308 WINE—SUGAR. 
to the Indians, and the priests pierced their arms and 
breasts with them in their acts of expiation. 
The vine is cultivated in Mexico, but in so small 
a quantity that wine can hardly be considered as a 
product of that country ; but the mountainous parts 
of New Spain, Guatimala, New Grenada, and Ca- 
raccas, are so weil adapted for its growth, that at 
some future period they will probably supply the 
whole of North America. 
Of colonial commodities, or productions which 
furnish raw materials for the commerce and manufac- 
turing industry of Europe, New Spain affords most 
of those procured from the West Indies. The cul- 
tivation of the sugar-cane has of late years been car- 
ried to such an extent, that the exportation of sugar 
from Vera Cruz amounts to more than half a million 
of arrobas, or 12,680,000 Ib. avoird.; which, at 3 
piasters the arroba, are equal to 5,925,000 francs, 
or £246,875 sterling. . It was conveyed by the Spa- 
niards from the Canary Islands into St Domingo, 
from whence it was subsequently carried into Cuba 
and the province just named. Although the mean 
temperature best suited to it is 75° or 77°, it may 
yet be successfully reared in places of which the an- 
nual warmth does not exceed 66° or 68°; and as on 
great table-lands the heat is increased by the rever- 
beration of the earth, it is cultivated in Mexico to 
the height of 4921 feet, and in favourable exposures 
thrives even at an elevation of 6562. The greatest 
part of the sugar produced in New Spain is con- 
sumed in the country, and the exportation is very 
insignificant compared with that of Cuba, Jamaica, 
or St Domingo. 
Cotton, flax, and hemp, are not extensively sid 
