tlgl. improvements in India. 3^ 



fnird from the king's gardens at Kew, by the favour of 

 Sir Joseph Banks. All these arrived safe, and v«ere 

 found to be exactly the same -Jjlant. A piece of ground 

 was appropriated by government for a nopalry, under the 

 direction of Dr Anderson, where there are now many 

 thousand plants of it, in the most thriving condition, ready 

 to receive the cochineal insect as soon as it ihall arrive, 

 •which the India directors, under the superintendance of 

 Sir Joseph Banks, have given orders to procure and for^ 

 ward thither long ago. It is probable they may be al- 

 ready arrived ; and after that time the culture of the co- 

 chineal may be^ considered as pennanently establiftied in 

 India. 



The basis on which Dr Anderson rests his hopes of 

 «uccefs in this and other enterprizes in India, is not only 

 the favourablenefs of the climate, but also an immense 

 overflowing of population in that country, in proportion 

 to the demand for labour there, the astonilhing cheap- 

 nefs of provisions among the poor Gentoos, who live upon 

 rice, and the roots of the nyinphcea aquatica, which are 

 reared at scarcely any expence, and the consequent cheap- 

 mefs of labour over all that district. " I must observe," 

 says Mr Towns to Dr Anderson, in his letter from Viz,a. 

 ■ gapatnam, dated May 19. 1791, " that the price of la- 

 bour is very low, viz. a man/urr day, five dubs, a woman, 

 three dubs, stout boys and girls, two dubs, and the ex- 

 •change eighty-eight dubs for one rupee, {i.e. 2s. 3d.) 

 •which will purchase the labour of seventeen men, and ous 

 woman for one day, or twenty-nine one-third, of women, or 

 •forty-four of boys and girls, according to the nature of the 

 work you may have in hand." This is a degree of cheap- 

 •ncfs of which we in Europe could not, I think, have any 

 tcomprcheasion. Allow me to alk if the labour of a slav* 

 VOL. viii. £ f 



