A true & exact history of the island of BarbadosLigon, Richard
History
A true & exact history of the island of Barbados
Ligon, Richard
Barbados -- Description and travel; Plants -- Barbados; Sugar -- Manufacture and refining -- Barbados
making it into whites, which is that we call Lump-Sugar in _England_,
and then the price will be doubled to 4130400. out of which we will
abate ¼ for waste, and what is cut off from the tops and bottoms
of the pots, which will be good Muscavadoes; but we will abate for
that, and waste ¼ which is 1032600. and that we will substract from
4130400. and there remaines 3097800. which is the totall of the
revenue of Sugars, that grow on the _Barbadoes_ for twenty months,
and accounted there, upon the Iland, at the Bridge. But if you will
run the Hazards of the Sea, as all Marchants doe, and bring it for
England, it will sell in London, for 12 d. the pound, and so ’tis
doubled againe; and then it will amount to 6195600. and in two months
time more it will be in England. Now you see what a vast Revenew
this little spot of ground can produce in 22 months time; And so I
have done with this plant, onely one touch more, to conclude with
all; as Musicians, that first play a Preludium, next a Lesson, and
then a Saraband; which is the life and spirit of all the rest. So
having played you a short Preludium, to this long and tedious lesson
of Sugar and Sugar-making, I do think fit to give you a Saraband,
with my best Touches at last; which shall be only this, that as this
plant has a faculty, to preserve all fruits, that grow in the world,
from corruption and putrifaction; So it has a vertue, being rightly
applyed, to preserve us men in our healths and fortunes too. Doctor
_Butler_ one of the most learned and famous Physitians that this
Nation, or the world ever bred, was wont to say that,
_If Sugar can preserve both Peares and Plumbs,
Why can it not preserve as well our Lungs?_
And that it might work the same effect on himselfe, he alwayes dranke
in his Claret wine, great store of the best refin’d Sugar, and also
prescribed it severall wayes to his Patients, for Colds, Coughs,
and Catarrs; which are diseases, that reign much in cold Climats,
especially in Ilands, where the Ayre is moyster then in Continents;
and so much for our Health.
Now for our fortunes, they are not only preserv’d, but made by the
powerfull operation of this plant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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