jfVie CulUvdlionuf the Sugar-Cane. 39 



Macliinciy, many tons in woiglit, lias been known to be lifted many feet 

 in the air, and hurled to a great distance. Ships laden with full cargoes, 

 and lying quietly at anchor in the harbor, have been not only driven high 

 and dry on the sandy beach, but actually blown for a quarter of a milo 

 inland, and obliged to be broken up where they lay, for to take them 

 badk to their own element was a matter of sheer impossibility. The loss 

 that is occasioned by these fearful visitations may be readily imagined, 

 although all works situated on the exposed sides of the island are built 

 of great strength. 



During the great crisis of 1847 and 1848, several of the largest plant- 

 ing firms connected with the Mauritius failed, and their prostration caused 

 much embarrassment in the colony at the time. Fresh energy and capi- 

 tal has, however, been since brought to bear upon the sugar industry of 

 this island ; and it is now in a more healthy and thriving condition than 

 at any previous period of its history. 



In Jamaica, and some other of our earliest sugar-producing colonies, 

 the difficulty of procuring laborers after the abolition of slavery, added 

 to the embairassments of the leading planters induced by former extrav- 

 agance and reckless living, has quite revolutionized their industry. Most 

 of the best plantations have been sold at merely nominal sums, and pur- 

 chased by the freed negroes, who squat on their small holdings andgiow 

 just sufficient for their maintenance, having no inclination to labor for 

 hire. 



This, however, is not universall}' the case ; for on some of the islands 

 ■where the squatting system could not be carried out, and where the es- 

 tates fell entire into the hands of enterprising capitalists, skill and indus- 

 try have been brought to bear upon the properties ; and at this moment, 

 what with new and improved machinery, a supply of manure and im- 

 ported labor, the owners are realizing handsome returns for the capital 

 sunk; in spite of low prices and equalized duties. 



Before concluding this chapter on the sugars of commerce, I may as 

 well mention that the description of sugar called Muscovado, is simply 

 the raw unrefined sugar as produced by boiling and granulating. Those 

 sorts known as fine crystalized sugars have been better and more carefully^" 

 freed from impurities and coloring matters, some of them being evapora- 

 ted in what are termed vacuum pans — that is to say, in pans having light 

 metal covers, and from which all air has been removed by an apparatus 

 for the purpose. By this means the liquor or syrup boils with much less 

 heat, and consequently does not become so brown. There is another de- 



