of place is to be chosen to set this Sugar-work or Ingenio upon and it must be the brow of a small hill that hath within the compasse of eighty foot twelve foot descent viz. from the grinding place which is the highest ground and stands upon a flat to the Still house and that by these descents From the grinding place to the boyling house four foot and a halfe from thence to the fire-room seven foot and a halfe and some little descent to the Still house And the reason of these descentâ— are these the top of the Cistern into which the first liquor runs is and must be somewhat lower than the Pipe that convaies it and that is a little under ground Then the liquor which runs from that Cistern must vent it selfe at the bottom otherwise it cannot run all out and that Cistern is two foot and a halfe deep and so running upon a little descent to the clarifying Copper which is a foot and a halfe above the flowre of the Boyling house and so is the whole Frame where all the Coppers stand it must of necessity fall out that the flowre of the Boyling house must be below the flowre of the Mill house four foot and a halfe Then admit the largest Copper be a foot and a halfe deep the bottom of the Copper will be lower then the flowre of the Boyling-house by a foot the bottom of the Furnaces must be three foot below the Coppers and the holes under the Furnaces into which the ashes fall is three foot below the bottom of the Furnaces A little more fall is required to the Still-house and so the account is made up Upon what place the Sugar-work is to be set I have drawn two Plots that expresse more than language can do to which I refer you And so I have done with the Ingenio and now to the work I promised which I shall be briefe in When I first arrived upon the Iland it was in my purpose to observe their severall manners of planting and husbandily there and because this Plant was of greatest value and esteem I desired first the knowledge of it I saw by the growth as well as by what I had been told that it was a strong and lusty Plant and so vigorous as where it grew to forbid all Weeds to grow very neer it so thirstily it suck't the earth for nourishment to maintain its own health and gallantry But the Planters though they knew this to be true yet by their manner of Planting did not rightly pursue their own knowledge for their manner was to dig small holes at three foot distance or there about and put in the Plants endwise with a little stooping so that each Plant brought not forth above three or foure sprouts at the most and they being all fastned to one root when they grew large tall and heavy and stormes of winde and rain came and those raines there fall with much violence and weight the rootes were loosened and the Canes lodged and so became rotten and unfit for service in making good Sugar And besides the roots being far assunder weedes grew up between and worse then all weeds Wit hs which are of a stronger grouth then the Canes and do much mischiefe where they are for they winde about them and pull them down to the ground as disdaining to see a prouder Plant than themselves But experience taught us that this way of planting was most pernicious and therefore were resolved to try another which is without question the best and that is by digging a small trench of six-inches broad and as much deep in a straight line the whole length of the land you mean to plant laying the earth on one side the trench as you make it then lay two Canes along the bottom of the trench one by another and so continue them the whole length of the trench to the lands end and cover them with the earth you laid by and at two foot distance another of the same and so a third and fourth till you have finish'd all the land you intend to plant at that time For you must not plant too much at once but have it to grow ripe successively that your work may come in order to keep you still doing for if it should be ripe altogether you are not able to work it so and then for want of cutting they would rot and grow to losse By planting it thus along two together every knot will have a sprout and so a particular root and by the means of that be the more firmer fixt in the ground and the better able to endure the winde and weather and by their thick growing together be the stronger to support one another By that time they have been in the ground a month you shall perceive them to appear like a land of green Wheat in England that is high enough to hide a Hare and in a month more two foot high at least But upon the first months growth those that are carefull and the best husbands command their Overseers to search if any weeds have taken root and destroy them or if any of the Plants fail and supply them for where the Plants are wanting weeds will grow for the ground is too vertuous to be idle Or if any Wit hs grow in those vacant places they will spread very far and do much harm pulling down all the Canes they can reach to If this husbandry be not used when the Canes are young it will be too late to finde a remedy for when they are grown to a height the blades will become rough and sharp in the sides and so cut the skins of the Negres as the blood will follow for their bodies leggs and feet being uncloathed and bare cannot enter the Canes without smart and losse of blood which they will not endure Besides if the Overseers stay too long before they repair these void places by new Plants they will never be ripe together which is a very great harm to the whole field for which there is but one remedy and that almost as ill as the disease which is by burning the whole field by which they lose all the time they have grown But the roots continuing secure from the fire there arises a new spring altogether so that to repair this losse of time they have only this recompence which is by burning an army of the main enemies to their profit Rats which do infinite harm in the Iland by gnawing the Canes which presently after will rot and become unservicable in the work of Sugar And that they may do this justice the more severely they begin to make their fire at the out-sides of that land of Canes they mean to burn and so drive them to the middle where at last the fire comes and burnes them all and this great execution they put often in practice without Assises or Sessions for there are not so great enemies to the Canes as these Vermine as also to the
yielding condition Nor can this be called slothfulnesse or sluggishnesse in them as some will have it but a decay of their spirits by long and tedious hard labour sleight feeding and ill lodging which is able to wear out and quell the best spirit of the world # The Locust is a tree of such a growth both for length and bignesse as may serve for beams in a very large room I have seen many of them whose straight bodies are above fifty foot high the diameter of the stem or body three foot and halfe The timber of this tree is a hard close substance heavie but firme and not apt to bend somewhat hard for tooles to cut brittle but lasting Mastick not altogether so large as he but of a tougher substance and not accounted so brittle The Bully-tree wants something of the largnesse of these but in his other qualities goes beyond either for he is full out as lasting and as strong but not so heavie nor so hard for tooles to work The Redwood and prickled yellow wood good for posts or beams and are lighter then the Locust both are accounted very lasting and good for building The Cedar is without controul the best of all but by reason it works smoth and looks beautifull we use it most in Wainscot Tables and Stooles Other timber we have as the Iron-wood and another sort which are excellent good to endure wet and drie and of those we make Shingles which being such a kinde of wood as will not warpe nor rive are the best coverings for a house that can be full out as good as Tiles and lie lighter upon the Rafters # We have two sorts of Stone and either will serve indifferently well in building The one we finde on sides of small Hills and it lies as ours do in England in Quarries but they are very small rough and ill shaped some of them porous like Honey combes but being burnt they make excellent Lyme the whitest and firmest when 't is drie that I have seen and by the help of this we make the better shift with our ill shap't stone for this lime bindes it fast together and keeps it firm to endure the weather Other Stone we have which we find in great Rocks and massie pieces in the ground but so soft as with your finger you may bore a hole into it and this softness gives us the means of cutting it with two-handed sawes which being hard we could not so easily do and the easinesse causes the expedition for by that we the more speedily fit it for our walls taking a just bredth of the walls and cutting it accordingly so that we need very little hewing This stone as we cutt it in the quarry is no harder then ordinary morter but being set out in the weather by pieces as we cut it growes indifferently hard and is able to beare all the weight that lyes on it and the longer it lies the harder it growes Many essayes we made whilst I was there for the making and burning of bricks but never could attaine to the perfection of it and the reason was the over fatnesse of the clay which would alwaies crackle and break when it felt the great heat of the fire in the Clampe and by no meanes could we find the true temper of it though we made often trialls There was an ingenious Jew upon the Iland whose name was Solomon that undertook to teach the making of it yet for all that when it came to the touch his wisedome failed and we were deceived in our expectation I doubt not but there is a way of tempering to make it farre better then ours in England for the pots which we finde in the Iland wherein the Indians boyl'd their Porke were of the same kind of Clay and they were the best and finest temper'd ware of earth that ever I saw If we could find the true temper of it a great advantage might be made to the Iland for the ayre being moyst the stones often sweat and by their moysture rot the timbers they touch which to prevent we cover the ends of our beams and girders with boards pitcht on both sides but the walls being made of bricks or but lin'd with brick would be much the wholesomer and besides keep our wainescot from rotting Hangings we dare not use for being spoyld by Ants and eaten by the Cockroaches and Rats yet some of the planters that meant to handsome in their houses were minded to send for giltâ— leather and hang their rooms with that which they were more then perswaded those vermine would not eate and in that resolution I left them Carpenters and Masons were newly come upon the Iland and some of these very great Masters in their Art and such as could draw a plot and pursue the designe they framed with great diligence and beautifie the tops of their dootes windowes and Chimney peeces very pretily but not many of those nor is it needfull that there should be many for though the Planters talke of building houses and wish them up yet when they weigh the want of those handes in their sugar worke that must be imployed in their building they fall backe and put on their considering caps I drew out at least twenty plots when I came first into the Ilands which they all lik't well inough and yet but two of them us'd one by Captaine Midleton and one by Captaine Standfast and those were the two best houses I left finisht in the Iland when I came away Cellars I would not make under ground unlesse the house be set on the side of a Hill for though the ayre be moyst above yet I found it by experience much moyster under ground so that no moyst thing can be set there but it will in a very short time grow mouldy and rotten and if for coolnesse you think to keep any raw flesh it will much sooner taint there then being hung up in a garret where the sun continually shines upon it Nay the pipe-staves hoops and heads of barrels and hogsheads will grow mouldy and rotten Pavements and foundations of bricks would much help this with glasse windowes to keep out the ayre If I were to build a house for my selfe in that place I would have a third part of my building to be of an East and West line and the other two thirds to crosse that at the West end in a North and South line and this latter to be a story higher than that of the East and West line so that at four a clocke in the afternoone the higher buildings will begin to shade the other and so afford more and more shade to my East and West building till night and not only to the house but to all the walks that I make on either side that building and then I would raise my foundation of that part of my house wherein my best roomes were three foot above ground leaving it hollow underneath for Ventiducts which I would
ordering it you must expect to have it excellent his fancy and contrivance of a Feast being as far beyond any mans there as the place where he dwells is better scituate for such a purpose And his Land touching the Sea his House being not halfe a quarter of a mile from it and not interposed by any unlevell ground all rarities that are brought to the Iland from any part of the world are taken up brought to him and stowed in his Cellars in two hours time and that in the night as Wine of all kinds Oyl Olives Capers Sturgeon Neats tongues Anchoves Caviare Botargo with all sorts of salted meats both flesh and fish for his Family as Beefe Pork English Pease Ling Haberdine Cod poor John and Jerkin Beef which is hufled and slasht through hung up and dryed in the Sun no salt at all put to it And thus ordered in Hispaniola as hot a place as Barbadoes and yet it will keep longer then powdred Beefe and is as drie as Stock-fish and just such meat for flesh as that is for fish and as little nourishment in it but it fills the belly and serves the turne where no other meat is Though some of these may be brought to the inland Plantations well conditioned yet the Wines cannot possibly come good for the wayes are such as no Carts can passe and to bring up a But of Sack or a Hogshead of any other Wine upon Negres backs will very hardly be done in a night so long a time it requires to hand it up and down the Gullies and if it be carried in the day-time the Sun will heat and taint it so as it will lose much of his spirit and pure taste and if it be drawn out in bottles at the Bridge the spirits flie away in the drawing and you shall finde a very great difference in the taste and quicknesse of it Oyle will endure the carriage better then Wine but over much heat will abate something of the purity and excellent taste it has naturally And for Olives 't is well known that jogging in the carriage causes them to bruise one another and some of them being bruised will grow rotten and infect the rest So that Wine Oyle and Olives cannot possibly be brought to such Plantations as are eight or ten miles from the Bridge and from thence the most part of these commodities are to be fetch'd So that you may imagine what advantage Collonell Walrond has of any inland Plantation having these materialls which are the main Regalia's in a Feast and his own contrivance to boot besides all I have formerly nam'd concerning raw and preserv'd fruits with all the other Quelquechoses And thus much I thought good to say for the honour of the Iland which is no more then truth because I have heard it sleighted by some that seem'd to know much of it # About a hundred sail of Ships yearly visit this Iland and receive during the time of their stay in the Harbours for their sustenance the native Victualls growing in the Iland such as I have already named besides what they carry away and what is carried away by Planters of the I le that visit other parts of the world The commodities this Iland trades in are Indico Cotten-wool Tobacco Suger Ginger and Fustick-wood # The Commodities these Ships bring to this Iland are Servants and Slaves both men and women Horses Cattle Assinigoes Camells Utensills for boyling Sugar as Coppers Taches Goudges and Sockets all manner of working tooles for Trades-men as Carpenters Joyners Smiths Masons Mill-wrights Wheel-wrights Tinkers Coopers c. Iron Steel Lead Brasse Pewâ—er Cloth of all kinds both Linnen and Wollen Stuffs Hatts Hose Shoos Gloves Swords knives Locks Keys c. Victualls of all kinds that will endure the Sea in so long a voyage Olives Capers Anchoves salted Flesh and Fish pickled Maquerells and Herrings Wine of all sorts and the boon Beer d' Angleterre # I had it in my thought before I came there what kinde of Buildings would be fit for a Country that was so much troubled with heat as I have heard this was did expect to find thick walls high roofes and deep cellers but found neither the one nor the other but clean contrary timber houses with low roofes so low as for the most part of them I could hardly stand upright with my hat on and no cellars at all besides another course they took which was more wonder to me than all that which was stopping or barring out the winde which should give them the greatest comfort when they were neer stifled with heat For the winde blowing alwaies one way which was Eastwardly they should have made all the openings they could to the East thereby to let in the cool breezes to refresh them when the heat of the day came But they clean contrary closed up all their houses to the East and opened all to the West so that in the afternoones when the Sun came to the West those little low roofed rooms were like Stoves or heated Ovens And truly in a very hot day it might raise a doubt whether so much heat without and so much tobacco and kill-devill within might not set the house a fire for these three ingredients are strong motives to provoke it and they were ever there But at last I found by them the reasons of this strange preposterous manner of building which was grounded upon the weakest and silliest foundation that could be For they alledged that at the times of rain which was very often the wind drave the rain in at their windowes so fast as the houses within were much annoyed with it for having no glasse to keep it out they could seldome sit or lie drie and so being constrained to keep out the ayer on that side for fear of letting in the water would open the West ends of their houses so wide as was beyond the proportion of windows to repair that want and so let in the fire not considering at all that there was such a thing as shutters for windowes to keep out the rain that hurt them and let in the winde to refresh them and do them good at their pleasure But this was a consideration laid aside by all or the most part of the meaner fort of Planters But at last I found the true reason was their poverty and indigence which wanted the means to make such conveniences and so being compelled by that had rather suffer painfully and patiently abide this inconvenience than sell or part with any of their goods to prevent so great a mischiefe So loath poor people are to part with that which is their next immediate help to support them in their great want of sustenance For at that lock they often were and some good Planters too that far'd very hard when we came first into the Iland So that hard labour and want of victualls had so much deprest their spirits as they were come to a declining and
conclusion for he got such love of his servants as they thought all too little they could do for him and the love of the servants there is of much concernment to the Masters not only in their diligent and painfull labour but in fore seeing and preventing mischiefes that often happen by the carelessnesse and slothfulnesse of retchlesse servants sometimes by laying fire so negligently as whole lands of Canes and Houses too are burnt down and consumed to the utter ruine and undoing of their Masters For the materialls there being all combustible and apt to take fire a little oversight as the fire of a Tobacco-pipe being knockt out against a drie stump of a tree has set it on fire and the wind fanning that fire if a land of Canes be but neer and they once take fire all that are down the winde will be burnt up Water there is none to quench it or if it were a hundred Negres with buckets were not able to do it so violent and spreading a fire this is and such a noise it makes as if two Armies with a thousand shot of either side were continually giving fire every knot of every Cane giving as great a report as a Pistoll So that there is no way to stop the going on of this flame but by cutting down and removing all the Canes that grow before it for the breadth of twenty or thirty foot down the winde and there the Negres to stand and beat out the fire as it creeps upon the ground where the Canes are cut down And I have seen some Negres so earnest to stop this fire as with their naked feet to tread and with their naked bodies to tumble and roll upon it so little they regard their own smart or safety in respect of their Masters benefit The year before I came away there were two eminent Planters in the Iland that with such an accident as this lost at least 10000 l. sterling in the value of the Canes that were burnt the one Mr. James Holduppe the other Mr. Constantine Silvester And the latter had not only his Canes but his house burnt down to the ground This and much more mischiefe has been done by the negligence and wilfulnesse of servants And yet some cruell Masters will provoke their Servants so by extream ill usage and often and cruell beating them as they grow desperate and so joyne together to revenge themselves upon them A little before I came from thence there was such a combination amongst them as the like was never seen there before Their sufferings being grown to a great height their daily complainings to one another of the intolerable burdens they labour'd under being spread throughout the Iland at the last some amongst them whose spirits were not able to endure such slavery resolved to break through it or die in the act and so conspired with some others of their acquaintance whose sufferings were equall if not above theirs and their spirits no way inferiour resolved to draw as many of the discontented party into this plot as possibly they could and those of this perswasion were the greatest numbers of servants in the Iland So that a day was appointed to fall upon their Masters and cut all their throats and by that means to make themselves not only freemen but Masters of the Iland And so closely was this plot carried as no discovery was made till the day before they were to put it in act And then one of them either by the failing of his courage or some new obligation from the love of his Master revealed this long plotted conspiracy and so by this timely advertisment the Masters were saved Justice Hethersall whose servant this was sending Letters to all his friends and they to theirs and so one to another till they were all secured and by examination found out the greatest part of them whereof eighteen of the principall men in the conspiracy and they the first leaders and contrivers of the plot were put to death for example to the rest And the reason why they made examples of so many was they found these so haughty in their resolutions and so incorrigible as they were like enough to become actors in a second plot and so they thought good to secure them and for the rest to have a speciall eye over them # It has been accounted a strange thing that the Negres being more then double the numbers of the Christians that are there and they accounted a bloody people where they think they have power or advantages and the more bloody by how much they are more fearfull than others that these should not commit some horrid massacre upon the Christians thereby to enfranchise themselves and become Masters of the Iland But there are three reasons that take away this wonder the one is They are not suffered to touch or handle any weapons The other That they are held in such awe and slavery as they are fearfull to appear in any daring act and seeing the mustering of our men and hearing their Gun-shot than which nothing is more terrible to them their spirits are subjugated to so low a condition as they dare not look up to any bold attempt Besides these there is a third reason which stops all designes of that kind and that is They are fetch'd from severall parts of Africa who speake severall languages and by that means one of them understands not another For some of them are fetch'd from Guinny and Binny some from Cutchew some from Angola and some from the River of Gambra And in some of these places where petty Kingdomes are they sell their Subjects and such as they take in Battle whom they make slaves and some mean men sell their Servants their Children and sometimes their Wives and think all good traffick for such commodities as our Merchants sends them When they are brought to us the Planters buy them out of the Ship where they find them stark naked and therefore can not be deceived in any outward infirmity They choose them as they do Horses in a Market the strongest youthfullest and most beautifull yield the greatest prices Thirty pound sterling is a price for the best man Negre and twenty five twenty six or twenty seven pound for a Woman the Children are at easier rates And we buy them so as the sexes may be equall for if they have more men then women the men who are unmarried will come to their Masters and complain that they cannot live without Wives and desire him they may have Wives And he tells them that the next ship that comes he will buy them Wives which satisfies them for the present and so they expect the good time which the Master performing with them the bravest fellow is to choose first and so in order as they are in place and every one of them knowes his better and gives him the precedence as Cowes do one another in passing through a narrow gate for the most of them
stragling from the rest was met by this Indian Maid who upon the first sight fell in love with him and hid him close from her Countrymen the Indians in a Cave and there fed him till they could safely go down to the shoar where the ship lay at anchor expecting the return of their friends But at last seeing them upon the shoar sent the long-Boat for them took them aboard and brought them away But the youth when he came ashoar in the Barbadoes forgot the kindnesse of the poor maid that had ventured her life for his safety and sold her for a slave who was as free born as he And so poor Yarico for her love lost her liberty Now for the Masters I have yet said but little nor am able to say halfe of what they deserve They are men of great abilities and parts otherwise they could not go through with such great works as they undertake the managing of one of their Plantations being a work of such a latitude as will require a very good head-peece to put in order and continue it so I can name a Planter there that feeds daily two hundred mouths and keeps them in such order as there are no mutinies amongst themi and yet of severall nations All these are to be employed in their severall abilities so as no one be idle The first work to be considered is Weeding for unlesse that be done all else and the Planter too will be undone and if that be neglected but a little time it will be a hard matter to recover it again so fast will the weeds grow there But the ground being kept clean 't is fit to bear any thing that Country will afford After weeding comes Planting and they account two seasons in the year best and that is May and November but Canes are to be planted at all times that they may come in one field after another otherwise the work will stand still And commonly they have in a field that is planted together at one time ten or a dozen acres This work of planting and weeding the Master himselfe is to see done unlesse he have a very trusty and able Overseer and without such a one he will have too much to do The next thing he is to consider is the Ingenio and what belongs to that as the Ingenio it selfe which is the Primum Mobile of the whole work the Boyling-house with the Coppers and Furnaces the Filling room the Still-house and Cureing-house and in all these there are great casualties If any thing in the Rollers as the Goudges Sockets Sweeps Cogs or Braytrees be at fault the whole work stands still or in the Boyling-house if the Frame which holds the Coppers and is made of Clinkers fastned with plaister of Paris if by the violence of the heat from the Furnaces these Frames crack or break there is a stop in the work till that be mended Or if any of the Coppers have a mischance and be burnt a new one must presently be had or there is a stay in the work Or if the mouths of the Furnaces which are made of a sort of stone which we have from England and we call it there high gate stone if that by the violence of the fire be softned that it moulder away there must new be provided and laid in with much art or it will not be Or if the barrs of Iron which are in the flowre of the Furnace when they are red hot as continually they are the fire-man throw great shides of wood in the mouths of the Furnaces hard and carelesly the weight of those logs will bend or break those barrs though strongly made and there is no repairing them without the work stand still for all these depend upon one another as wheels in a Clock Or if the Stills be at fault the kill-devill cannot be made But the main impediment and stop of all is the losse of our Cattle and amongst them there are such diseases as I have known in one Plantation thirty that have died in two daies And I have heard that a Planter an eminent man there that clear'd a dozen acres of ground and rail'd it about for pasture with intention as soon as the grasse was growne to a great height to put in his working Oxen which accordingly he did and in one night fifty of them dyed so that such a losse as this is able to undo a Planter that is not very well grounded What it is that breeds these diseases we cannot finde unlesse some of the Plants have a poysonous quality nor have we yet found out cures for these diseases Chickens guts being the best remedy was then known and those being chopt or minc't and given them in a horn with some liquor mixt to moisten it was thought the best remedy yet it recovered very few Our Horses too have killing diseases amongst them and some of them have been recovered by Glisters which we give them in pipes or large seringes made of wood for the same purpose For the common diseases both of Cattle and Horses are obstructions and bindings in their bowells and so lingring a disease it is to those that recover as they are almost worn to nothing before they get well So that if any of these stops continue long or the Cattle cannot be recruited in a reasonable time the work is at a stand and by that means the Canes grow over ripe and will in a very short time have their juice dried up and will not be worth the grinding Now to recruit these Cattle Horses Camells and Assinigos who are all lyable to these mischances and decaies Merchants must be consulted ships provided and a competent Cargo of goods adventured to make new voyages to forraigne parts to supply those losses and when that is done the casualties at Sea are to be considered and those happen severall waies either by shipwrack piracy or fire A Master of a ship and a man accounted both able stout and honest having transported goods of severall kinds from England to a part of Africa the River of Gambra and had there exchanged his Commodities for Negres which was that he intended to make his voyage of caused them all to be shipt and did not as the manner is shakle one to another and make them sure but having an opinion of their honesty and faithfulnesse to him as they had promised and he being a credulous man and himselfe good natur'd and mercifull suffered them to go loose and they being double the number of those in the ship found their advantages got weapons in their hands and fell upon the Saylers knocking them on the heads and cutting their throats so fast as the Master found they were all lost out of any possibility of saving and so went down into the Hold and blew all up with himselfe and this was before they got out of the River These and severall other waies there will happen that extreamly retard the work of Suger-making Now let us
Houses where they lay up their stores of Corn and other provisions and likewise in dwelling houses for their victualls For when the great down-falls of rain come which is in November and December and in the time of the Turnado they leave the field and shelter themselves in the dwelling houses where they do much mischiefe The Canes with their tops or blades doe commonly grow to be eight foot high the Canes themselves are commonly five or sixe foot I have seen some double that length but 't is but seldome the bodyes of them about an inch diametre the knots about five or six inches distant one from another many times three or four inches some more some lesse for there is no certaine rule for that the colour of the blades and tops pure grass green but the Canes themselves when they are ripe of a deep Popinjay and then they yeeld the greater quantity and fuller and sweeter juyce The manner of cutting them is with little hand-bills about sixe inches from the ground at which time they divide the tops from the Canes which they do with the same bills at one stroake and then holding the Canes by the upper end they strip off all the blades that grow by the sides of the Canes which tops and blades are bound up in faggots and put into Carts to carry home for without these our Horses and Cattle are not able to work the pasture being so extreame harsh and sapless but with these they are very well nourisht and kept in heart The Canes we likewise binde up in faggots at the same time and those are commonly brought home upon the backs of Assinigoes and we use the fashion of Devoâ—shire in that kind of Husbandry for there we learnt it which is small pack-saddles and crookes which serve our purposes very fitly laying upon each Crook a faggot and one a top so that each Assinigo carries his three faggots and being accustomed to go between the field and the place where they are to unload will of themselves make their returnes without a guide So understanding this little beast is in performing his duty The place where they unload is a little platforme of ground which is contiguous to the Mill-house which they call a Barbycu about 30 foot long and 10 foot broad done about with a double rayle to keep the Canes from falling out of that room where one or two or more who have other work to do in the Mill house when they see the Assinigoes comming and make a stop there are ready to unloade them and so turning them back againe they go immediately to the field there to take in fresh loading so that they may not unfitly be compar'd to Bees the one fetching home honey the other sugar being laid on the Barbycu we work them out cleane and leave none to grow stale for if they should be more then two dayes old the juyce will grow sower and then they will not be fit to worke for their soureness will infect the rest The longest time they stay after they are cut to the time of grinding is from Saturday evening to Munday morning at one or two a clock and the necessity of Sunday comming between upon which we do not work causes us to stay so long which otherwise we would not doe The manner of grinding them is this the Horses and Cattle being put to their tackle they go about and by their force turne by the sweeps the middle roller which being Cog'd to the other two at both ends turne them about and they all three turning upon their Centres which are of Brass and Steele go very easily of themselves and so easie as a mans taking hold of one of the sweeps with his hand will turne all the rollers about with much ease But when the Canes are put in between the rollers it is a good draught for five Oxen or Horses a Negre puts in the Canes of one side and the rollers draw them through to the other side where another Negre sâ—ands and receives them and returnes them back on the other side of the middle roller which drawes the other way So that having past twice through that is forth and back it is conceived all the juyce is prest out yet the Spaniards have a press after both the former grindings to press out the remainder of the liquor but they having but small works in Spaine make the most of it whilst we having far greater quantities are loath to be at that trouble The Canes having past to and againe there are young Negre girles that carry them away and lay them on a heap at the distance of six score paces or there abouts where they make a large hill if the worke have continued long under the rollers there is a receiver as big as a large Tray into which the liquor falls and stayes not there but runs under ground in a pipe or gutter of lead cover'd over close which pipe or gutter carries it into the Cistern which is fixt neer the staires as you go down from the Mill-house to the boyling house But it must not remaine in that Cisterne above one day lest it grow sower from thence it is to passe through a gutter fixt to the wall to the Clarifying Copper as there is occasion to use it and as the work goes on and as it Clarifies in the first Copper and the skumme rises it is conveyed away by a passage or gutter for that purpose as also of the second Copper both which skimmings are not esteem'd worth the labour of stilling because the skum is dirtie and grosse But the skimmings of the other three Coppers are conveyed down to the Still-house there to remaine in the Cisterns till it be a little sower for till then it will not come over the helme This liquor is remov'd as it is refin'd from one Copper to another and the more Coppers it passeth through the finer and purer it is being continually drawn up and keel'd by ladles and skim'd by skimmers in the Negres hands till at last it comes to the tach where it must have much labour in keeling and stirring and as it boyles there is thrown into the four last Coppers a liquor made of water and Wit hs which they call Temper without which the Sugar would continue a Clammy substance and never kerne The quantities they put in are small but being of a â—art quality it turnes the ripeness and clamminesse of the Sugar to cruddle and separate which you will find by taking out some drops of it to Candy and suddenly to grow hard and then it has inough of the fire Upon which Essay they presently poure two spoonfulls of Sallet Oyle into the tach and then immediately it gives over to bubble or rise So after much keeling they take it out of the tach by the ladles they use there and put it into ladles that are of greater receipt with two handles and by them remove it into the cooling Cisterne neer