72 Voyage of the Novara. 



the fifteenth century there existed as many as 120, in which 

 slaves chiefly were employed. The Jesuit, Antonio Cordeyro, 

 who wrote his Historia Insulana Lusitana at the beginning of 

 last century, makes mention of a considerable number of sugar 

 factories, which had been erected in almost every part of 

 the south coast. On the estate of the Genoese, Juan 

 Esmeralda, half a league from Ribeiro do Taboa, there 

 were annually manufactured 20,000 arrobas* of sugar. By 

 degrees, however, the culture of the cane fell, into decay, 

 whether through disease of the plant or its cheaper production 

 in the Brazils and West Indies is not known, so that in the 

 year 1840, only two sugar factories were at work in the 

 whole island ; and even these only produce molasses and 

 rum, of which the latter, in the year 1856, amounted to 1500 

 pipes. The cultivation of the sugar-cane, however, has in- 

 creased since the vine disease has fallen so heavily on the land- 

 owner. In the summer of 1857, there were eighteen factories 

 again in activity on the island, though so late as 1855, the 

 importation of sugar, for the consumption of the island, 

 amounted to but 31,176 arrobas.t 



The greatest elevation at which, in the south of the island, 

 the sugar-cane can be grown, is, like that of the banana 

 tree, about 1000 feet above the level of the sea. In the 



* One aiToba = 32 arrateles or pounds. One pipe = 108 gallons. 



f From 04 lbs. of sugar-cane are obtained 4 galls, of juice, and from 4 galls, 

 of juice ai-e made 8 galls, of nun. The average price was 2200 reis per gal. of 

 sugar-juice. The rum of commerce (from 22 to 23 degrees) is sold at one Spanish 

 piastre tlie gallon. 



