The beauty, however, of the beft is not permanent; but
it is probable that fome method might be found to fix it, if
proper experiments were made, and perhaps to fearch for
latent qualities, which may be brought out by the mixture
of one vegetable juice with another, would not be an unprofitable
employment:.our prefent moil valuable dvds afford
fufficient encouragement to the attempt*, for by the mere
infpedtion of indico, woad, dyer’s weed, and moft of the
leaves which are ufed for the like purpofes, the colours
which they yield could never be difcovered.. Of this Indian
l ed I fhall only add, that- the women who have been employed
in preparing or ufing it, carefully preferve the colour
upon their fingers and nails, where it appears in its utmoft
beauty, as a great ornament.
The yellow is made-of the bark of the rOot of :the iliorifitih
citrifolia, called. A/obo, by fcraping and -infufing it in water;
after Handing fome time, the;water is ftrained and ufed as a
dye, the cloth being dipped into it. The Morinda, o f which
this is a fpecieS, feemsto be a. good f'ubjcqt for examination
with a view to dyeing. Brown, in his hiflory-of Jamaica^
mentions three, fpecies of it, which he fays' are ufed to
dye brown; and Rumphius fays of the -Bammia.Augvjiifolia,
which is nearly allied to our Nono, that it is ufed by the inhabitants
of the Eaft-Indian Iflands, as a fixing drug for red
cflxours, with which it particularly agrees, j
The inhabitants of this ifland alfo dye yellow with'the
fruit of theTamanu; but how the colour is extracted, we
had no opportunity todifcover. They, have alfo a preparation
with which they dye brown and black f but thefe colours
are fo indifferent, that the method of preparing them
did not excite our curiofity.
Another
Another confiderable manufacture is matting o f various
kinds ; fome of which is finer, and better in every refpedf,
than any we have in Europe : the coarfer fort ferves them to
fleep upon, and the finer to wear in wet weather. With the
fine, of which there are alfo two forts, much pains is taken,
efpecially with that made of the bark of the Poerou, the Hi-
bijeus tiliaceus of Linnseus, fome of which is as fine as a
coarfe cloth : the other fort, which is fiill more beautiful
they call Vanne ; it is white, gloffy, and finning, and is made
of the leaves of their Wbarrou, a fpecies of the Pandanus, of
which we had no opportunity to fee either the flowers or
fruit: they have other matts, or as they call them Moeas,, to
fit Qr to fleep upon, which are formed of a great.variety of
rufhes and grafs, and which they make, as they do every
thing elfe that is plaited, with amazing facility and dif-
patch.
They are alfo very dexterous in making balket and wicker-
work; their bafkets are of a thoufand different patterns,
many of them exceedingly neat; and the making them is an
art that every one pradtifes, both men and women: they
make occafional bafkets and panniers of the cocoa-nut leaf
in a few minutes, and the women who vifited us early in a
morning ufed to fend, as foon as the fun was high, for a few
of the leaves, of which they made little bonnets to fhade-
their faces, at fo fmall an expence of time and trouble, that,
when the fun was again low in the evening, they ufed to-
throw them away. Thefe bonnets, however, did not cover
the head, but confifted only of a band that went round' it,
and a fhade that projected from the forehead.
Of the bark of the Poerou they make ropes and lines, from
the thicknefs of an inch tathe fize of a fmall packthread: