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The beauty, however, of the best is not permanent; but it is probable that some method might be found to fix it, if proper experiments were made, and perhaps to search for latent qualities, which may be brought out by the mixture of one vegetable juice with another, would not be an unprofitable employment: our present most valuable dyes afford sufficient encouragement to the attempt; for by the mere inspection of indico, woad, dyer’s weed, and most of the leaves which are used for the like purposes, the colours which they yield could never be discovered. Of this Indian red I shall only add, that the women who have been employed in preparing or using it, carefully preserve the colour upon their fingers and nails, where it appears in its utmost beauty, as a great ornament.
The yellow is made of the bark of the root of the Morinda citrifolia, called Nono, by scraping and infusing it in water; after standing some time, the water is strained and used as a dye, the cloth being dipped into it. The Morinda, of which this is a species, seems to be a good subject for examination with a view to dyeing. Brown, in his history of Jamaica, mentions three species of it, which he says are used to dye brown; and Rumphius says of the Bancuda Augustifolia, which is nearly allied to our Nono, that it is used by the inhabitants of the East-Indian islands, as a fixing drug for red colours, with which it particularly agrees.
The inhabitants of this island also dye yellow with the fruit of the Tamanu; but how the colour is extracted, we had no opportunity to discover. They have also a preparation with which they die brown and black; but these colours are so indifferent, that the method of preparing them did not excite our curiosity.
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© Derived from Vols. II-III of the London 1773 edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, pages 216 - 216, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv23/217.html