The sugar-cane: a poem in four books with notes / [James Grainger].

James Grainger

Date:: 1766

Credit: The sugar-cane: a poem in four books with notes / [James Grainger]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

29/200 page 15

$‘ Book I. THE SUGAR-CANE, 15 Are plenteous fcatter’d o’er the Sugar-ifles : But chief that land, to which the bearded fig, Ver. 132. the bearded Fig,] This wonderful tree, by the Indians called the “ Bannion-tree ;’? and by the botanifts ‘* Ficus Indica,” or “ Bengalienfis,” is exaétly defcribed by Q. Curtius, and beau- tifully by Milton in the following lines : . The Fig-tree, not that kind renown’'d for fruit, But fuch as at this day to-Indians known, In Malabar and Decan fpreads her arms; Branching fo broad and long, that in the ground, The bended twigs take root, and daughters grow * About the mother-tree, a pillar’d thade, High over-arch’d, and echoing walks between, There oft the Indian herdfman, fhunning heat, Shelters in cool, and tends his pafturing herds At Loop-holes cut through thickeft fhade-—— What year the Spaniards firft difcovered Barbadces is not cer- tainly known ; this however is certain, that they never fettled there but only made ufe of it as a ftock-ifland in their voyages from South-America, and the Iflands; accordingly we are told, when the Englith firft landed there, which was about the end of the fixteenth or beginning of the feventeenth century, they found in it an excellent breed of wild hegs, but no inhabitants. In the year 1627, Barbadoes, with moft of the other Caribbee-iflands, were granted by Charles I. to the Earl of Carlifle, that noble- man agreeing to pay the Karl of Marlborough, and his heirs, a perpetual annuity of 3001, per ennum, for waving his claim to Barbadoes, which he had obtained, by patent, in the preceding reign. ‘The adventurers, to whom that nobleman parceiled out this ifland, at firft cultivated tobacco; but, that not turning ont — to their advantage, they applied, with better fuiccefs, to cottopy indigo, and ginger. At laft, fome cavaliers of good fortune ~~ tran{porting themf{elves thither, and introducing the Sugar-cane «_ [A. D. 1647] probably from Brazil, in ten years time the ifland - was peopled with upwards of 30,000 Whites, and twice that num- ber of Negroes, and fent yearly very confiderable quantities of fugar to the mother-country.: At the Reftoration, King Charles If. bought of the claim of the Carlifle-family ; and, in confideration _of ics then. becoming a royal inftead of a- proprietary government, _ the planters gave the Crown 4 and 1-2 per cent. on their fugers;° which duty ftill continues, although ‘the ifland is faid to’ be _Jefs able to pay it now than it was a hundred years ago. It 4/8 upwards of 20 miles long, and in fome places almoft, 14 broad, i ik ge ; 6 yf Prince$

The sugar-cane: a poem in four books with notes / [James Grainger].

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