SUGAR. 



171 



and is mentioned in Solomon's Song, and the Prophecy of Jeremiah, 

 it was, even so late as the Jewish monarchy, brought ' from a far 

 country.' Hence Dioscorides and Pliny have erred in calling it a 

 native of Arabia, and it is correctly omitted from the list of indi- 

 genous products of that country by a most careful writer, Niebuhr 

 the botanist. It was probably transplanted from India or China in 

 early times, during one of the many migrations which brought the 

 hordes of Eastern Asia to the shores of the Mediterranean. It is 

 mentioned by Greek and Eoman authors. The Crusaders found it in 

 Egypt and Syria. Their antagonists, the Saracens, carried it with 

 them into Spain, where it flourishes still in the semi-tropical climate 

 from Malaga to Motril, having become the parent of a more important 

 cultivation in North and South America. 



" About the year 1500, Giovanni Lioni says that it abounded in the 

 Thebaid and the north of Africa, and that a considerable trade in 

 sugar was carried on with Nubia. 



" Bruce, the traveller, saw it in Upper Egypt ; and in our own day 

 Dr. Lepsius, of the Prussian exploring expedition, found at Kemlin, in 

 the province of Sennaar on the Blue Nile, under the 16th parallel of 

 north latitude, a sugar factory, and manufacture of brandy from 

 sugar-cane, conducted by a German, named Beauer, and worked by 

 Arabs and slaves. The principal sugar-growing district in Egypt, at 

 the present time, extends from Minieh, 28° 10' N. lat., to Erment 

 above Thebes, 25° 30' N. lat., occupying both sides of the Nile valley, 

 where broadest and richest, above the Delta. The sheet of canes is, 

 however, interrupted, as in the West Indies, by Guinea corn, and 

 vegetables, as well as by cotton and tobacco ; and a considerable space 

 is filled by groves of date palm, the fruit of which is an important 

 staple in Egypt, and contributes largely to the revenue. 



" When Mehemet Ali declared himself sole proprietor of the soil 

 of Egypt, a measure justified according to M. Clot. Bey by the prece- 

 dent of Joseph ! he established large sugar estates and factories on 

 the Nile, the first of which was founded at Eeramoon, in 1818. These 

 were originally managed by English, French, and Italians, though 

 now almost entirely by native Egyptians. The first effect of this 

 enterprise was the destruction of many an interesting monument of 

 antiquity, spared by successive waves of invasion, but destined now 

 to fall before the march of improvement. A Turk or Arab never 

 dreams of quarrying for stone, so long as it can be more easily 

 obtained by pulling down an old temple; so hieroglyphics and 

 sculptured figures in every inverted position are plentifully scat- 

 tered over the walls and floors of an Egyptian boiling house. 

 The works thus -built, the surrounding land was parcelled out 

 among the Fellaheen, or peasantry, who were furnished with plants 

 and rude instruments of culture, and compelled to bring in a 

 certain amount of canes per acre, for which they received one- third 

 of the produce in coarse black muscovado, the rest being refined, and 

 sold by the viceroy in the towns at a price which in times of unusual 

 abundance he kept up by exportation. Since his death the system 

 has been much modified ; the land has in most instances been resold 

 to the former proprietors, and the factories have passed to the princes 



