19 [ 175 ] 



request; but neither were able or willing to fulfil their engagements. 

 The alleged causes for their non-compliance, were some internal com- 

 motions among the Homerites, and the recall of Belisarius, who, with 

 an army, to which the Arabian auxiliary troops were joined, protected 

 the East from the invasions of the Persians.* This nation, by having 

 the command of the land carriage from the country of the Seres, still 

 enjoyed almost an exclusive trade with respect to the western world, 

 in Indian commodities, but more especially silk, with which it sup- 

 plied remote nations at extravagant prices. From this distress, which 

 was felt and lamented as a real misfortune by the Senators of the Ro- 

 man empire, they were released in a very extraordinary and unex- 

 pected manner. The preachers of the Nestorian doctrine, having 

 been exiled by the persecuting spirit of the ecclesiastical government 

 of Byzantium, fled to India. Their patriarch, who resided in Persia, 

 sent missions, and every where established convents and bishoprics. 

 Two of his monks, who had been employed as missionaries in some of 

 the Christian churches, which were established in different parts of In- 

 dia, having penetrated into the country of the Seres, had observed the 

 labors of the silkworms, and become acquainted with the art of work- 

 ing their production into a variety of elegant fabrics. Aware of the 

 anxiety of the Europeans on this subject, they repaired to Constanti- 

 nople, and imparted to the emperor Justinian, the secret which had 

 hitherto been so well preserved by the Seres, that silk was produced 

 by a species of worms, the eggs of which might be transported with 

 safety, and propagated in his dominions. By the promise of a great 

 reward, they were induced to return, and brought away a quantity of 

 the silkworm's eggs, in the hollow of a cane, and conveyed them 

 safely to Constantinople, about the year 555. The eggs were hatched 

 in the proper season by the warmth of a manure heap, the worms 

 were fed with the leaves of the mulberry tree, and their race propagated 

 under the direction of the monks, t The insects thus happily pro- 

 duced from this caneful of eggs, as if the little ark of the insect race, 

 were the progenitors of all the silkworms of Europe, and the western 

 parts of Asia. Vast numbers of these insects were soon reared in dif- 

 ferent parts of Greece, particularly in the Peloponnesus. The monks 

 having also made themselves masters of the art of manufacturing silk, 

 the business was conducted under the auspices of the emperor, and for 

 his exclusive benefit: but the imperial monopoly could not long con- 

 tinue, and mankind gradually became possessed of the precious insects, 

 after the death of Justinian, in the year 565. % The people of the 

 Peninsula, and of the cities of Athens and Thebes, enjoyed the profit 

 of the cidture and manufacture of silk, without a European rival, for 

 upwards of 400 years; and the Venetians, during the continuance of 

 their commercial glory, distributed the products of their industry over 

 the western parts of Europe. At length, Roger, the Norman king of 

 Sicily, after his return from the second crusade, in order to anticipate 



* Proco])ius, p. 34. 



t The Monks procured the eggs from the colony of the Seres, in Little Bucharia- 



t Procopius de BeUo Gothico, lib 12, cap. 17, 



