THE MODEHN HISTORY OF SILK. 179 



was to exempt from duty, on entering the port of 

 London, all silk the produce of Carolina and Georgia. 

 Under such favourable circumstances, these colonies 

 greatly extended their culture of this article; and the 

 government entertained sanguine hopes of their 

 protection of the trade proving ultimately a source 

 which would supply all the demands of the British 

 silk-weavers, if still farther encouragement were 

 afforded to the colonies in question. With this view, 

 Mr Ortolengi, an Italian, well accquainted with the 

 management of the worms, and every other depart- 

 ment of the raw silk trade, was engaged to instruct 

 the Georgians in the modes so successfully practised 

 in his native country. This scheme was at first 

 attended with considerable success, and the hopes of 

 the colonists were considerably elevated. But, alas, 

 how uncertain are human affairs ! for several seasons 

 followed in succession unfavourable to the silk- 

 worms ; and this, with the indifferent quality of the 

 silk, and government reducing the bounty, proved 

 a death-blow to the flattering prospects of the Geor- 

 gians and Carolineans, and the principal planters 

 abandoned the culture of the Silkworm in despair. 

 By the end of the eighteenth century, the Silkworm 

 was unknown in these colonies. 



The manufacture of silk was introduced into Eng- 

 land in the fifteenth century. Its early progress was, 

 however, far from being rapid ; but it gradually 

 increased, according as the growing wealth of the 



