iiilieritaiu'e from tliese old pioneers of good living. Coming 

 down to a later date and qnotiug freely from Messrs. S. Du- 

 Jlose and F. A. l*oi-cliei' : JJetween ITUO and the Kevolntion- 

 ary War, we find these old settlers and their descendants ex- 

 panding in their pnrsnits, in order to gain wealth, engaging 

 ill the cnlture of indigo, rice and cotton, and in working of 

 naval stores and making of tar, to the latter of which the 

 many tar mounds in our woods testify. 



Taking up each in order as they occur, I will say some- 

 thing about indigo, its culture, etc. This plant cultivated 

 at an early date to a great extent in parishes of St Stephens, 

 St. Johns and St. James, (many of the vats could lately be 

 seen on some of the early settled plantations,) and was a 

 great source of wealth to the then planters, and continued 

 to be so until the colonies became independent and Great 

 Britain withdrew the fostering bounty of Gd. a pound on it, 

 and worse still, bringing the products of her other colonies 

 in competition, when it was abandoned sometime between 

 1790 and 1794. Before the war the price varied from, fl.OO 

 to I2..50 per pound. A slight sketch of its culture and prep- 

 aration m*ight not be uninteresting. The land was laid off, 

 after being pulverized, in drills 12 or 15 inches apart 

 and seed sown about one inch deep, mixed with lime 

 and ashes. The seed came up in ten days and grew off 

 rapidh', required neat and frequent hoeing until plants 

 were two or three feet high, when they were cut with a hook, 

 and could be cut several times, and carried to vats made of 

 planks and raised some height from the ground; when this 

 was sufficiently filled it was covered with clear water and 

 left to steep until coloring matter was extracted, this water 

 was then drawn off to a lower ♦vat, called the "beater," a 

 long shaft supplied with buckets or armjs ran lengthwise 

 through this, and was turned with a crank on outside. The 

 I)urpose of this was to cause the coloring particles to coag- 

 ulate, lime was then applied. After it had settled the indi- 

 go was drawn off to still another vat and allowed to harden, 

 then cut into lumps about one-fourth pound each and packed 

 into bags or boxes for market. It was said the manufac- 

 ture required great care and good judgment. 



Naval stores was early taken up and introduced by Capt. 

 John Balmer and others. He was progenitor of the Palmers 



