Digital Grainger

An Online Edition of The Sugar-Cane (1764)

100

  • To this be nail’d three polish’d iron plates; [240]
  • Whereon, three steel Capouces,1 turn with ease,
  • Of three long rollers, twice-nine inches round,
  • With iron cas’d, and jagg’d with many a cogg.
  • The central Cylinder exceeds the rest
  • In portly size, thence aptly Captain nam’d. [245]
  • To this be rivetted th’ extended sweeps;2
  • And harness to each sweep two seasoned mules:
  • They pacing round, give motion to the whole.
  • The close brac’d cylinders with ease revolve
  • On their greas’d axle; and with ease reduce [250]
  • To trash, the Canes thy negroes throw between.
  • Fast flows the liquor thro’3 the lead-lin’d spouts;4
  • And depurated5 by opposing wires,
  • In the receiver floats a limpid stream.
  • So twice five casks, with muscovado6 fill’d, [255]
  • Shall from thy staunchions7 drip, ere Day’s bright god

  • Hath in the Atlantic six times cool’d his wheels.

  • WOULDST thou against calamity provide?
  • Let a well shingled roof, from Raleigh’s land,

VER. 259. Raleigh’s land] Sir Walter Raleigh gave the name of Virginia, in honour of Q. Elizabeth, to the whole of the north-east of North America, which Sebastian Cabot,8 a native of Bristol, (though others call him a Venetian,) first disco-

  1. Also capoose, capouse. Cone-shaped pivots upon which the rollers of the sugar mill turned. ↩︎

  2. Arms attached to and driving the central shaft of the mill. ↩︎

  3. The “Errata” list at the end of The Sugar-Cane indicates that “thro’” should read “through.” ↩︎

  4. Much of the plumbing used in sugar production and distillation was made of (or lined with) lead. A common side effect of excessive rum consumption in the eighteenth century was lead poisoning, which often manifested in severe stomach aches (dry gripes or colic). ↩︎

  5. Freed from impurities, cleansed. ↩︎

  6. A dark brown, unrefined sugar that was typically the end product of the sugar-making process in the Caribbean. Often described as unrefined since it was usually processed further in Britain and lightened in color before being sold to consumers. ↩︎

  7. Also stanchion, an upright bar, stay, prop, or support. ↩︎

  8. Sebastian Cabot (c. 1481/2-1557) was a Venetian navigator and cartographer who explored the North Atlantic and traveled down the northeastern coast of North America, perhaps as far south as Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, in 1508-1509. He also led an expedition in 1526 that was supposed to reach Asia but went no further than Brazil. Cabot’s place of birth is unclear. Although generally acknowledged as Venice, it might also have been Bristol (late in life, Cabot himself claimed to have been born in Bristol). ↩︎