84 THE CHINESE SUGAR CANE. 
COMMENCING WORK. 
The important morning at length arrives. The field 
gangs are told off by the mayoral, at daybreak, and, armed 
with their machétes, or cane knives (Figures 1 and 2), they 
Hig. I 
A eee 
Pig. 2.. 
start for the point decided upon, followed by a string of 
bullock carts, to bring the cane to the mill as soon as it 
is cut. Each field gang has its negro mayoral, or over- 
seer, armed with a long, gayly mounted machéte, in place 
of a sword, and provided with a stout whip to keep 
loafers in order, but which, I must say, is very little 
used. The field being reached, those provided with 
machétes (generally two thirds of the gang), attack the 
canes. Seizing them with the left hand, they draw the 
cane slightly towards them, and with one blow sever it 
close to the root, strip off its leaves in a twinkling, top 
it, and cut it into two or three lengths, as the case 
_requires, and throw it behind them, in less time than it 
has taken to describe. Women and children gather the 
scattered canes into heaps, from which they are loaded 
into the bullock carts and carried off to the mill. Arriv- 
ed there, they drive under the cane shed, and deposit 
their loads close to the cane carrier, which is an endless 
‘chain, carrying a series of slats, or boards, leading direct 
