CUTTING THE INDIGO PLANT.
All the intermediate shades of violet and purple may be obtained from the mixture of red and blue, varying according to the different proportions wherein these colours are applied. There are, however, some few vegetable substances which yield a violet or purple dye, without being combined with another colour, and of these logwood is the most important. The stately tree which furnishes this valuable article of commerce is a native of the western world, having been first discovered in the swampy forests of Yucatan, and in the low alluvial grounds that girdle the Bays of Campeachy and Honduras.
About the year 1661, logwood became in great request; and as the indolent Spaniards to whom the country at that time belonged failed to supply the market, several English adventurers, without first asking permission, settled or squatted on the uninhabited coast of Yucatan, and made the woods near Laguna de Terminos ring with the sound of their industrious axe. Many years passed without the Spaniards taking any notice of the intruders; but as these, growing bolder by sufferance, began to penetrate farther into the country, to build houses and form plantations, as if they had been masters of the soil, their jealousy was at length aroused, and in 1680 the English settlers were forcibly ejected. This triumph on the part of their adversaries was, however, but transitory; and a few months after our sturdy countrymen were again cutting their logwood as busily as ever, in spite of the enmity of man and the innumerable hardships of their laborious occupation.
Their mode of life is thus quaintly described by Dampier in his Voyage to the Bay of Campeachy:—‘The logwood-cutters inhabit the creeks of the lagunes in small companies, building their huts by the creeks’ sides for the benefit of the sea-breeze, as near the logwood groves as they can, and often removing to be near their business. Though they build their huts but slightly, yet they take care to thatch them very well with palmetto leaves, to prevent the rains, which are there very violent, from soaking in. For their bedding, they raise a wooden frame, three feet and a half above ground on one side of the house, and stick up four stakes at each corner, to fasten their curtains, out of which there is no sleeping for mosquitoes. Another frame they raise, covered with earth, for a hearth, to dress their victuals; and a third to sit at, when they eat it. During the wet season, the land where the logwood grows is so overflowed that they step from their beds into the water, perhaps two feet deep, and continue standing in the wet all day till they go to bed again; but, nevertheless, account it the best season for doing a good day’s labour in. Some fell the trees, others saw and cut them into convenient logs, and one chips off the bark, and he is commonly the principal man; and when a tree is so thick that after it is logged it remains still too great a burden for one man, it is blown up with gunpowder. The logwood-cutters are generally sturdy strong fellows, and will carry burthens of three or four hundredweight. In some places they go a-hunting wild cattle every Saturday to provide themselves with beef for the week following. When they have killed a beef they cut it into quarters, and taking out the bones, each man makes a hole in the middle of his quarter, just big enough for his head to go through, then puts it on like a frock and trudgeth home; and, if he chanceth to tire, he cuts off some of it and throws it away.’
The entire freedom from all restraint which accompanied this wild and adventurous life had such charms for Dampier’s bold and roving spirit, that he sojourned for about a year among the rude wood-cutters of Campeachy, and left them with the intention of again returning for a longer stay.
Most of the red dye-woods are furnished by the Cæsalpinias, a genus of plants belonging to the widespread family of the Leguminosæ, and indigenous in both hemispheres. The C. crista, which furnishes the best quality, commonly known under the name of Brazil wood, grows profusely in the forests of that vast empire, preferring dry places and a rocky ground. Its trunk is large, crooked, and full of knots; at a short distance from the ground innumerable branches spring forth and extend in every direction in a straggling manner. The branches are armed with short strong upright thorns, the leaves are small, and never appear in luxuriant foliage. The flowers are of a beautiful red colour, and emit a fragrant smell. Both the thick bark and the white pithy part of the trunk are useless, the hard close-grained heart being the only portion impregnated with colouring matter. The wood is sometimes used in turning, and is susceptible of a good polish, but its chief use is as a red dye. By the addition of acids it produces a permanent orange or yellow colour, while the crimson tints which it imparts are very fleeting.
The first Europeans that settled on the banks of the Amazons found that several of the Indian tribes that roamed about in their vicinity painted their bodies with a showy orange-red colour. Their attention was by this means attracted to the Arnatto (Bixa orellana), which attains about the size of our hazel-tree. The heart-shaped leaves are about four inches long, of a lighter green on the upper surface, and divided by fibres of a reddish-brown colour; the rosy flowers are succeeded by bristled pods somewhat resembling those of a chestnut, which, bursting open when ripe, display a splendid crimson farina or pulp, in which are contained thirty or forty seeds, in shape similar to raisin stones. As soon as they have arrived at maturity the pods are gathered, divested of their husks, bruised, immersed in water, and after a few weeks beaten with sticks to promote the separation of the pulp from the seeds. The turbid liquor is then strained, boiled to a consistent paste, and finally formed into cakes, which are left to dry in the sun. In England arnatto is generally used by the dyer to give a deeper shade to the simple yellow. Being perfectly soluble in spirits of wine, it is much used in this state for lacquering and for giving an orange tint to the yellow varnishes. It is likewise employed in large quantities as a colouring ingredient for cheese, to which it gives the required tinge without imparting any unpleasant flavour or unwholesome quality.
CINNAMON.