CHAP, II.] 
WEST INDIES. 
5* 
OF RUM. 
Having now furnished the reader with the best 
account I am able to give of the art of making 
sugar from the cane juice, I shall proceed to a sub¬ 
sequent process, to which this invaluable plant hath 
given birth; I mean that of extracting from it by 
fermentation and distillation, one of the purest, 
most fragrant, and salutary spirits in the world; a 
process of far greater curiosity than the former, 
and of almost equal importance in point of value, 
considering that the spirit procured by its means. 
Is obtained from the very dregs and feculencies of 
the plant. 
The still-houses on the sugar-plantations in the 
British West Indies, vary greatly in point of size 
and expense, according to the fancy of the propri¬ 
etor, or the magnitude of the property. In gene¬ 
ral, however, they are built in a substantial man¬ 
ner of stone, and are commonly equal in extent 
to both the boiling and curing-houses together. 
Large stills, by which I mean such as contain 
from to three thousand gallons, have this advan¬ 
tage over small ones 3 that they are purchased at 
first at a less proportionate expense. A still of 
two thousand gallons, with freight and charges, 
will cost but little more than one of one thousand 
five hundred gallons, and is besides worked with 
but little more fuel. But as it is not every propri- 
