

HHM 



132 



PREPARING THE LAND. 



been laid dry by means of draining for the 

 same purpose; but the desired success has 

 not attended the plan, for the canes have 

 been found to be unfit for making sugar ; the 

 syrup does not coagulate, or at least does not 

 attain that consistence which is requisite, and 

 therefore it can only be used for the distil- 

 leries.* 



The general mode of preparing the land for 



men who went out to those places ; for it was a subject to 

 which intellect was at that time turned. The system in the 

 Columbian islands has now been much benefited, by the ad- 

 vanced state of the mother-countries which possess them ; 

 and the communication between the islands belonging to the 

 several powers which rule them, has led them to adopt and 

 to profit by each other's inventions and ideas. But Brazil 

 has been left to its own resources ; no interest has been taken 

 in its concerns from without, nor has any regard been paid 

 to the mental advancement of the people belonging to it, so 

 that it cannot be wondered at that the country should have 

 made very little progress. However, the similarity of the 

 state of the French islands in the time of Labat, to that of 

 Brazil at the present day, and his powers of observation, in- 

 duce me to think that some of his remarks may be useful in 

 the latter country, although they may be out of date in the 

 places of which he wrote. Thus much I say, as a reason 

 for making frequent notes from him. 



* Labat speaks of seeing canes planted down to the water's 

 edge at Guadaloupe ; he says that he tasted the juice of some 

 of them, and found it to be rather brackish ; " D'oic il hoit 

 aist de conclure que le sucre brut quon enjeroit, pourroit 6tre. 

 beau, comme il Vetoit en effet en tout le quartier du grand cul- 

 de-sac, mais quit seroit difficile de rtussir en sucre hldnc, 

 comme il est arrive" — Nouveau Voyage, &c. torn. iii. p. 71. 



