THE  SUGAR-CANE  IN  LOUISIANA. 
138 
from  Mendez,  and  planted  what  then  was  considered  a  large 
plantation.  Marin,  mentioned  above,  engaged  himself  to  Bore, 
to  establish  sugar  works  on  the  same  scale  as  those  of  Hispaniola, 
to  produce  about  1,500  pounds  annually.  Two  years  were  passed 
in  cultivation  and  fitting  up;  the  third  year  (1795)  gave  en- 
couraging results;  but  the  year  1796  was  a  triumph  to  Bore,  all 
difficulties  were  overcome,  he  had  a  crop  which  produced  him 
12,000  pounds  weight.  Here  was  a  great  success.  This  bril- 
liant result  was  a  great  encouragement  to  him,  redoubled  his 
zeal,  and  from  that  moment  this  manufacture  was  acquired  for 
Louisiana.  Transported  by  his  success,  many  planters  hastened 
to  establish  sugar  plantations.  Amongst  the  first  were  Prisero, 
Cabaret,  Reggio,  and  Macarthy.  The  following  years  saw 
many  more  arise,  who  all  rapidly  attained  a  high  degree  of 
prosperity. 
At  this  time,  about  1797,  there  were  only  two  kinds  of  cane 
in  Louisiana;  the  Malabar  or  Bengal  cane,  and  the  Tahiti  cane, 
These  two  canes  have  now  entirely  disappeared,  and  are  re- 
placed by  the  cane  with  red  or  purple  stripes,  a  variety  indigen- 
ous to  Java.  This  last  cane  has  produced  two  sub-varieties, 
which  we  shall  describe  elsewhere ;  the  one  good,  the  other  of 
bad  quality. 
We  do  not  know  precisely  when  the  cane  from  Tahiti  was  in- 
troduced into  Louisiana,  but  it  was  brought  from  Hispaniola 
towards  the  end  of  the  century,  in  1796  or  1797. 
The  cane  with  red  or  purple  stripes  is,  as  we  have  observed, 
a  native  of  Java,  and  doubtless  of  other  Eastern  countries.  The 
Dutch  had  found  this  variety  of  sugar-cane  at  Batavia,  where  it 
was  cultivated;  they  had  introduced  it,  about  the  middle  of  the 
last  century,  in  Saint  Eustache,  Curacoa,  Guiana,  and  Surinam, 
their  possessions  in  America;  whence  this  cane  was  spread  into 
all  the  West  Indian  Islands,  and  afterwards  to  several  parts  of 
the  Continent  of  America. 
About  1814,  or  a  little  before,  it  is  difficult  to  fix  the  date, 
an  American  vessel  coming  from  Saint  Eustache  (Antilles),  a 
Dutch  colony,  brought  some  parcels  of  these  canes  to  Savannah, 
in  Georgia;  they  were  planted  by  a  Mr.  King,  at  some  distance 
from  the  mouth  of  the  River  Savannah,  on  the  little  Isle  of 
Saint  Simon.    These  canes  flourished,  and  Mr.  King  commenced 
