106 GIBBS. 



Analyses of sugar from the date palm (W. Wallace) and East Indian palrtis 

 (?) ( Winger and Harland ) are reported in Allen's Commercial Organic Analysis.'^ 



P. Horsin-Deon " gives the analysis of sugar from Calcutta palms. 



H. C. Prinsen Geerligs " states : 



"Sugar is fovmd in a great many plants, dissolved in the sap. Although it 

 maj^ be considered as one of the most universal constituents of plants, only a 

 few of them contain it in such a degree and so sparingly mixed with other bodies • 

 as to allow of its profitable extraction. Such are: the sugar cane, the beetroot, 

 the sorghum, the coco, date, palmyra and nipah palms, and the maple tree; then 

 bees extract it from the flowers of many plants, but in this case it is soon con- 

 verted into invert sugar." 



Beverages manufactured from palm saps have been of economic 

 importance to the people from the earliest history of the Philippine 

 Islands. 



The first record of the manufacture of palm wine by the natives of these 

 Islands is made by Antonio Pigafetta," the historian of Magalhaes' expedition 

 around the world. Throughout his account, Pigafetta -writes" that the natives 

 of the various islands where they touched, made and consumed large quantities 

 of palm wine. On March 16, 1521, the vessels bearing the first Europeans to 

 sight the Philippines, arrived at the Island of Samar and two days later the 

 natives presented among other things, a jar of palm wine which they termed 

 uraco. Pigafetta writes as follows concerning this beverage: 



"They get wine [from the coconut ■palm] in the following manner. They bore 

 a hole into the heart of the said palm at the top called palmito [i. e., stalk], 

 from which distils a liquor which resembles white must. That liquor is sweet 

 but somewhat tart, and [is gathered] in canes [of bamboo] as thick as the leg 

 and thicker. They 'fasten the bamboo to the tree at evening for the morning, 

 and in the morning for the evening." 



Regarding his experiences while dining with the king of Mindanao he states:" 



"Until the supper was brought in, the king with two of his chiefs and two 

 of his beautiful women drank the contents of a large jar of palm wine without 

 eating anything." 



Maximilianus Transylvanus," who was also with the expedition, writes, in a 

 letter to the Cardinal of Salzburg, that while at the Island of Cebfl, the natives 

 brought the admiral and some of the officers into the chief's cabin, and set before 

 them what food they had. 



"The bread was made of sago, which is obtained from the trunk of a tree 

 not much unlike the palm. * * * their drink was a liquor which flows from 

 the branches of palm-trees when cut * ^'' *." 



In 1565, the trade between Governor Legaspi's men and the natives became 

 very brisk and the records state :^^ 



"Among other things the natives traded 'a great quantity of palm wine, to 



"Phila. (1890), 1, 301. 



^'Bull. Soc. Chim., (1879), nouvelle serie, 32, 125. 



" Cane Sugar and its Manufacture. Manchester ( 1909 ) , 3. 



'= Blair and Robertson. The Philippine Islands (L906), 33, 105. 



"/6td. 203. 



"/6id 1, 323. 



-"Uhid. 2, 137. 



