3-082-692 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Island of Montserrat (West Indies) - Manager's House, 1895. 'At the beginning of the eighteenth century, slave labour began to supplant that of the white settlers; for at that period Jamaica, with Barbadoes and some half-dozen smaller islands, amongst which was Montserrat, had a monopoly of the English sugar market. The cultivation consequently became very profitable, so that by the close of the century the number of slaves in Montserrat had increased to 10,000, whose labour produced about 2,700 hogsheads of sugar each year. The lime harvest is heaviest from September to January, but the Montserrat plantations yield a considerable return all the year round. The trees require regular pruning...The fruit is carried down to two central manufactories, where it is first treated for its essential oil, then sliced by water power, and afterwards squeezed until all the juice has been expressed. The juice from the choice fruit is promptly headed up in casks, so that it may not be exposed to the air; that of the inferior fruit is boiled down for the citric acid makers'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.