Meanwhile, Eliza's cares on the plantations grew constantly more engrossing, as her crops of indigo grew larger and more difficult to handle. So well satisfied was her father that this plant could be made a staple export, that he sent to Eliza an "Indigo Maker," named Cromwell, from the island of Monserrat, where indigo was a famous product. This man understood the processes, and built brick vats in which the leaves had to lie for a certain length of time. He apparently knew his business, but watching him closely Eliza saw he was not getting the right result, and told him so. This was due to the climate, he asserted, and saying no more, the girl gave her undivided attention to experimenting with different processes, and found out not only that he was wrong, but where his mistake lay. Calling him to her, she dismissed him, and in his place put his brother, who for a short time was more successful. In her public-spirited way, Eliza gave up one whole year's crop to making seed, for she had great difficulty in getting it from the East Indies in time for the crops to ripen before a frost. This home-grown seed she presented to those planters who were interested in raising indigo, and it was a generous gift, for the seed was by no means cheap. By the gift many planters were induced to try the new seed and at that time Eliza wrote to her father: "Out of a small patch of Indigo growing at Wappoo (which Mama made a present to Mr. P.) the brother of Nicholas Cromwell besides saving a quantity of Seed, made us 17 pounds of very good Indigo, so different from N C's, that we are convinced he was a mere bungler at it. Mr. Deveaux has made some likewise, and the people in gen^l very sanguine about it. Mr. P. sent to England by the last man of warr 6 pounds to try how t'is approved of there. If it is I hope we shall have a bounty from home, we have already a bounty of 5^s currancy from this province upon it. We please ourselves with the prospect of exporting in a few years a good quantity from hence, and supplying our Mother Country with a manifacture for w^{ch} she has so great a demand, and which she is now supplyd with from the French Collonys, and many thousand pounds per annum thereby lost to the nation, when she might as well be supplyd here, if the matter was applyd to in earnest."