io8 HISTORY OF THE [book v. 
To what has been said above of the nature of 
the plant, suiting itself to every soil, and produ¬ 
cing four cuttings in the year, if we add the cheap¬ 
ness of the buildings, apparatus and labour, and the 
great value of the commodity, there will seem but 
little cause for wonder at the splendid accounts 
which are transmitted down to us concerning the 
great opulence of the first indigo planters. Allow¬ 
ing the produce of an acre to be 300 lbs. and the 
produce no more than 4s. sterling per pound, the 
gross profits of twenty acres will be £. 1,200 pro¬ 
duced by the labour of only sixteen negroes, on a 
capital in land and buildings scarce deserving consi¬ 
deration. 
Such, without doubt, will be the reader’s first re¬ 
flections. Unhappily, however, the golden hopes 
motion begins to shew itself throughout the body of liquor—the 
bulk increases considerably, with some additional heat; air bubbles 
are geneiated, some of which remain on the surface, and gradually 
collect into patches of froth—a thin violet or copper-coloured pellicle 
or cream makes its appearance between the patches of froth, and soon 
after, the thin film which forms the covering of the bubbles compo¬ 
sing the froth bigins to be deeply tinged with a fine blue: the liquor 
from the beginning will have been acquiring a green colour, and now 
it will appear, when viewed falling from one vessel to another, of a 
bright yellowish green, and will readily pass the closest filter, until 
the action of the air makes it turbid, a proof that the base of the co- 
lout is now perfectly dissolved in the watery menstruum. This is the 
time for letting off the vat—the fermentation however continues, and 
large quantities of froth are formed. The smell now becames very 
offensive,” See. Sec. 
Bancroft on Permanent colours. Appendix 43c- 
