volume one

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HISTORY or THE CRUSADES. 197
It was cultivated in several of the provinces of Syria, and
particidarly in tiie territory of Tripoli, where they had
found means of extracting from it the substance which the
inhabitants called zucra.^ According to Albert d'Aix, this
plant had afforded great assistance to the Christians w^hen
assailed by famine at the sieges of Maarah and Archas.
This plant, now become of such importance in commerce,
had been till this time unkno\Mi in the West. The pilgrims
made it known in Europe, and towards the end of the
crusades it was transported into Italy and Sicily, w^hilst the
Saracens introduced it into the kingdom of Grrenada, whence
the Spaniards afterwards conveyed it to Madeira and the
American colonies.
f
When the pilgrims were all united to continue their
march to Palestine, they must doubtless have been struck
with terror as they contemplated the losses they had experienced.
More than two hundred thousand Crusaders
had been cut off by battles, famine, misery, and disease. A
great number of them, unable to support the fatigues of the
holy pilgrimage, and losing all hope of seeing Palestine, had
returned to the West. Many had taken up their abode in
Antioch, Edessa, and other cities from which they had
driven the inhabitants, and which they were obliged to
defend against the infidels. With all these deductions, the
army which was to achieve the conquest of the Holy Land
* We think it right here to give the account of Albert d'Alx :— Calamellos
mellitas per cansporum planiciem abundanter repertos, quasvocant
ZUCRA, suxit populus, illarum salubri succo laetatus et vix ad saturitatem
prae dulcedine expleri hoc gustato valebant. Hoc enim genus herbae
summo labore agricolaruni, per singulos excolitur annos. Deinde, tempore
messis maturum mortariolis indigenae contundunt, succum collatum in
vasis suis reponentes quousque coagulatum indurescat sub specie nivis
vel salis albi. Quern rasum cum pane miscentes aut cum aqua terentes,
pro pulmento sumunt, et supra favura mellis gustantibus dulce ac salubre
videtur His ergo calamellis melliti saporis populus in obsidione
Albariae, Marrag et Archas, multum horrenda fame vexatus, est refocillatus.
All). Aq. Kb. V. cap. 3.
t Sanuti proposed to plant the sugar-cane in Sicily and Apulia. This
idea was not carried into execution before the end of the fourteenth cen-
tury. The sugar-cane did not pass, as has been said, from Sicily to
America ; it was transported to Madeira from the coast of Spain, whither
it had been brought by the Saracens. The sugar-cane is still found in
some parts of the kingdom of Grenada.