WEST INDIES. 
CHAP. I.] 
I l 
bed by Albertus Aquensis , a monkish writer, who 
observes, that the Christian soldiers in the Holy 
land frequently derived refreshments and support 
in a scarcity of provisions, by sucking the canes.* 
It flourished also in the Morea, and in the islands of 
Rhodes and Malta, and from thence was trans¬ 
ported into Sicily ; but the time is not precisely as¬ 
certained : Lafitau recites a donation of William, 
the second, king of Sicily, to the monastery of St. 
Bennet, of a mill for grinding sugar-canes, with 
all its rights, members, and appurtenances. This 
happened in 1166. 
From Sicily, the Spaniards are said to have con¬ 
veyed the cane to the Azores, Madeira, the Canary 
and Cape-de-Verd islands, soon after they were dis¬ 
covered in the 15th century; and from some one 
of those islands it has been supposed to have 
found its way, at an early period, to Brasil and 
the West Indies; “ producing a commerce (says 
Lafitau) which has proved more valuable than the 
mines of Peru.” 
Such is the commonly-received opinion respect¬ 
ing the history of this valuable production. Herrera 
positively asserts, that the sugar-cane was trans¬ 
planted into Hispaniola from the Canary islands, 
in the year 1506, by a Spaniard of the name of 
* The same author in his account of the reign of Baldwin, relates, 
that the Crusaders took eleven camels laden with sugar, so that it 
must have been made in considerable quantities. 
