State Library of NSW
[Page 441]
Manners & Customs of the S. Sea Islands
Indigo, Woad, Dyers weed, or indeed the most of the Plants whose leaves are usd in dying & yet those latent qualifications have when discoverd produc'd Colours without which our dyers could hardly go on with their Trades
The Painter whoom I have with me tells me that the nearest imitation of the colour that he could mak would be by mixing together vermilion & Carmine but even that would not equal the delicacy of it tho a body colour & the Indian only a stain in the way that the Indians use it I can not say much for its standing they commonly keep their cloth white till the very time when it is to be us'd & then dye it as if conscious that it would soon fade I have however usd Cloth dy'd with it myself for a fortnight or three weeks in which time it has very little alterd itself & by that time the Cloth was pretty well wore of it I have also some now in chests which a month ago when I lookd into them had very little alterd their colour the admixture of fixing drugs would however certainly not a little conduce to its standing
So much for their Red their yellow though a good colour has certainly no particular excellence to recommend it in which it is superior to our known
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