Page:A voyage to New Holland - Dampier.djvu/95

Rh here are Dye-woods, as Fustick, &c. with Woods for other uses, as speckled Wood, Brazil, &c. They also carry home raw Hides, Tallow, Train-oil of Whales, &c. Here are also kept tame Monkeys, Parrots, Parakites, &c. which the Seamen carry home.

The Sugar of this Country is much better than that which we bring home from our Plantations: for all the Sugar that is made here is clay'd, which makes it whiter and finer than our Muscovada, as we call our unrefin'd Sugar. Our Planters seldom refine any with Clay, unless sometimes a little to send home as Presents for their Friends in England. Their way of doing it is by taking some of the whitest Clay and mixing it with Water, 'till 'tis like Cream. With this they fill up the Pans of Sugar, that are sunk 2 or 3 Inches below the Brim by the draining of the Molosses out of it: First scraping off the thin hard Crust of the Sugar that lies at the top, and would hinder the Water of the Clay from soaking through the Sugar of the Pan. The refining is made by this Percolation. For 10 or 12 days time that the Clayish Liquor lies soaking down the Pan, the white Water whitens the Sugar as it passes thro' it; and the gross Body of the Clay it self grows hard on the top, and may be taken off at pleasure; when scraping off with a