THE EAHLY lUSIOKY OF SILK. 1 fiS 



circumstance occurred in the year 877, which for a 

 time completely put a stop to the manufacture of 

 silk in China. Biacha, a desperate insurgent, seized 

 the reins of the Chinese empire, put to death all the 

 foreign merchants of Canfu, and directed that tlie 

 whole mulberry-trees on which the larvoe of theSilk- 

 womi Moth were fed should be cut down, so that 

 there was not a particle of silk produced during his 

 reign. 



Massoudi informs us that Canfu, in the year .Q88, 

 was again the resort of Arabian merchants, and also 

 of trading vessels from India. 



The Roman empire began to decline about the 

 year 11 46, yet that enterprising people still main- 

 tained their superiority in the manufacture of silken 

 stuffs of various kinds ; having been the sole posses- 

 sors in Europe of the Silkworm for a period of more 

 than six hundred years. 



