In Some Parts Of The Island,
Where They Have Not Streams Of Water, The Canes Are Crushed By Machines
Worked By The Negroes, And In Others By Horses.
The bruised canes are
given to the hogs, which hardly get any other food, yet fatten
wonderfully, and their flesh is so delicate and wholesome as to be
preferred to that of poultry.
Many sugar refiners have been brought here
from Madeira, on purpose to endeavour to manufacture the sugars of St
Thomas more white and harder than its usual produce, but in vain. This is
alleged to proceed from the extreme richness of the soil injuring the
quality of the sugar; just as with us, wines produced in soils of too
great fertility are apt to have a peculiar flavour. Another cause of this
is supposed to proceed from the climate of the island being too hot and
too moist, except in the month of June, July, and August, at which season
a fresh dry wind blows from Ethiopia to this island; and they then make
their best sugars.
The planters are obliged, to ship off their sugars as soon as they can
procure shipping, because they would become liquid if attempted to be
kept for a length of time. At present, not above two-thirds of the island
are appropriated to the cultivation of sugar; but any person who comes to
this island for the purpose of settling, whether from Spain or Portugal,
or any other country, may procure from the royal intendant as much land
as he is able to cultivate, and at a moderate price.
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