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 indigo, 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 angustifolia, 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 dye brown and black; but these colours are so indifferent, that the method of preparing them did not excite our curiosity.

Another considerable manufacture is matting of various kinds; some of which is finer, and better, in every respect, than any we have in Europe; the coarser sort serves them to sleep upon, and the finer to wear in wet weather.  With the fine, of which there are also two sorts, much pains is taken, especially with that made of the bark of the poerou, the hibiscus tiliaceus of Linnaeus, some of which is as fine as a coarse cloth:  The other sort, which is still more beautiful, they call vanne; it is white, glossy, and shining, and is made of the leaves of their wharrou, a species of the pandanus, of which we had no opportunity to see either the flowers or fruit:  They have other matts, or, as they call them, moeas, to sit or to sleep upon, which are formed of a great variety of rushes and grass, and which they make, as they do every thing else that is plaited, with amazing facility and dispatch.