3g The Cutl'wal'.on of the Suyar-Cunf. 



to upset the nearest caldron over a sort of gigantic funnel or wooden wa- 

 ter-spout, and awav rushed the burning hot-juice to some unknown re- 

 gions below. 



Down a wide flight of stone stairs, along a cool passage, and through 

 n pair of huge folding doors, the visitor reaches the granulating room. 

 It is immediately beneath the boiling-house, and contains many sets of 

 capacious Heidelburgh-looking vat«, in which are first boilings of the new 

 crop granulating and draining, read}- for shipment. I was shown a little 

 suo-ar remaining over from the hist year's harvest, and a more perfect 

 crystal and finer, fuller (lavor, I certainly never remember. It was whito 

 as any salt, and shone brilliaiiliy like pure crystals in the sunlight. It 

 had been prepared by some new and improved process, of which the 

 Mauritius planters are now ready to avail themselves ; and what is of 

 equal value to the beautiful appearance is, that the yield of sugar from 

 the juice is much greater by this process, and at the same time the pro- 

 proportion of drainage or molasses is much less. 



When the sugar is believed to be sufficiently drained, it is dug out of 

 the laro-e granulators and placed in bags for shipment, very few casks 

 beino- used in this colony, the sugar being of a far drier nature than that 

 of the West Indies or Brazils. Cropping time lasts from six weeks to 

 three months, during which time both man and beast are worked to the 

 utmost, in order to secure the canes whilst in their prime. If left for too 

 lono' a period in the ground, they blossom and lose a great part of their 

 juice, as well as become harder and more difficult to grind ; and hence it 

 is the endeavor of the planter so to regulate his planting and his cultiva- 

 tion, that all his fields may not be forced on his hands at one time. 



The calculation for ordinarily good ground is a yield of one ton and a 

 half of sucrar per acre ; but from some of the richer soils of the Mauritius 

 as much as four and even five tons to the acre have been obtained. The 

 whole of the labor employed on the estates of this island is imported, as 

 well as the food for their support — viz: rice, dried fish, curry-stufts, and 

 ghee, a sort of fat. 



One great and constantly recurring drawback to the prosperity of the 

 sugar planter of the Mauritius, is the liability to hurricanes, to which the 

 locality is subject. During the months of February, March, and April, 

 these terrible tempests are most frequently met with ; and when they 

 visit the island in full force they are not soon forgotten. Houses, facto- 

 ries, mills, engines, cane-fields, all are rooted from the grouiid and scat- 

 tered far and near like so many straws before the destroying element. 



