SUGAR. 24S 



man the way of making sugar out of these 

 canes." 



It has been asserted, that the sugar-cane 

 is not indigenous to America; but that all 

 the plants originally migrated through Eu- 

 rope. This opinion seems to have origi- 

 nated in its having been first planted in 

 many of the West India islands by the Eu- 

 ropeans. It was thought by some, that Co- 

 lumbus introduced the plant into Hispani- 

 ola, in his first voyage in 1492. From the 

 testimony of Peter Martyr, in the third book 

 of his Decade, which was composed during 

 Columbus's second voyage, and which com- 

 menced in the following year, and ended in 

 1495, it appears that the sugar-cane was 

 known at that time in Hispaniola. Jean de 

 Lery, who went to Rio Janeiro in 1556, 

 asserts, that he found it every where near 

 the River de la Plata, in great quantities; 

 and Francis Himenes, Hernandes, and Piso, 

 all affirm that the sugar-cane grows sponta- 

 neously near that river. Father Ilennepen, 

 in 1680, found it growing near the mouth of 

 the Mississipi, for thirty leagues. The opi- 

 nion of its being a native of the West Indies 

 is much strengthened by its being found in 



r 2 



