provement of which was doubtless the great motive for interference, suffered in consequence.

The commerce of the Romans was in this state, as regarded the article of silk, when they obtained relief in a very extraordinary and unexpected manner. Two Persian monks, having been employed as missionaries in some of the Christian churches, which, according to Cosmas, were already established in different parts of India, had penetrated into the country of the Seres, or China. "There, amidst their pious occupations, they viewed with a curious eye the common dress of the Chinese, the manufactures of silk, and the myriads of silkworms, whose education, either on trees or in houses, had once been considered the labor of queens. They soon discovered that it was impracticable to transplant the short-lived insect, but that in the eggs a numerous progeny might be preserved, and multiplied in a distant climate."* They observed with interest the labors of the little creature, and strove to make themselves acquainted with all the manual arts employed in working up its productions into so great a variety of fabrics. On their return to the West, instead of communicating their knowledge thus acquired to their own countrymen, they proceeded on to Constantinople. The prospect of gain, or, as some have asserted, an indignant zeal, excited by seeing a lucrative branch of commerce engrossed by unbelieving nations, prompted them to impart to the em→ peror the secret, hitherto so well preserved by the Chinese, that silk was produced by a species of worm; and to acquaint him with their belief that the eggs of these might be successfully transported, and the insects propagated in his dominions. They likewise explained to Justinian the modes of preparing and manufacturing the slender filament, mysteries hitherto altogether unknown or but imperfectly understood in Europe. By the promise of a great reward, the monks were induced to return to China, and there, with much difficulty, eluding the vigilant jealousy of the Chinese, they succeeded in obtaining a quantity of silkworms' eggs. These they concealed in a hollow cane, and at length, in the year 552, conveyed them in safety to Constantinople. The eggs were hatched in the proper season by the warmth of manure, and the worms were fed with the leaves of the wild mulberry tree. These worms, in due time, spun their silk, and propa

* Robertson's Disquisitions on the Commerce of India. D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. art. Harir. Procopius, Hist. Arcan. Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xl.

gated under the careful tendance of the monks; who also instructed the Romans in the whole process of manufacturing their production.*

The insects thus produced were the progenitors of all the generations of silkworms which have since been reared in Europe and the western parts of Asia,-of the countless myriads whose constant and successive labors are engaged in supplying a great and still increasing demand. A caneful of the eggs of an oriental insect thus became the means of establishing a manufacture which fashion and luxury had already rendered important, and of saving vast sums annually to European nations, which in this respect had been so long dependent on and obliged to submit to the exactions of their oriental neighbors.

The desire of augmenting his revenue, that powerful motive with rulers both ancient and modern, induced the emperor Justinian to take the infant manufacture into his own hands: it was conducted under the management of his treasurer; and the weavers, apparently those brought from Tyre and Berytus, as well as others instructed by the monks, were compelled to work in the imperial manufactory.

The altered circumstances wherein the manufacture was thus placed, wrought a corresponding alteration in the mind of the emperor as to the price which it was fitting should be paid by his subjects for the indulgence of their vanity. Silks of the imperial manufacture were sold at prices prodigiously beyond those which he had formerly prohibited as excessive. An ounce weight of the fabric thus manufactured could not be obtained under the price of six pieces of gold. The article was thus rendered eightfold more expensive than it had been under the restriction before the silkworm was introduced. This was the price demanded for common colors; but when tinged with the royal hue, the fabric immediately assumed a quadruple value.

Under these circumstances of imperial rapacity, the introduction of silkworms could not have much benefited the Roman people. But the exclusive rearing of silkworms, and the manufacture of their produce, did not long remain a merely royal prerogative. The discovery that the worm could conduct its labors with as much advantage in Europe as in the climes where it first became the object of human attention,

*Procopius, De Bello Gothico, lib. iv. c. 17. Theophan. Byzant. apud Photium. Theophylact, lib. viii. et apud Photium. Zonaras, vol. iii. p. 50, edit. 1557,

was quickly made subservient to practical utility. The mul berry tree was planted with eager haste, and vast numbers of these valuable insect laborers were soon nourished by their natural food, successfully reared in different parts of Greece, and particularly in the Peloponnesus.

The demand of silk from the East diminished; the subjects of the Greek emperors were no longer obliged to have recourse to Persia for a supply of this article; and thence a considerable change took place in the nature of the commercial intercourse with India.

The establishment of the Turkish power in Asia, about the middle of the sixth century, together with subsequent wars, had greatly interrupted the caravan trade between China and Persia. On the return of peace, the Sogdians, an Asiatic people, who had the greatest interest in the revival of the trade, persuaded the Turkish sovereign, to whom they were become subjects, to send an embassy to Chosroes, king of Persia, to open a negotiation for this purpose. Maniak, a Sogdian prince, who was ambassador, was instructed to request that the Sogdians might be allowed to supply the Persians with silk. The ambassador presented himself before the Persian monarch in the double character of merchant and envoy, carrying with him many bales of silken merchandise, for which he hoped to find purchasers among the Persians. But Chosroes, who thought the conveyance by sea to the Persian Gulf more advantageous to his subjects than this proposed traffic, was not disposed to lend a favorable ear to the legation, and rather uncourteously showed his contempt of the Sogdian traders. He bought up the whole of the silk which the ambassador had carried with him, and immediately destroyed it by fire, thus giving the most convincing proof of the little value which it held in his estimation.

After this the Persians and Chinese united against the Turks, who, to strengthen themselves, sought an alliance with Justin, the emperor of the Romans. Maniak was again appointed ambassador, and sent to negotiate the terms of the alliance; but disappointment, though from a dissimilar cause, attended this his second embassy. The sight of silkworms, and the establishments for manufacturing their produce, in Constantinople, were as unwelcome as unexpected; but he concealed his mortification, and, with perhaps an overstrained civility, acknowledged, that the Romans were already become as expert as the Chinese in the management of the worms and the manufacture of their silk.*

*Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xlii.

The Venetians, soon after this time, opened commercial relations with the Greek empire, aud continued for many centuries the channel for supplying the western parts of Europe with silks. The estimation wherein this manufacture was held continued sufficiently high for it to be considered worthy of being made a regal gift. It appears that in the year 790 the emperor Charlemagne sent two silken vests to Offa king of Mercia.

It was fortunate for the European admirers of silken garments that they were thus rendered independent of oriental supplies; for, in the year 877, Baichu, a rebel, made himself master of most part of the Chinese empire. When Canfu, the port of resort for foreign merchants, fell into his hands, he wantonly massacred all the inhabitants, among whom it is said there were 120,000 foreign merchants, consisting of Mahometans, Jews, Christians, and Persees. The number must, doubtless, have been greatly exaggerated by the historian on this occasion; but the population of Canfu must have been very great, or no writer would have ventured upon recording so vast a number of sufferers.

This savage monster, Baichu, not content with warring on his own species, extended his cruelty to those insects which were here so peculiarly the care of man; devoting to indiscriminate destruction all those trees on which the silkworm was nourished, and consequently entirely destroying the silk trade during his reign. To complete the ruin of the country, he practised such extortions upon foreign merchants, that during his sway they altogether gave up trading with China.

In the year 938, according to Massoudi, Canfu had recov ered from the calamities thus inflicted, and again became a place of resort to the Arabian merchants as well as for trading vessels from India.

Many kinds of silk manufactures, such as velvet, damask, and satin, remained unknown for a long period after this, during which time silk fabrics continued to be wrought in increasing abundance in the Roman territories, which, either directly or indirectly, supplied most parts of Europe, until the middle of the twelfth century. Although at this period (1146) the Roman empire was fast declining in the scale of nations, and its possessions were reduced within nearly the same limits as bounded modern European Turkey before its late dismemberment; still, even in their degenerate state, its once powerful people continued to excel other nations of Europe im the quality and variety of their manufactures, and in the

ingenuity of their artisans. They alone possessed the valuable breed of silkworms which, 600 years before, had been transferred from the remotest extremity of the East; and none others, up to this time, had manufactured its costly spoils.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORY OF SILK CONTINUED, FROM THE PERIOD WHEN SILKWORMS WERE FIRST INTRODUCED INTO EUROPE.

Diffusion of the Silk Manufacture.-Successful Establishment in Sicily.Gradual Introduction into other parts of Europe.-Marco Polo.-His Account of the prosperity of China.-Enormous quantity of Silk produced there.-Production and Manufacture in Italy.-In Spain.-In France.Commerce of Antwerp.-Acceptable gift to Queen Elizabeth.-Manufacture of Silk in England.-Invention of the Stocking Frame.-Tardi, ness of its adoption.

It has been shown in the preceding chapter in what manner the culture of silk was introduced, and its manufacture laid open to the ingenuity of the western hemisphere. The extension of this branch of human ingenuity was at first exceedingly slow, and we have seen, that for a period of 600 years, it was wholly confined to the territories of the Greek empire. Its first diffusion followed upon the invasion of these territories by Roger I., king of Sicily, who, not content with carrying off the wealth of Athens, Thebes, and Corinth, as some fruits of his successful enterprise, also led into captivity a considerable number of silk-weavers, whom he compulsorily settled in Palermo, obliging them to impart to his subjects the knowledge of their art.

Without stepping aside to question the right of the royal marauder thus tyrannously to sever these unoffending artisans from the ties of country and kindred, we may yet be allowed to express some satisfaction at the consequences of his cruelty. It is well for the interests of humanity that blessings, although unsought and remote, do sometimes follow in the train of conquest; that wars are not always limited in their results to the exaltation of one individual, the downfall of another, the slaughter of thousands, and the misery of millions, but sometimes prove the harbingers of peaceful arts, heralds of science, and even deliverers from the yoke of slavery or superstition.

In twenty years from this forcible establishment of the manufacture, the silks of Sicily are described as having attained a decided excellence; as being of diversified patterns C