The shortness of our stay and the few opportunities we had of going among these people, gave us no opportunity of seeing what arts or manufactures they might have among them. That they spin, weave, and dye their cloth we, however, made shift to learn, for though we never saw them practise any of these arts, yet the instruments accidentally fell in our way; first, a machine for clearing cotton of its seeds, which was in miniature much upon the same principles as ours in Europe. It consisted of two cylinders about as thick as a man's thumb, one of which was turned round by a plain winch handle, and that turned the other round by an endless worm at their extremities; the whole was not above seven inches high and about twice as long. How it answered, I know not, but do know that it had been much worked, and that there were many pieces of cotton hanging on different parts of it, which alone induced me to believe it a real machine, otherwise, from its slightness, I should have taken it for no more than a Dutch toy of the best sort. Their spinning gear I also once saw; it consisted of a bobbin on which a small quantity of thread was wound, and a kind of distaff filled with cotton, from whence I conjecture that they spin by hand, as our women in Europe did before wheels were introduced, and I am told still do in some parts of Europe where that improvement is not received. Their loom I also saw; it had this merit over ours, that the web was not stretched on a frame, but only extended by a piece of wood at each end, round one of which the cloth was rolled as the threads were round the other. I had not an opportunity of seeing it used, so cannot at all describe it; I can say only that it appeared very simple, much more so than ours, and that the shuttle was as long as the breadth of the web, which was about half a yard. From this circumstance, and the unsteadiness of a web fixed to nothing, the work must in all probability go on very slowly. That they dyed their own cloth we first guessed by the indigo which we saw in their plantations, which guess was afterwards confirmed by Mr. Lange. We likewise saw them dye women's girdles of a dirty, reddish colour; their
