The massive stone tower held a windmill that powered the grinding of the sugar cane -- at least on windy days. On still days, donkeys turned a mechanical grinder. A series of boiling pots--fueled by the crushed cane stalks-- distilled the cane juice to concentrated forms, including molasses, rum, and finally crystallized sugar.
Today, air plants find perches on the stone walls. The walls tell
the human and geologic history of the place. The red and yellow English
bricks were used as ballast on the slave ships, while blue-gray stone is
the native volcanic rock. Brain coral was a favored building material
because it could be retrieved from the bays and shaped while it was soft,
but hardened into a strong stone. Mortar was formed of ground coral,
sand, and other local materials.
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