168 THE MODERN HISTORY OF SILK. 



every effort was used, but in vain, to extend the 

 numbers of Silk Worms. When it was discovered 

 that the climate of Britain was not congenial to the 

 propagation of the insect, the hopes that were enter- 

 tained soon began to die away, and in a few years the 

 experiment was in a manner abandoned as hopeless. 



The king, finding his projects frustrated at home, 

 now turned his thoughts to his colonies ; and he %vas 

 advised, that the climate of Virginia was of such a 

 temperature, that the insect might there be success- 

 fully cultivated. He wrote the Virginian Company 

 a very. particular letter on the subject, recommending 

 that they should substitute the cultivation of mulberry 

 trees, and rearing of Silk Worms, for the growth of 

 tobacco, which he considered a " pernicious and 

 offensive weed." 



The Virginian Company entered heartily into the 

 king's views ; and being furnished with a work, written 

 by one of the Company, Mr John Bonoeil, on the 

 Culture of the Silk Worm, they entertained notions 

 that they would speedily be enabled to produce such 

 a quantity of silk, that they could supply the half of 

 the world. But a series of untoward events frustrated 

 the hopes of the Company, which was soon after 

 broken up by the misfortunes which befel the colony. 

 And although a subsequent attempt was again made 

 in 1654 by the Virginians, at the instigation of Mr 

 Edward Diggs, yet, from some cause with which we 

 are unacquainted, the silk trade never flourished in 

 that state. 



In the year 1629, King Charles I. made an attempt 



