SEPT. 1770 WEAVING, SPINNING, DYEING 351 



The shortness of our stay and the few opportunities we 

 had of going among these people, gave us no opportunity of 

 seeing what arts or manufactures they might have among 

 them. That they spin, weave, and dye their cloth we, how- 

 ever, made shift to learn, for though we never saw them 

 practise any of these arts, yet the instruments accidentally 

 fell in our way ; first, a machine for clearing cotton of 

 its seeds, which was in miniature much upon the same 

 principles as ours in Europe. It consisted of two cylinders 

 about as thick as a man's thumb, one of which was turned 

 round by a plain winch handle, and that turned the other 

 round by an endless worm at their extremities ; the whole 

 was not above seven inches high and about twice as long. 

 How it answered, I know not, but do know that it had been 

 much worked, and that there were many pieces of cotton 

 hanging on different parts of it, which alone induced me to 

 believe it a real machine, otherwise, from its slightness, I 

 should have taken it for no more than a Dutch toy of the 

 best sort. Their spinning gear I also once saw ; it consisted 

 of a bobbin on ; hich a small quantity of thread was wound, 

 and a kind of distaff filled with cotton, from whence I con- 

 jecture that they spin by hand, as our women in Europe 

 did before wheels were introduced, and I am told still do in 

 some parts of Europe where that improvement is not 

 received. Their loom I also saw ; it had this merit over 

 ours, that the web was not stretched on a frame, but only 

 extended by a piece of wood at each end, round one of 

 which the cloth was rolled as the threads were round the 

 other. I had not an opportunity of seeing it used, so cannot 

 at all describe it ; I can say only that it appeared very simple, 

 much more so than ours, and that the shuttle was as long 

 as the breadth of the web, which was about half a yard. 

 From this circumstance, and the unsteadiness of a web fixed 

 to nothing, the work must in all probability go on very 

 slowly. That they dyed their own cloth we first guessed by 

 the indigo which we saw in their plantations, which guess 

 was afterwards confirmed by Mr. Lange. We likewise saw 

 them dye women's girdles of a dirty, reddish colour ; their 



