86 SUGAR 



sugar-cane, and we know that the prosperity of the islands is 

 largely dependent on its successful cultivation. Yet strange 

 to say the sugar-cane is not native to these islands ; it was 

 unknown there three hundred and fifty years ago. 



Sugar is believed to have come originally from Bengal, 

 but in many other parts of India it has been cultivated from 

 the remotest ages of antiquity. From India its cultivation 

 spread westwards, and it was introduced by the Arabs into 

 Mediterranean countries, wherever the climate was hot enough. 

 In the eighth century it was introduced by them into Spain, 

 and some years after the discovery of America by Christopher 

 Columbus (1492) the cane was planted by the Spaniards in the 

 West Indies, where it flourished beyond their wildest dreams. 



To the poor natives of the islands, however, its presence 

 seemed a questionable blessing, for the Spaniards themselves 

 took no share of the toil involved in its cultivation, beyond 

 appointing overseers to superintend the labours of the natives. 

 These, unaccustomed as they were to such harsh conditions, 

 sank under their burdens, and it was to relieve them that 

 negroes were introduced as slaves to work on the plantations. 

 By this slave labour the crop was produced year after year, 

 and enormous fortunes were made by the owners of sugar 

 estates. But later on came a change. 



After fifty years or more of work and agitation, in 1833 

 we passed a law by which all slaves in British Dominions 

 were set free. From that time forward labourers on our 

 sugar plantations had to be paid wages, and, in consequence, 

 sugar cost more to produce, and, therefore, had to be sold 

 at a higher price than formerly. 



In other countries, however, slave labour remained, and 

 they could in consequence sell their sugar at a lower price 

 than the West Indian planters could. 



England, to her eternal honour, freed her slaves ; but to her 

 eternal shame she continued to buy, because it was cheap, 

 slave-grown sugar produced in foreign countries, thereby 

 aiding and abetting the practice of slavery, and at the same 



