46 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



tinguished at a great distance from a field of the common cane. 

 The sugar-cane of Tahiti was first described by Cook and Greorge 

 Forster, who appear, however, from the excellent memoir of the 

 latter upon the edible plants of the islands of the Pacific, to have 

 been but little acquainted with its valuable qualities. Bougainville 

 brought it to the Isle of France, from whence it was conveyed to 

 Cayenne, and since 1792 it has been taken to Martinique, Hayti, 

 and several of the smaller West Indian Islands. It was carried 

 with the bread-fruit tree to Jamaica by the brave but unfortunate 

 Captain Bligh, and was introduced from the Island of Trinidad to 

 the neighboring coast of Caraccas, where it became a more import- 

 ant acquisition than the bread-fruit, which is never likely to super- 

 sede a plant so valuable, and affording so large an amount of susten- 

 ance, as the plantain. The Tahitian sugar-cane is much richer in 

 juice than the common cane, said to be originally a native of the 

 east of Asia. On an equal surface of ground, it yields a third more 

 sugar than the Cana criolla, which has a thinner stalk and smaller 

 joints. As, moreover, the West Indian islands begin to suffer great 

 want of fuel, (in Cuba the wood of the orange tree is used for sugar 

 boiling,) the thicker and more woody stalk of the Tahitian cane is 

 an important advantage. If the introduction of this plant had not 

 taken place almost at the same time as the commencement of the 

 bloody negro war in St. Domingo> the prices of sugar in Europe 

 would have risen still higher than they did, in consequence of the 

 ruinous effects of those troubles on agriculture and trade. It was 

 an important question, whether the cane of the Pacific, when re- 

 moved from its native soil, would gradually degenerate and become 

 the same as the common cane. Experience hitherto has decided 

 against any such degeneration. In Cuba, a caballeria (nearly 33 

 English acres) planted with Tahitian sugar-cane produces 870 hun- 

 dred weight of sugar. It is singular that this important production 

 of the islands oT the Pacific is only cultivated in those parts of the 

 Spanish colonies which are farthest from the Pacific. The Peruvian 

 coast is only twenty-five days' sail from Tahiti, and yet, at the period 

 of my travels in Peru and Chili, the Tahitian cane was unknown 

 there. The inhabitants of Easter Island, who suffer much from 

 deficiency of fresh water, drink the juice of the sugar-cane, and (a 



