CHAPTER II.

SPINNING AND WEAVING--MARVELLOUS SKILL DISPLAYED IN THESE ARTS.

Unrivalled excellence of India muslins--Testimony of the two Arabian travellers--Marco Polo, and Odoardo Barbosa’s accounts of the beautiful Cotton textures of Bengal--Cæsar Frederick, Tavernier, and Forbes’s testimony--Extraordinary fineness and transparency of Decca muslins--Specimen brought by Sir Charles Wilkins; compared with English muslins--Sir Joseph Banks’s experiments--Extraordinary fineness of Cotton yarn spun by machinery in England--Fineness of India Cotton yarn--Cotton textures of Soonergong--Testimony of R. Fitch--Hamilton’s account--Decline of the manufactures of Dacca accounted for--Orme’s testimony of the universal diffusion of the Cotton manufacture in India--Processes of the manufacture--Rude implements--Roller gin--Bowing. (Eli Whitney inventor of the cotton gin--Tribute of respect paid to his memory--Immense value of Mr. Whitney’s invention to growers and manufacturers of Cotton throughout the world.) Spinning wheel--Spinning without a wheel--Loom--Mode of weaving--Forbes’s description--Habits and remuneration of Spinners, Weavers, &c.--Factories of the East India Company--Marvellous skill of the Indian workman accounted for--Mills’s testimony--Principal Cotton fabrics of India, and where made--Indian commerce in Cotton goods--Alarm created in the woollen and silk manufacturing districts of Great Britain--Extracts from publications of the day--Testimony of Daniel De Foe (Author of _Robinson Crusoe_.)--Indian fabrics prohibited in England, and most other countries of Europe--Petition from Calcutta merchants--Present condition of the City of Dacca--Mode of spinning fine yarns--Tables showing the comparative prices of Dacca and British manufactured goods of the same quality 333

PART FOURTH.

ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE LINEN MANUFACTURE.