475 

 XV. 



On the MANUFACTURE of INDIGO at AMBORE, 



By Lieutenant Colonel Claude Martin. 



I PRESENT the Society with a fliort defcription of the procefs obferved 

 in the culture and manufacture of Indigo in this part of India. The 

 Ambore diltrict is comprifed within a range of furrounding hills of a moderate 

 height : the river Pallar, declining from its apparent foutherly direction, en- 

 ters this diilrict about three miles from the eaflward, wafhes the Ambore 

 Pettah y a fmall neat village, diftant three miles to the fouthward of the fort 

 of that name, fituated in a beautiful valley -, the ikirts of the hills covered 

 with the Palmeira and Date trees, from the produce of which a confiderable 

 ^quantity of coarfe fugar is made j this tract is fertilized by numerous rills of 

 water conducted from the river along the margin of the heights and through- 

 out the intermediate extent : this element being conveyed in thefe artificial 

 canals (three feet deep), affording a pure and cryftal current of excellent water 

 forthefupply of the Rice fields, Tobacco, Mango, and Cocoanut, plantations ; 

 the higheft fituated lands affording Indigo, apparently without any artificial wa- 

 tering, and attaining maturity at this feafon notwithftanding the intenfenefs of 

 the heat, the thermometer under cover of a tent rifing to I oo, and out of 

 it to 1 20 ; the plant affording even in the dryeft fpots good foliage, although 

 more luxuriant in moifter fituations. I am juft returned from examining the 

 manufacture of this article. Firft the plant is boiled in earthen pots of about 

 eighteen inches diameter, difpofed on the ground in excavated ranges from 

 twenty to thirty feet long, and one broad, according to the number ufed, 



M m m 2 



