3i6 N A R R A T I V E O F A N 



CHAP, fome hundred lafhes, or having all his teeth knocked out 

 XIII 



-^-'.^ by the overfeer. — Such are the hardfliips and dangers to 

 which the fugar-making negroes are expofed. 



From the above wooden ciftern the liquor is let into 

 the firil copper cauldron, filtering through a grating to 

 keep back the trafli that may have efcaped from the 

 mill ; here, having'boiled fome time, and been fcummed, 

 it is put into the next cauldron, and fo on till in the fifth 

 orlaft it is brought to a proper thicknefs or confiftency 

 to be admitted into the coolers : a few pounds of lime 

 and allum are thrown into the cauldrons to make it gra- 

 nulate; thus it is boiled gradually ftronger and flronger, 

 until it reaches the laft cauldron. When it is put into 

 the wooden coolers the fugar is well ftirred, and fcattered 

 equally throughout the veflels ; when cold it has a frozen 

 appearance, being candied, of a brown glazed confift- 

 ency, not unlike pieces of high poliflied walnut-tree. 

 From the coolers it is put into the hogflieads, which, 

 upon an average, will hold one thoufand pounds weight 

 of fugar ; there it fettles, and through the crevices and 

 fmall holes made in the bottoms it is purged of all its 

 liquid contents, which are called melaffes, and, as I have 

 faid, are received in an under-ground ciftern. This is 

 the laft operation, after which the fugar is fit for expor- 

 tation to Europe, where it is refined and caft into loaves. 

 I fhall only farther obferve, that the larger the grain the 

 better the fugar, and that no foil can be more proper for 

 its cultivation than Guiana^ the richnefs of which is in- 



exhauftible, 



