240 TROPICAL VEGETABLE DYES 



considered and treated as pirates. The British government, 

 however, returned a short and positive answer, that its subjects 

 were fully entitled to remain where they were, and to cut as 

 much logwood as they pleased; and Spain, which seemed to 

 have forgotten that weakness should avoid to raise pretensions 1 

 which it is unable to enforce, was obliged to abide by this de- '1 

 cision, and the settlement continued without being matter of ' 

 further dispute or treaty for more than forty years. During this 

 long period the British settlers had not been idle. As they for- 

 tified themselves against the assaults of the Spanish Americans, 

 their colony assumed a more important and imposing aspect ; and 

 though by the treaty of 1763 the two countries came to a com- 

 promise on the subject (the English government consenting that 

 the fortifications should be demolished, while the Spanish 

 government engaged that the subjects of Great Britain should 

 not be molested in cutting or shipping logwood, the sovereignty 

 of the country remaining with Spain), yet they had become so 

 used to consider themselves as the rightful owners of the land, 

 that on the French attempting to share their privilege, they 

 drove them away with all the irascibility of offended proprietors. 



Most of the red dye-woods of commerce are furnished by the 

 Csesalpinias, a genus of plants belonging to the widespread 

 family of the Leguminosse, and indigenous in both hemispheres. 



The Ccesalpinia crista, which furnishes the best quality, com- 

 monly known under the name of Brazil wood, grows profusely 

 in the forests of that vast empire, preferring dry places and a 

 rocky ground. Its trunk is large, crooked, and full of knots ; at 

 a short distance from the ground innumerable branches spring 

 forth and extend in every direction in a straggling, irregular, 

 and unpl easing manner. Trees of the largest growth attain 

 to thirty or forty feet high, but they are rarely met with of so 

 great dimensions. The branches are armed with short strong 

 upright thorns, the leaves are small, and never appear in 

 luxuriant foliage. The flowers are of a beautiful red colour, 

 and emit a fragrant smell. Both the thick bark and the 

 white pithy part of the trunk are useless, the hard close- 

 grained heart being the only portion impregnated with colour- 

 ing matter. The wood is sometimes used in turning, and is 

 susceptible of a good polish, but its chief use is as a red dye. By 



