Vincent, Sensuntepepe, not only, it is said, produce a larger quantity, but the four last-mentioned places have the advantage as to quality.  The Belize Advertiser stated, some time since, that the value of this dye from one State in 1830 produced 2,000,000 dollars, the minimum of an immense sum which has been most unjustly and unwisely wrested from the people of Jamaica, and the West India islands.

Bridges ("Annals of Jamaica,” p. 584, Append.), speaking of the vast returns of an indigo plantation, says, “The labour of a single negro would often bring to his owner L30 sterling per annum clear profit,—­a sum which was at the time the laborer’s highest price.  It continued the staple of Jamaica till an intolerable tax oppressed it, while its price was lowered by the competition of other colonies.

Its cultivation immediately declined throughout them all, but nowhere so rapidly as here.  The financial error was quickly discovered,—­a remedy was attempted by a bounty; but it came too late, the plantations were thrown up, and the planters, attracted by the temporary gain, abused the tardy boon, by introducing, as of their own growth, large quantities of foreign indigo.”  As Bridges may be said in this passage to be merely a commentator on Edwards, who has entered more largely upon the subject, I shall condense from the latter, statements connected with the manufacture and decay of this branch of industry, once the staple of Jamaica.

Edwards ("West Indies,” vol. ii., p. 275, 2nd edition) reckons three kinds of indigo—­the wild, Guatemala, and French.  The first is the hardest, and the dye extracted from it of the best quality as regards color and grain; but one or other of the two species is commonly preferred by the planter, as yielding a greater return.  Of these the French surpasses the Guatemala in quantity, but yields to it in fineness of grain and beauty of color.  The indigo thrives almost on any land, though the richest soils produce the most luxuriant plants, and the longest dry weather will not kill it.  The cultivation and manufacture our author thus describes:—­“The land being prepared, trenches, two or three inches in depth, are made by the hoe.  These are ten or twelve inches asunder.  The seeds are then strewed in the trenches by the hand, and slightly covered with mould.  When the plants shoot, they are carefully weeded, and kept constantly clean, until they rise high enough to cover the ground.  A bushel of seed is sufficient for four or five acres.  The best season for planting is March; but if the land be good, it may be sown at any time, and in three months the plants attain maturity.  In seasonable situations, they have four cuttings in the year.  The subsequent growths from the plants ripen in six or eight weeks; but the produce diminishes after the second cutting, so that the seeds should be sown every second year.  A species of grub, or worm, which infests the