INDIGO. 
1 93 
The noli or boriga is of a colour inclining to red 
when examined against the sun. The sassala is 
very hard, and of a dull colour. 
The indigo plant is cultivated on a large scale in 
America. In Carolina, in Louisiana, and in Mexico; 
it is produced in abundance; but no where with 
more success, or m greater quantities, than in the 
West Indies. There, in some of our islands, as 
well as those belonging to the French; it is one of 
the chief objects of commerce; It is attended with 
little expense, and returns a large profit, though 
less than that produced from the sugar plantation. 
The plant; as we have before observed, is tender, 
and very sensible of sudden alterations in the tem- 
perature of the air. This makes the chance of suc- 
cess more hazardous than in either the cotton or 
the coffee plantation, since a cutting wind may de- 
stroy in an hour what the planter has laboured for 
months to bring to perfection. Continued rains. 
Without the proper means being contrived for the 
Water to drain off; scorching winds that dry up the 
trunk ; and, above all, a host of insects that feed 
Upon the leaves, ate amongst the catalogue of cala- 
mities to which the indigo is subject before it ar- 
rives at maturity. These obstacles; however, though 
they occur but too frequently, and Certainly exercise 
the patience of the planter, do not seem to operate 
against the general cultivation of the vegetable. The 
harvest is always looked forward to as a reward for 
the losses which occur in raising the plants ; and 
VOL. in* o 
