244 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



great abundance in the South Sea Islands, 

 when first discovered by our illustrious cir- 

 cumnavigator Capt. Cook. 



We shall now proceed to furnish some in- 

 formation respecting 



THE MAKING OF SUGAR. 



Sugar is the essential salt of the sugar- 

 cane, Saccharum officinarum of Linnaeus. 



From what has already been stated, it ap- 

 pears that the art of making sugar originated 

 in the East, and if we may trust the account 

 of Giovanni Lioni, a considerable trade was 

 carried on in sugar in Nubia, as early as 

 1500. Vasco de Gama, who first doubled 

 the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, relates, 

 that a great trade in sugar then existed in 

 the kingdom of Calicut. The Spaniards and 

 Portuguese taught the West Indians the me- 

 thod of extracting and making sugar. The 

 English made it in some of their islands as 

 early as 1643, but in Jamaica not until 1664. 



We have already observed, that sugar was 

 first used in Europe as a medicine ; it next 

 became a substitute for honey ; and we are 

 informed that before kitchen gardens became 

 known in England, (which was about the 



