CHAPTER XV. 



THE EARLY BEGINNINGS OF INDIGO. 

 T appears that the cultivation of indigo, in the form 

 practised in the West Indies, was commenced in 

 Bengal between the years 1770 and 1780. Mr. 

 Lowis Bonnaurd, who arrived in Bengal in 1772, and 

 who had previously made experiments in Indigo at 

 the Mauritius, is believed to be the person who is 

 entitled to the credit of having introduced the manu- 

 facture of indigo to India. He did not succeed in 

 the Mauritius in consequence of the soil not proving 

 favourable to the growth of the plant. He made his 

 first attempt of indigo manufacture in the French 

 territory, about two miles to the southward of Chan- 

 dernagore, in a garden called Gandalpara, with a 

 single pair of small vats, the remains of which were 

 to be seen a few years ago. The same spot is 

 now occupied by a very excellent but small, factory, 

 recently constructed. In 1775, Mr. Bonnaurd built a 

 small factory at Faldanga, a little village between 

 Chandernagore and Chinsurah. This factory was 

 demolished some years since, and its site converted 

 into a garden by its present proprietor, a native. About 

 the above period, two French medical gentlemen, 



