CHAY ROOT FOR DYING RED. 295 



ExtraBfroiii the Bengal Commercial Confultations, the 2lth of 

 April, 1798. 



To W. A. Edmonstone, Efq. Secretary to the 



Board of Trade, 

 SIR, 



I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your I^ewer to the 

 letter of the Sift uh. informing me that I was defired by the Trade! ^"^'"^ °^ 

 Board to make fome experiments with the Chay Root, and to 

 report whether I think it will be of any ufe to the dyers or.i 

 calico-printers at home. ., 



It is rather turprifing, confidering the pains that have been The Chay-root 

 taken in Europe to difcover, or at leaft to imitate the method ^^i ^^^ ^perma-'" 

 of dying the Turkijh or Adrianople red, that fo little attention nent red to cot- 

 has been paid to the equally beautiful and permanent red given ^°^^* 

 to their calicoes by the natives of the coaft of Coromandel. 

 Although full accounts of the praftice of calico printing in the 

 Eaft Indies were fent home long ago by the miffionary Co3ur 

 Poux, M. Polvre, and others, it does not appear that the 

 European artifts have ever tried their fkill in the Chay root, 

 the drug by which the admired red colour is produced. I have Not praftJcally 

 never heard,' at leaft, of any fuch attempts, nor,do I believe 1'^"°'*" *" ^"' 

 that the root has ever been fent home. It is evident, from 

 the manner in which thi^drug is mentioned by Dr. Bancroft, 

 in his " Experimental Refearches," p. 174, that well-informed 

 writer had never feen it, which I think could fcarcely have 

 happened, had it been at all known to the London dyers. 



It is probable that the tedioufnefs of the Indian procefs, as The Indian pro- 

 defcribed by thofe who fent home the accounts of it, confiding "^? apparently 

 of many tirefome manipulations, continued during a period of ^* 

 nineteen or twenty days, deterred the European artifts from 

 trying the effeds of the Chai/ root in dying or printing their 

 cottons. What may appear more extraordinary is, that the 

 fame caufe, co-operating perhaps with the natural indolence 

 of the people, and their having cheaper though inferior red 

 dyes at hand, has prevented the ufe of this root from obtain- 

 ing in Bengal ; for, fo far as I can learn, it is not ufed in (his 



part of India. The natives here are content with the red /-u 



" J.J ■ *-" Cheaper drugs 



produced by the Aul Munjiet and other drugs, though the co- ufed at Bengal. 



lours yielded by thefe are far inferior to thofe of Madras calicoes. 



On 



