12 HISTORY OF THE [book v, 
Aguilon ;* but in this instance the respectable his¬ 
torian, however correct in general, is clearly mis¬ 
taken ; it appearing by the testimony of Peter 
Martyr, in the third book of his first decad, writ¬ 
ten during Columbus’s second expedition, which 
began in 1493, and ended in 1495, that the sugar¬ 
cane was at that period, sufficiently known in Hi¬ 
spaniola. 
The fact seems to have been, that Columbus 
himself carried it thither among other articles and 
productions which he conveyed from Old Spain and 
the Canary islands, in his second voyage. Martyr’s 
account is as follows :— <e Ad foetus procreandos, 
“ equas, oves, juvencas, et plura alia cum sui ge- 
iC neris masctilis: legumina, triticum, hordeum, 
<e et reliqua ijs similia, non solum alimenti, verum 
« etiam seminandi gratia, praefectus apparat: vites 
<c et aliarum nostratium arborum plantaria, quibus 
« terra ilia caret ad earn important: nullas enim 
« apud eas insulas notas arbores invenere praeter 
“ pinus palmasque et eas altissimas, ac mira 2 duri- 
“ tiei et proceritatis ac rectitudinis, propter soli 
« ubertatem; atque etiam ignotos fructus alias 
“ plures procreantes. Terram aiunt esse terra- 
“ rum omnium quas ambiunt sidera, uberrimam.” 
<c Although in this passage the sugar-cane is not 
expressly enumerated, it is evident that it was 
not considered by Columbus as a native of the 
country; for he could not possibly have been un- 
* Her. vol. i. p. 3«o. 
