46 Silk Manufacture. 



and difficulties raised against the prosecution of what he 

 calls " this glorious undertaking," were mere phantoms. The 

 event, however, proved him to be wrong ; and showed that 

 difficulties did exist of an insurmountable description: for al- 

 though it was confidently predicted that in the ensuing year 

 a considerable quantity of raw silk would be produced, the 

 expectation was disappointed, and the company soon sunk into 

 oblivion. 



' This undertaking had arisen among the crowd of specula- 

 tions conceived at that period, which produced such disastrous 

 results — projects, whether rational or chimerical, which were 

 all alike eagerly embraced by the insensate multitude. 

 The dreadful revulsion which followed may account for the 

 rapid extinction of a scheme, the projectors of which had 

 contemplated such splendid advantages. 



' In the earliest infancy of the settlement of Georgia, in 

 the year 1732, a piece of ground belonging to government 

 was allotted as a nursery plantation for white mulberry trees, 

 and the attention of some of the settlers was soon engag- 

 ed in rearing silk worms. This branch of industry grad- 

 ually, although slowly, increased, both in Georgia and South 

 Carolina; and it appearing desirable that this country (Eng- 

 land) should be enabled to draw supplies from its col- 

 onies, rather than be dependent upon foreign states for 

 a material of continually growing importance to its manu- 

 factures, an act of parliament was passed in 1749 for encourag- 

 ing the growth of colonial silk, under the provisions of which, 

 all that was certified to be the production of Georgia and 

 Carolina, was exempted from the payment of duty on importa- 

 tion into the port of London. Encouraged by the increasing 

 growth of raw silk in these colonies, which induced a belief, 

 that by the adoption of more judicious plans an abundant sup- 

 ply might be drawn from them, sufficient to answer all the 

 demands of our manufacturers, a bounty was offered for 

 the production of silk, and an Italian gentleman, named 

 Ortolengi, was engaged, at a suitable salary, to proceed to 

 Georgia and instruct the colonists in the Italian mode of 

 management. Although, for a time, hopes were entertain- 

 ed that the Georgians might find in this pursuit a valuable 

 branch of industry, yet, in consequence of one or two 

 unfavorable seasons, and still more from the quality of the 

 silk proving very indifferent, its culture soon began to de- 

 cline, and the lessening of the bounty became a signal 

 for its abandonment by the planters. A small quantity 

 was still raised by the poorest of the peasantry ; but before 



