4 



314 NARRATIVE OF AN 



e H A P. ceive the melafTes as it drops from the fuofar, and convey 



XIII . O J 



i - it into a fquare ciftern placed underneath to receive it. 



The diftillery joins this apartment, where the drofs or 

 fcum of the boiling fugar is converted into a kind pf 

 rum, mentioned before, and known by the name of kill^ 

 devil. Every eftate in Surinam keeps a tent-boat and 

 feveral other craft, for the conveyance of their produce ; 

 they have alfo a covered dock, to keep them dry and re- 

 pair them. 



The fugar eftates in this colony contain five or fix 

 hundred acres ; the parts for cultivation being divided 

 into fquares, where pieces of cane, about one foot long, 

 are fluck into the ground in an oblique pofition, in rows 

 llraight and parallel. They ufually plant them in the 

 rainy feafon, when the earth is well foaked and rich. 

 The flioots that fpring from thefe joints are about twelve 

 or fixteen months in arriving at maturity, when they 

 become yellow, and of the thicknefs of a German flute, 

 and from fix to ten feet in height, and jointed, forming 

 a very beautiful appearance, with pale green leaves like 

 thofe of a leek, but longer and denticulated, and which 

 hang down as the crop becomes ready for cutting. The 

 principal bufinefs of the flaves during the growth of the 

 canes is pulling up the weeds, which would otherwife 

 impoverifh them. 



Some fugar eflates have above four hundred flaves." 

 The expence of purchafmg thefe, and ereding the build- 

 § ings, 



