wards that he knew, in the
course of eighteen years' residence in the West Indies, upwards of
twenty persons who tried to re-establish indigo manufactories, but
failed. This appears strange, since it is plain that what has once
been done can be done again, but especially in the manufacture of an
article requiring a capital so very small in proportion to the
profits as almost to tempt the most cautious and the most timid man
to embark in it.

I quote the following passage from the same author, for the purpose
of showing the very loose manner in which statements are made on the
authority of others, who are as incompetent to decide the merits of
a question as the party himself chronicling their opinion. Speaking
of the twenty unfortunate indigo-planters, our author thus
writes:--"Many of them were men of foresight, knowledge, and
property. That they failed is certain; but of _the causes of their_
FAILURE _I confess I can give no satisfactory account._ I was told
that disappointment trod close upon their heels at every stop. At
one time the fermentation was too long continued, at another the
liquor was drawn off too soon; now the pulp was not duly granulated,
and now it was worked too much. To these inconveniences, for which
practice would doubtless have found a remedy, were added others of a
much greater magnitude--the mortality of the negroes, from the
vapour of fermented liquor (an alarming circumstance, that, I am
informed, both by the French and English planters, constantly
attends the process), the failure of the seasons, and the ravages of
the worm. These, or some of these evils, drove them at length to
other pursuits, where industry might find a surer recompense."--(p.
283.)

The fallacy of much of this requires no comment, as it must strike
even the most careless reader,--for if the so-called indigo-growers
did not know the process of manufacturing the commodity, then it
could not be surprising that they failed. Thus the cause of their
failure required no comment, and no explanation. Were a ploughman
taken from the field and placed at the helm of a ship, and the
vessel in consequence wrecked, would any one be astonished but at
the folly of those who placed him there? This was the case with the
indigo-growers,--they attempted what they did not understand, and,
conseque