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 which 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 
