INDIGO MANUFACTURE. 
227 
Tobacco has also been cultivated in Portugal since the year 
1559, though the potato did not become an object of Euro- 
pean agriculture till the eud of the seventeenth and begin- 
ning of the eighteenth century. This latter plant, which has 
had so powerful an influence on the well-being of society, has 
spread in both continents more slowly than tobacco, which 
can be considered only as an article of luxury. 
Next to tobacco, the most important culture of the valley 
of Cumanacoa is that of indigo. The manufacturers of 
Cumanacoa, of San Fernando, and of Arenas, produce indigo 
of greater commercial value than that of Caracas; and 
often nearly equalling in splendour and richness of colour 
the indigo of G-uatimala. It was from that province that 
the coasts of Cuimna received the first seeds of the Indmo- 
fera Anil* which is cultivated jointly with the Indigofera 
tinctoria. The rains being very frequent in the valley of 
Cumanacoa, a plant of four feet high yields no more colour- 
mg matter than one of a third part 'that size in the arid 
valleys of Aragua,_ to the west of the town of Caracas. 
The manufactories we examined are all built on uniform 
principles. Two steeping vessels, or vats, which receive the 
plants intended to be brought into a state of fermentation, 
are joined together. Each vat is fifteen feet square, and two 
and a half deep. Erom these upper vats the liquor runs 
into beaters, between which is placed the water-mill. The 
axletree of the great wheel crosses the two heaters. It is 
furnished with ladles, fixed to long handles, adapted for the 
beating. Erom a spacious settling-vat, the colouring feeula 
is carried to the drying place, and spread on planks of 
brasiletto, which, having small, wheels, can be sheltered 
under a roof in case of sudden rains. Sloping and very low 
i oofs give the drying place the appearance of hot-houses at 
•some distance. In the valley of Cumanacoa, the fermenta- 
tion of the plant is produced with astonishing rapidity. It 
lasts in general hut four or five hours. This short duration 
can be attribiited only to the humidity of the climate, and 
the absence ot the sun during the development of the plant. 
* The indigo known in commerce is produced by four species of plants ; 
•the Indigofera tinctoria, I. anil, I. argentea, and I. disperma. At the Rio 
Negro, near the frontiers ot Jlrazil, we found the I. argentea growing 
•wild, but only in places anciently inhabited by Indians. 
Q 2 
