184 SUGAR 



century we find it growing in Italy, on the sultry plains at 

 the foot of Mount Etna. 



After the discovery of Madeira by the Portuguese, in the year 

 1419, the first colonists added the vine of Cyprus and the 

 Sicilian sugar-cane to the indigenous productions of that lovely 

 island ; and both succeeded so well, as to become after a few 

 years the objects of a lively trade with the mother country. 



Yet, in spite of this extension of its culture, the importance 

 of susrar as an article of international trade continued to be 

 very limited, until the discovery of tropical America* by 

 Columbus opened a new world to commerce. As early as the 

 year 1506 the sugar-cane was transplanted from the Canary 

 Islands to Hispaniola, where its culture,, favoured by the 

 fertility of a virgin soil and the heat of a tropical sun, was 

 soon found to be so profitable, that it became the chief occu- 

 pation of the European settlers, and the principal source of 

 their wealth. 



The Portuguese, in their turn, conveyed the cane to Brazil ; 

 from Hispaniola it spread over the other West Indian Islands ; 

 thence wandered to the Spanish main, and followed Pedrarias 

 and Pizarro to the shores of the Pacific. Unfortunately, a dark 

 shade obscures its triumphal march, as its cultivation was the 

 chief cause which entailed the curse of negro slavery on some of 

 the fairest regions of the globe. 



Towards the middle of the last century, the Chinese or 

 Oriental sugar-cane had thus multiplied to an amazing extent 

 over both hemispheres, when the introduction of the Tahitian 

 variety, which was found to attain a statelier growth, to contain 

 more sugar, and to ripen in a shorter time, began to dispossess 

 it of its old domains. This new and superior plant is now uni- 

 versally cultivated in all the sugar-growing European colonies ; 

 and if Cook's voyages had produced no other benefit than 

 making the world acquainted with the Tahitian sugar-cane, they 

 would for this alone deserve to be reckoned by the political 

 economist among the most successful and important ever per- 

 formed by man. 



The sugar-cane bears a great resemblance to the common 



• The northern part of the New Continent had been visited and colonized cen- 

 turies before by the mariners of Iceland. For an account of this discovery, see 

 "The Sea and its Living Wonders," second edition, p. 362. 



