In the
sixteenth century the cultivation of the sugar
AAun enooacSivolv ipfrOduoo6 into TIM pr;t;eb