narrow grass-like leaves. The Ribbon Cane is a variety of inferior quality, and is known by its strong stem 
and distant joints, marked with longitudinal stripes of purple and yellow. The Bourbon, sometimes called 
the Otaheite Cane, which was first imported into the French islands of Guadaloupe and Martinique, surpass 
all other varieties in the thickness of its stem, and is very generally cultivated on account of the greater 
quantity of sugar which it affords. It is much taller, and yields one-third more sugar than the country cane ; 
but the sugar is not of such a compact grain. The Violet Cane, or as it is called in the French islands, the 
Batavian Cane, which has a purple-coloured stem and luxuriant foliage, has been considered by Roemer 
and Schultes, as a distinct species, under the name of S. violaceum. 
The following account of the History of Sugar is by Mr. Galt— 
“ I was led to investigate the History of Sugar by a casual remark of the late Sir Joseph Banks, one 
day at breakfast. I forget now how the conversation arose, but he inquired whether I had met with any 
of the remains of the sugar cane in Sicily, mentioning that it had been previously produced in the island 
of Crete, but the sugar manufactured in that island was more crystallized than ours, and was called, from 
the place where it was boiled, sugar of Candi, otherwise sugar Candy, and it seems never to have been pre- 
pared better there than in that form. 
It is certain, however, that in the year 1148 considerable quantities of the article were produced in the 
island of Sicily, and the Venetians traded in it ; but I have met with no evidence to support the Essai de V 
Histoire du Commerce, in which the author says that the Saracens brought the sugar cane from India to Sicily. 
“ The ancient Greeks and Romans,” says Dr. William Douglas, “ used honey only for sweetening.” 
And Paulus JEgineta, who calls it cane-honey, says it came originally from China, by the East Indies and 
Arabia, into Europe. Salmasius says, however, that it had been used in Arabia nine hundred years before. 
But it is certain that sugar was only used in syrups, conserves, and such like Arabian medicinal compositions, 
when it was first introduced into the west of Europe ; but Mr. Wotton, in his ‘ Reflexions upon Ancient and 
Modern Learning/ says that the sugar-cane was not anciently unknown, since it grows naturally in Arabia 
and Indostan ; but so little was the old world acquainted with its delicious juice, that “ some of the ablest 
men/’ says he, “ doubted whether it were a dew like manna, or the juice of the plant itself.” It is, how- 
ever, certain that raw sugar was used in Europe before the discovery of America. Herrera, the ancient 
historian, observes that sugar grew formerly in Valencia, brought thither by the Moors ; from thence it was 
transmitted to Grenada, afterwards to the Canary Islands, and lastly, to the Spanish West Indies. 
About the year 1419, the Portuguese planted the island of Madeira with sugar canes from Sicily ; and 
Giovanni Batero, in an English translation of his book in 1606, on the f Causes of the Magnificence and 
Grandeur of Cities/ mentions the excellence of the sugar-cane of Madeira, for which it was transported to 
the West Indies ; and there can be no doubt that Madeira was one of the first islands of the Atlantic Ocean 
in which this important article was manufactured. 
In 1503, two ships arrived at Camperre, laden with sugar from the Canary Islands. As yet, it is said, 
no sugar canes were grown in America, but soon they were transplanted from those islands to the Brazils. 
It was about this time (1503) that the art of refining sugar was discovered by a Venetian, who is said 
to have realized a hundred thousand crowns by the invention. Our ancestors made use of it as it came in 
juice from the canes, but most commonly used honey in preference. 
From the Brazils and the Canaries, sugar canes were brought and planted in the island of Hispaniola, 
[St. Domingo, or Hayti,] and in the same year sugar was brought from the Brazils into Europe. The 
commodity was then very dear, and used only on rare occasions, honey being till then the general ingredient 
for sweetening of meats and drinks. 
When sugar was introduced into this country first is doubtful ; but in 1526 it was imported from St. 
Lucar, in Spain, by certain merchants of Bristol, who brought the article which had been imported there 
from the Canary Islands. 
In the year 1641 the sugar-cane was imported from the Brazils into Barbadoes, and being found to 
thrive, sugar mills was established. A Colonel James Drax, who began the cultivation with about three 
hundred pounds, declared that he would never return to England till he had made ten thousand a year ; and 
Colonel Thomas Modyford was still higher in his expectations. 
It was from the island of Barbadoes that the slave trade began. The first planters finding such im- 
mense profit, induced the merchants at home to send ships with assorted cargoes for the product of the 
island, but they found it impossible to manage the cultivation of sugar by white people in so hot a climate. 
The example of the Portuguese gave birth to the negro slave trade, and it flourished till abolished by Act of 
Parliament ; but in that age it was a most flourishing business, and the ports of London and Bristol had the 
main supply. Bardadoes, in the year 1669, attained its utmost pitch of prosperity. In a pamphlet entitled 
f Trade Revived/ it is spoken of as “ having given to many men of low degree vast fortunes, equal to noble- 
men ; that upwards of a hundred sail of ships there yearly find employment, by carrying goods and pas- 
