broad, are set at that distance. Into one of these caves they put the worms that are first ripe, which creeping up the branches find amongst the little twigs places to work in. When one cave has as many of these spinners as it hath well room for, they fill the next, and so on.

They never give them any leaves of the red mulberrytree when they are young, because it being a strong nourishment, will hurt them; but if one give them red mulberry-leaves towards the latter end, they will be the stronger, and mount the branches the better, which when they are weak they cannot do; and the silk of those that thus eat red mulberry-leaves is as good as the other.

About a fortnight after they begin to work, they take the cocons (i. e. the pods of silk they have wrought) out of the branches; if you take them down too soon, they will not have done working, and if you stay too long, they will have eat their way out of the pods, and the silk will be spoiled. It is time to take them down out of the branches as soon as any of the papilions, i. e. the flies that come out of the pods, appear amongst them.

As many of the cocons as they think necessary to keep for a breed for the next year they strip off the loose silk from, and then thread them; but pass the needle warily through the side of the cocon, so as it may be sure not to hurt the worm within. They count that a pound of cocons will yield an ounce of eggs. The cocons thus threaded, they hang up or lay in a convenient room, that so the papilions may come out, and make love to one another, and then lay their eggs on white paper laid there on purpose.

From the remaining cocons they presently either wind off the silk, or if they cannot do that (for it is not every body can do it) they either with the heat of the sun, or oven, or hot water, kill the worms in the cocons, so that they may keep them without having them spoiled by the worm, till they can get their silk wound.

Eight pounds of cocons usually yield one pound of silk.

The way of winding silk off from the cocons is a thing that cannot be taught without seeing; and there are but

few amongst them that can do it well, it lying in a dexterity not easy to be learnt, as they say they put the cocons in hot water, and so stirring them about with a kind of rod, the ends of the silk twires of the cocons stick to it, which they laying on upon a turning reel draw off from the cocons, which lie all the while in the hot water; but the great skill is to have such a number of these single twires of the cocons running at a time, as may make the thread of silk which they compose of a due bigness; for in turning (which they do apace) many of the twires of the cocons break, and so by degrees the silk thread, made of sundry of these drawn together, grows too little, and then the woman that is winding stirs her rod or little besom again with her left hand amongst the cocons, to get new ends of twires to add to the thread, which all this while keeps running. To know when to make this addition of new twires and in what quantity, so as to keep an even thread all along, is the great skill of these winders ; for they do it by guess, and keep the reel turning and the thread running all the while; for should they, as oft as is occasion, stand still to count the twires, or consider the thread, and how many new twires were fit to be added, it would be an endless labour, and they could never make wages.

The engines also that they use for twisting this silk afterwards, are too curious to be described, but by a model. I have seen one, where one woman has turned a hundred and thirty-four spindles, and twisted as many threads at a time; and I have seen another, wherein two women going in a wheel, like that of a crane, turned three hundred and sixty.

Their mulberry-trees, where they stand near towns, yield them good profit; I have known the leaves of four white mulberry-trees (some whereof were not very large) sold for a pistole, i. c. between sixteen and seventeen shillings sterling.

THE

WHOLE HISTORY

OF

NAVIGATION

FROM ITS

ORIGINAL TO THIS TIME.

(1704.)

PREFIXED TO CHURCHILL'S COLLECTION OF VOYAGES.

THE

WHOLE HISTORY

OF

NAVIGATION,

FROM ITS

ORIGINAL TO THIS TIME.

Of all the inventions and improvements the wit and industry of man has discovered and brought to perfection, none seems to be so universally useful, profitable, and necessary, as the art of navigation. There are those that will not allow it to be called the invention of man, but rather the execution of the direction given by Almighty God; since the first vessel we read of in the world was the ark Noah built by the immediate command and appointment of the Almighty. But this is not a place to enter upon such a controversy, where some will ask, why it should be believed there were not ships before the flood as well as after, since doubtless those first men, extending their lives to eight or nine hundred years, were more capable of improving the world than we whose days are reduced to fourscore years, and all beyond them only misery or dotage? It is impertinent to spend time upon such frivolous arguments, which only depend on opinion or fancy. If then we give any credit to history, on which