S62 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



jar in a vertical direction, the low. 

 est reaching to within five inches of 

 the bottom, snfficient to° retain the 

 fecula, which is carried to the 

 houses and dried in bags. 



This is the whole of the process 

 recurred to in this part, which, I 

 think, if adopted in Bengal, might 

 in no small degree supersede the ne- 

 cessity of raising great and expen- 

 sive buildings ; in a word, save the 

 expenditure of so much money in 

 dead stock, before they can make 

 any indigo in the European method j 

 to which I have to add, that indigo 

 thus obtained, possesses a very fine 

 quality. 



As t think these observations 

 may be useful to the manufacturers 

 in Bengal, I could wish to see 

 them printed in the Transactions 

 of the Asiatic Society, 



^mbore, 2d /Ipnl, 1791. 



Mxtract from a treatise on the manu- 



Jacture of indigo, at Anibore, by 



Idr. De Cossigny ; from the same. 



THIS experiment (the Indian 

 process) infallibly shews, that 

 indigo may be produced by differ- 

 ent methods, and how much it is 

 to be regretted, that the European 



artists should remain constantly 

 wedded to their method or routine,^ 

 without having yet made the neces- 

 sary enquiries toward? attaiiimg per- 

 fection. Many travellers on the 

 coast of Coromandel having been 

 struck with the apparent simpl city 

 of the means used by the Indians in 

 preparing Indigo, from having seen 

 their artists emjjloyed in the open 

 air, with only earthen jars, arid from 

 not havinj- duly examined and 

 weighed the extent of the detail of 

 their process, apprthend that it i« 

 effected by easier means, than with 

 the large vats of masonry, and the 

 machinery employed by Europeans : 

 but they have been greatly mista- 

 ken, the whole appearing a delusive 

 conclusion from the following ob- 

 servation, viz. that one man can, 

 in the European method of manu- 

 facture, bring to issue one vat, con- 

 taining fifty bundles of plant, which, 

 according to their nature and qua- 

 lity, may afford from ten to thirty 

 pounds of indigo ; whereas, by the 

 Indian process, one employed du- 

 ring the same time, would probably 

 only produce one pound of indigo : 

 the European method is, therefore, 

 the most simple, as well as every 

 art where machinery is used, iij* 

 stead of manual labour,* 



* Experience alone must decide between the opposite opinions of Colonel Martin 

 jmd Mil De Cossigny. 





ANTIQUITIES. 



