326
INDIGO.
although, it should seem, that under this name is compre-hended every colour of that description which was formerlyknown; and which was separated from vegetable produceby fermentation, and afterwards converted into a friablesubstance by desiccation. However, it must now be under-stood, that the preparation made from that species of plants,denominated by botanical writers Indiijofera linctoria,should be alone considered. Because the various sub-stances, from whence indigo has been procured by our dyersand merchants, are much more numerous; as indigo is saidto be prepared from so vast a number of plants, that theyare not of the same species, or even family.
Anciently, and indeed till the discovery of the trans-atlantic -world, all the indigo employed in Europe , camefrom India by laud, like all other Indian produce; andtill the Portuguese effected a passage round the Africanpeninsula, it was brought from the Gulf of Ormus to Alex-andria, thence to Venice, Leghorn, Marseilles , and otherEuropean ports 1 * up the Mediterranean. We believe it waslong considered as an Arabian produce. European igno-rance need not be wondered at, because the Arabians hadbeen for many centuries eminent for their chymical skill.In the like situation was the knowledge of the Indians re-specting smalt, which the Hutch obtained originally fromSaxony , they having manufactured it, sold it from theirBatavian and Javanese warehouses to various parts of India .
From a passage we have before cited in a preceding arti-cle, the ignorance of even modern Europeans as to the spe-cific nature of this pigment, may be appreciated; by whichit will appear the more extraordinary, considering the obser-vation was made by a physical character, and even the verybook which professedly treats of the detection of generalerror . 1 The circumstance to which we allude, is what wasbefore observed with respect to China , or porcelain ware.
It is believed, that what Dioscorides calls indicon , 3 4 andPliny and Vitruvius denominate indicum* is the same wecall indigo. This is the more believed, as they, Dios-corides and Pliny , describe it as a costly drug, and also thatit was used ill painting. When pulverized it yielded ablack colour; and when diluted in water, afforded an agree-
1 Sometimes it was brought through the Persian Gulf , and partly by land toBabylon, or through Arabia and up the Arabian Gulf to Egypt , from Alexandriait was usually transported to various European ports.
i Sir T. Brown’s Pseudodoxia Epidemica, b. ii. p. 98, ut supra.
3 Dioscorides, lib. v. cap. 107, p. 366.