Of the thin cloth they seldom dye more than the edges, but the thick cloth is coloured through the whole surface; the liquor is indeed used rather as a pigment than a dye, for a coat of it is laid upon one side only, with the fibres of the Moo; and though I have seen of the thin cloth that has appeared to have been soaked in the liquor, the colour has not had the same richness and lustre, as when it has been applied in the other manner.

Though the leaf of the Etou is generally used in this process, and probably produces the finest colour; yet the juice of the figs will produce a red by a mixture with the species of Tournefortia, which they call Taheinoo, the Pohuc, the Eurhe or Convolvulus Brasiliensis, and a species of Solanum called Ebooa; from the use of these different plants, or from different proportions of the materials, many varieties are obobservable [sic] in the colours of their cloth, some of which are conspicuously superior to others.

Voyaging Accounts