HnHng^nHngn nil Bit | 



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152 



LANDS. 



derive a small profit without much trouble ; fuel 

 is to be had for the pains of fetching it, and 

 scarcely any man is without a horse. The wo- 

 men often attend to the still whilst the men are 

 otherwise employed. However, since the open- 

 ing of the ports of Brazil to foreign trade, a 

 considerable quantity of rum has been exported 

 to North America, and likewise the demand of 

 it for Lisbon has been greater than it was for- 

 merly; the price has consequently risen, and has 

 induced many of the planters to distil their own 

 melasses. But although this plan has been 

 adopted, the stills are so totally inadequate to 

 the distillation of large quantities of rum, that 

 few persons erect a sufficient number of them to 

 consume the whole of the melasses with which 

 the sugar furnishes them. * 



LANDS. 



A sugar plantation of Pernambuco or Paraiba 

 does not require the enormous capital which is 

 necessary in purchasing and establishing an 

 estate of the same description in the Columbinn 

 islands; but a certain degree of capital is requi- 

 site, otherwise continual distress will be the con- 



* A few of the more wealthy planters have sent for large 

 stills from England, and have, of course, found their infinite 

 superiority over those in common use. 



Even in the time of Labat, his countrymen were much 

 before the Pernambucan planters respecting the arrangement 

 of the still-houses. They had copper stills. 



