258 



A. D. 877. 



the conveyance by the canal, nearly in the fame ftate that it is in the 

 prefent age *. 



878 — Syracufe, formerly great in commerce and naval power, had 

 fuffered a gradual, but continual, decline from the time when it fell 

 under the Roman dominion till now, that it was contraded to its origi- 

 nal limits in the fmall ifland of Ortygia, and dwindled into a village. 

 Neverthelefs, its infular iituation enabled it to refill the power of the 

 Saracens, who had begun the conqueft of Sicily in the year 827, for 

 above half a century, when at laft the redudlion of that obflinate little 

 city completed their conqueft of the largeft and mofl fertile of the Me- 

 diterranean iflands (21'' May 878). [Chron. Sic. ap. Muratori Script. V. 

 i,part. ii, pp. 2^4., 24.$.} 



Sugar-canes appear to have been cultivated, and their juice made in- 

 to fugar, in the louthern countries of Afia, and fome parts of Africa, in 

 the earliefl ages. But they were probably unknown in Europe, till the 

 Saracens introduced them in Sicily, the fertile foil, and warm climate, 

 of w^hich were favourable to their production. In procefs of time the 

 canes were tranfplanted from Sicily to the fouthern provinces of Spain, 

 whence the cultivation of them is faid to have extended to Madeira and 

 the Canaries, and finally to Brafil and the Weft-India iflands, if they 

 were not indigenous in the later f . 



Notwithftanding the pious endeavours of Pope Zacharia, and an ex- 

 prefs law of the fi:ate of Venice pafiTed in the year 864 againft the flave 



* Though the modern Arabs do not permit fo- 

 reign vefTels to go higher than Jidda, fome Brit- 

 i(h navigators, in fpite of the prohibition and the 

 increafing fhallownefs of the Red fea, have failed 

 quite to the head of it in veflels drawing more wa- 

 ter than any that the antient Arabians, Greeks, or 

 Ethiopians, had upon it. 



f The champions of the crofs found fiigar-canes 

 in Paleftine, Egypt, Cyprus, Rhodes, &c. But, 

 though the defcription of fugar-canes (or honey- 

 canes, ' canna: meUie') gixjwing near Panormus in 

 Sicily, given by the Sicilian author Falcandus [a^. 

 Muratori Script, vol. vii, col. 258], who wrote in 

 1189 or 1 190, is perfeftly jult and accurate, the 

 accounts of the procefs of making fugar {' zucare, 

 or 7-uchara') given by Jacobus de Vitriaco \_H\fl. 

 •Orient, ic. 53, 86], who wrote about 1200, and 

 thofe by the other hidon'ans of the holy war, arc 

 very dcfcdlive and confufed, as defcribing a thing 

 little known. Indeed, we mull fuppofe, that the 

 fugar >n Paleftine was of very bad quality, or very 

 trifling in quantity, as we find fngar one of the ar- 

 ticles brought to that country along with cinna- 

 mon, pepper, Sec. from Babylon by a caravan, 

 which was plundered by Richard I king of Eng- 

 land. [6'. i'.c Vinifauf,ap.Gale, V. ii,/. 407.] 

 »-• I have not been able to afcertain the date of the 

 jmroduition of the fugar-can. in Sicily by the Sa- 



racens. According to Raynal \W'ijl. fhll. et pol. 

 V. vi, p. i^j,cd. 1782J it was not till about the 

 middle of the twelfth century. But he never 

 quotes authorities : and the Saracens had loft the 

 dominion of the ifland long before that time. That 

 fugar-canes were firft planted by the Saracens in 

 Sicily, is generally allowed ; and they probably 

 introduced them, foon after they got poffcflion of 

 the ifland. See Gibbon [K x, p. iii, eJ. 1 1 9*3 

 who, very contraiy to his general prattice, has 

 ncglefted quoting his authority : but his profound 

 refearch and approved accuracy entitle him, be- 

 yond moft writers, to be credited for the fidelity 

 of his aflcrtion. — Along with the authors here 

 quoted, fee Albertus Aqiienjls, Fulcherius Carnoten- 

 Jis, and JViUlelmus Tyrius, all in the Gf/la Dei per 

 Francos.— De Cui^ncs in Mem. de I'acaJemie, y. 

 xxxvii,/. ^0^.— Edwards's Hijl. of the IVeJl-Jndie], 

 V. ii, p. ig.—Mofe/cy's Hifl. of fugar. 



It is not improper to obferve here, that the cul- 

 tivation of the fugar-canc is now neglcdlcd in Si- 

 cily, owing (as Biydone in his Tuur in Sicily in- 

 forms us) to the enormous duties impofcd upon it : 

 and certain it is, that that moft fertile ifland, per- 

 haps the mother of all the fugar-canes in the weft- 

 ern world, now receives fugar from Britain and 

 other countric' . 



