11 2 
HISTORY OF THE [book v. 
The admirers of coffee have long lamented the 
inferiority of the West Indian to that of the Mo¬ 
cha. That many of the complaints with which the 
public are amused on this subject, arise from af¬ 
fectation, I have not a doubt. At the same time 
it must be admitted, that the charge is not entirely 
without foundation, inasmuch, as the West Indian 
coffee is frequently drank within twelve months af¬ 
ter it has been gathered from the tree ; and that 
the flavour improves by age, there is not a coflee 
planter in the West Indies so bigotted to his own 
possessions, as wholly to deny. 
But the notion that the coflee it sell is naturally 
inferior to that of the East, as being the produc¬ 
tion of a coarser and less valuable species of the 
tree, needs no other refutation than the circum- 
« only about no grains, and being of a blue violet colour. The stipe- 
“ rior quality of this indigo must alone be imputed to the nature of the 
ri. process, by which the colour, or rather base of the colour, is ex- 
“ tracted from the plant; for their apparatus is very inconvenient.” 
cc Besides the superior quality of the indigo obtained by tne scald- 
“ ing process, the quantity is generally increased by it; moreover the 
<t health of the labourer in this way is not endangered, as in the fer- 
« menting process, by constant and copious exhalations of putrid mias- 
“ ma; the heat employed expels most of the fixed air during the scald- 
“ ing, which renders a very small degree of agitation, and very little 
“of the precipitant necessary. The operation can also he performed 
“ two or three times a day upon a large scale; and lastly, the indigo 
“ itself dries quickly, without acquiring any bad smell, or putrid 
“ unwholesome tendency.” 
Surely these observations deserve the most serious attention of the 
planters in the British West Indies! 
