1NTH0DUCTI0N. 



v ii- 



ed in a manner different from the Hemp in Europe. With the view of 

 ascertaining whether this article was capable of being brought into use as 

 a substitute for Hemp, the Board of Trade at Bengal were desirous, that 

 a quantity of it should be procured, prepared after the European method ;. 

 but the Natives were not inclined to depart from their established usage. 

 A difference of opinion also arose between the Board and Mr. James 

 Frushard, as to which of these methods was best calculated to give the 

 requisite degree of strength to the fibre. 



Upon referring to the authorities of the first writers on the subject, it 

 appears that they are far from being in unison : it is therefore obvious, that 

 in India this can only be ascertained, either as to Hemp or Sunn, by a 

 course of experiments and making trials of the various methods that have 

 been laid down, under the sanction of those who are supposed to be the 

 mobt conversant with the subject. To point out these modes, and to af- 

 ford the means of contrasting them with each other, as also with the mode, 

 practised in India, is one of the objects of the present Work. 



In doing this, I have consulted the most approved authorities. At 

 the head of these I consider M. Du Hamel du Monceau, of the Royal 

 Academy of Sciences at Paris, Fellow of the Royal Society of London, 

 and Inspector General of the French Marine ; and M. Marcandier, Ma- 

 gistrate of Bourges. 



M. Du Hamel's work is entitled Traite de la Fabrique des Manoeuvres 

 pour les Vaisseaux, on VArt de la Corderie perfectionne, Paris, Quarto, 

 1747. This work is so extremely scarce, that Mills, in the fifth volume 

 of his Practical Husbandry, says, the author was not able to procure for 

 him a single copy in all Paris ; he was therefore indebted to his Patron, 

 the Right Honorable James Stuart Mackenzie, for the loan of it from the 

 library of the late Earl of Bute. I have also to express my acknowledg- 

 ments to the President and Fellows of the Royal Society, for the use of a 



copy, 



