Digital Grainger

An Online Edition of The Sugar-Cane (1764)

4

  • Their sylvan lore convey: O may I join
  • This choral band, and from their precepts learn [15]
  • To deck my theme, which though to song unknown,

  • Is most momentous to my Country’s weal!1

  • SO shall my numbers win the Public ear;
  • And not displease Aurelius;2 him to whom,
  • Imperial George, the monarch of the main,3 [20]
  • Hath given to wield the scepter of those isles,
  • Where first the Muse beheld the spiry Cane,
  • Supreme of plants, rich subject of my song.

VER. 22. the spiry Cane,] The botanical name of the Cane is Saccharum. The Greeks and Romans seem to have known very little of this most useful and beautiful plant. Lucan and Pliny are the only Authors among the former who mention it; and, so far as I can find, Arrian is the only Greek.4 The first of these Writers, in enumerating Pompey’s Eastern auxiliaries,5 describes a nation who made use of the Cane-juice as a drink:

Dulces bibebant ex arundine succos.6

The industrious Naturalist says, Saccharum et Arabia fert, sed laudatius India;7 and the Greek Historian, in his περιπλουϛ of the Red-sea, tells us of a neighbouring nation who drank it also; his words are, μελι το χαλαμινον το λεγομενον σαχΧαρι. The Cane, however, as it was a native of the East, so has it been probably cultivated there time immemorial. The raw juice was doubtless first made use of; they afterwards boiled it into a syrup; and, in process of time, an inebriating spirit was prepared therefrom by fermentation. This conjecture is confirmed by the etymology, for the Arabic word סכר8 is evidently derived from the Hebrew שכר,9 which signifies an intoxicating liquor. When the Indians began to make the Cane-juice into sugar, I cannot discover;10 probably, it soon found its way into Europe in that form, first by the Red-sea, and afterwards through Persia, by the Black-sea and Caspian; but the plant itself was not known to Europe, till the Arabians introduced it into the southern parts of Spain, Sicily, and those provinces of France which bor-

  1. Well-being, happiness, prosperity. ↩︎

  2. According to Gilmore, Aurelius refers to George Thomas (c. 1694-1774), who was born to a planter family on the island of Antigua. Descended on his mother’s side from Massachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop, Thomas was a member of the Antiguan colonial assembly before he became governor of Pennsylvania (1738-1747). He was governor of the Leeward Islands from 1753 to 1766. Marcus Aurelius was the emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 CE. He was known both for his military campaigns against the Germanic tribes and for his philosophical Meditations. ↩︎

  3. George III (1738-1820) was king of Britain from 1760 to 1820. The main is the ocean. ↩︎

  4. Lucan or Marcus Annaeus Lucanus (39-65 CE) was the nephew of Seneca the younger and the author of The Civil War. Gaius Plinius Secondus or Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) was the author of Naturalis Historia. Arrian or Lucius Flavius Arrianus (86-160 CE) was the author of various short essays and histories, including Bithyniaca, Parthica, and what is known as Affairs of Alexander. ↩︎

  5. Pompey or Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (106-48 BCE) was a member of the First Triumvirate. He defeated Mithridates, King of Pontus, and established military order in the eastern provinces of the Roman empire. ↩︎

  6. “They were drinking sweet juices from a reed.” Adapted from Lucan’s De Bello Civili (On the Civil War, also known as the Pharsalia), Book III, line 237, which reads, “Quique bibunt tenera dulces ab harundine sucos.” ↩︎

  7. “Arabia also brings forth sugar but more commendably India.” From Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, Book XII, Chapter 17. ↩︎

  8. Sokhar or sukkar, meaning sugar. Although Grainger claims this word is Arabic, it is actually spelled using Hebrew characters. ↩︎

  9. Shokhar, meaning intoxicated. ↩︎

  10. In this note, Grainger traces the movement of sugarcane from India to the Americas. Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) is most likely native to New Guinea, where it was first cultivated thousands of years ago and from where it began to be dispersed by human migrants around 8000 BCE. By the fourth to sixth centuries CE, sugarcane was being refined into crystallized sugar in India and Persia. From there, sugarcane and knowledge of sugar cultivation, processing, and refining traveled to the Mediterranean. The Spanish then transplanted sugar to the Americas and established plantations there (Columbus first brought sugar to the Caribbean in 1493). ↩︎