A&^ HORTUS JAMAICENSTS. 



INDfOa- 



This valuable commodity is .the principal ingredient known for dying a fine blue* 

 end no part of the world atibiiis better soil for the cuhure of indigo than the interior 

 parts of Jamaica. Add to which, that it is not bulky in the carriage: and that a few 

 barrels of small size, siicl) as a muie may convey through the most difficult roads, will 

 conlain a quantity of it cf great value.' Fifteen negroes are esteemed sufficientio ma- 

 nage and attend twenty acres; and twenty-five negrn*s aje, allowed to fiftv. Four 

 negroes are therefore about eciual to five acres; which proves that, it may be entered 

 upon by men of exceedingly siriall capitals; and, it is also certain, that they will have 

 time for doing. other oc<asional work through the year. One acre of rich soil, well 

 ])lanted, wifl,. with gooal seasons, and proper management, yield two hundred pounils 

 weight* in twelve months; for this plant gives ratoons, or re-producei., affordino- four 

 or five-crops in a year ; but m.u.st be rejjlanted afterwards. One negro's lord of good 

 plantswi!! produce one pound weight of good indigo; and, supposmg a mule-load six 

 times,:cis much, the latter v. ill be equal to six j>ounds weight. , A planter, possessed of 

 fournegroes, and two mules, with .five acres in this cultivation, may therefore be al- 

 lowed, by prudent management, to make one thousand pounds weight per annum. 



.About the year 1620, the trade for indigo stood thus. Three hundred and fifty 

 thousand pounds weight was spent in a year in Europe ; which, at four shdlinos and 

 six pence per pound at Aleppo, cost seventy-five thousand eight hundred and thirty- 

 three pounds, six shillings, and eight,pence ; at one shilling, and two pence in the 

 East Indies, cost twenty ttiousand four hundred and sixteen pounds, twelve shillings, 

 and four pence. ; In later tiinec,- iJreat Britain, and Ireland ha.e consiuned eight hun- 

 tl red thousand ])ounds weight and upwards per annum; and were computed to pay 

 ; France two hundred thousand pounds annually for what they bought from her. Jamaica 

 once furnished a Large, supply ; but the tax of three shillings and six pence per pound 

 being injudiciously imposed by parliament, the planters were obliged to drop it, and 

 went upon other commodities, in consequence, until the'pianters of South Carolina 

 undertook this article, the French islands (and principally Hispaniola) supplied not 

 only Great Britain but the greater part of Europe. About 1747, the Carolinians re- 

 uiitted^l^put two hundred thousand pounds weiglit to Britain ; which sold v.ell, though 

 of a quality inferior to the French; but they l>ave since improved it so as to be nearly 

 equal. %Such were the effects of this high duty, . which lost the nation many thousand 

 pounds yearly, and extirpated indigo from Jamaica, to the ruin of several indu.strious 

 families. A wiser parlinMient, after the manufacture began tc thrive in Carolina, in- 

 stead of laying on duties to prohibit, granted a bounty ef six pence per pound weight 

 ftn all indigo raised in the Air,erican colonies, atid imported into Great Britain directly 

 from the place of growth. The encouragement was politic ; yet this article does not 

 seem as yet to be cultivated in our colonies to such extent as to furnish the home de- 

 mand ; for the imponation of French indigo is still permitted. Whence, it seetns, 

 that, for want of employing more of our lands in this article, the market for sugar will 

 be glutted, and that ibr indigo not sufficiently slocked. 



In 1672 Jamaica bad sixty indigo works, chiefly in \^ere, which produced fifty thou- 

 sand pounds weight per annum. If, therefore, it had not met with so fatal a check, 



we 



Tliirty to eighty pounds wf ijrlit is allowed for tolerable yielding in South Carolina. But it is to be ol> 

 .served, tint tliese lands are pour in comparison willi tlie fresli cleared wood-land of Jamaica, which requires 

 'to be cxliaiisted by this, or some other vcijetable of an imppverishin;; nature, before it will make sugar ; and 



'jiorMicli soils two hundred pounds weight will not appear at all exaggerated; and fifty pounds weigUt per 



.jivcre, for the medium produce of indifttrcct soils. '-' 



