The following passage from Bryan Edwards will corroborate much that I have endeavored to enforce. It furnishes not only a solution which has been hinted at before, of the enigma why indigo ceased to be cultivated in Jamaica, but also an incentive to re-introduce the culture. He says (p. 444), "It is a remarkable and well-known circumstance, after the cultivation of indigo was suppressed by an exorbitant duty of near £20 the hundred-weight, Great Britain was compelled to pay her rivals and enemies £200,000 annually for this commodity, so essential to a great variety of her most important manufactures. At length, the duty being repealed, and a bounty some time after substituted in its place, the States of Georgia and South Carolina entered upon, and succeeding in the culture of this valuable plant, supplied at a far cheaper rate than the French and Spaniards (receiving too our manufactures in payment) not only the British consumption, but also enabled Great Britain to export a surplus at an advanced price to foreign markets."—It is therefore plain that the manufacture of indigo was lost to Jamaica, not from any difficulty in growing the plant, or from any loss of life attending the process of manufacturing it, but from the ruinously heavy duty of £20 the hundred-weight—and that now, when no duty exists, it might be again cultivated with great advantage.
The cultivation of indigo has been repeatedly attempted in Cuba, but never with much success; although the shrub called the Xiquilite, from which it is extracted, grows wild in several districts of the island, but more especially towards the eastern extremity. The first anileria, or manufactory of indigo, was established in 1795, under the patronage of the Ayuntamento of the Havana, who made an advance of 3,500 dollars, without interest, to the party engaging in the speculation, in order to encourage the enterprise; but the undertaking proved unsuccessful, and the same fate has befallen every subsequent attempt to introduce this branch of industry. In 1827, the whole produce amounted only to 56 arrobas. In 1837 the imports of indigo greatly exceeded the exports; the former having amounted to 121,350 lbs., and the latter to 82,890 lbs. In 1833, 5,184 lbs. reached the United Kingdom from the Havana, and in 1843, 62,675 lbs.
In 1826 British Honduras exported 358,552 lbs.; in 1830, 2,650 serons; in 1844, 1,247 serons; and in 1845, 1,052 serons.
The indigo shrub is one of the most common bushes in Trinidad, where it grows wild on almost all the indifferent soils. In 1783, there were several plantations and manufactories of indigo established in Trinidad; these were subsequently abandoned, on account of a supposition that they were unhealthy. Prior to 1783, the colonists had a kind of simple process by which they extracted sufficient coloring matter to serve domestic consumption. This process is at present unknown, hence all the indigo used there is imported from Europe, although the plant from which it can be made vegetates in every direction.
In 1791 Hayti imported 930,016 lbs. of indigo, while in 1804 the export had dwindled to 35,400 lbs.
Indigo, as I have already stated, was once a most important crop in South Carolina, some attention has recently again been given to it by an individual or two in Louisiana, and the enterprise is said to promise success; enough might undoubtedly be raised in the United States to supply the home market. Some indigo produced at Baton Rouge was pronounced to have been equal to the best Caraccas, which sells at two dollars per pound; and the gentleman who cultivated it remarks, that one acre of ground there, well cultivated, will yield from 40 to 60 lbs.; that it requires only from July to October for cultivating it; that there is not connected with it one-third of the expense or time that is generally required for the cultivation of cotton.
I take the following from Smyth's "Tour in the United States."
"This plant is somewhat like the fern when grown, and when young is hardly distinguishable from lucern grass, its leaves in general are pinnated, and terminated by a single lobe; the flowers consist of five leaves, and are of the papilonaceous kind, the uppermost petal being longer and rounder than the rest, and lightly furrowed on the side, the lower ones are short and end in a point; in the middle of the flower is formed the style, which afterwards becomes a pod containing the seeds.
"They cultivate three sorts of indigo in Carolina, which demand the same variety of soils. First, the French or Hispaniola indigo, which striking a long tap root will only flourish in a deep rich soil, and therefore, though an excellent sort, is not so much cultivated in the maritime parts of the State, which are generally sandy, but it is produced in great perfection one hundred miles backwards; it is neglected too on another account, for it hardly bears a winter so sharp as that of Carolina. The second sort, which is the false Guatemala, or true Bahamas, bears the winter better, is a more tall and vigorous plant, is raised in greater quantities from the same compass of ground, is content with the worst soil in the country, and is therefore more cultivated than the first soil, though inferior in the quality of its dye.
"The third sort is the wild indigo, which is indigenous here; this, as it is a native of the country, answers the purposes of the planter best of all, with regard to the hardiness of the plant, the easiness of the culture, and the quantity of the produce. Of the quality there is some dispute not yet settled amongst the planters themselves; nor can they distinctly tell when they are to attribute the faults of their indigo to the nature of the plant, to the seasons, which have much influence upon it, or to some defect in the manufacture.