account that we received from Mr Lange.

We had no opportunity to examine any of their manufactures, except that
of their cloth, which they spin, weave, and dye; we did not indeed see
them employed, but many of the instruments which they use fell in our
way. We saw their machine for clearing cotton of its seeds, which is
made upon the same principles as those in Europe, but is so small that
it might be taken for a model, or a toy: It consists of two cylinders,
like our round rulers, somewhat less than an inch in diameter, one of
which, being turned round by a plain winch, turns the other by means of
an endless worm; and the whole machine is not more than fourteen inches
long, and seven high: That which we saw had been much used, and many
pieces of cotton were hanging about it, so that there is no reason to
doubt its being a fair specimen of the rest. We also once saw their
apparatus for spinning; it consisted of a bobbin, on which was wound a
small quantity of thread, and a kind of distaff filled with cotton; we
conjectured therefore that they spin by hand, as the women of Europe did
before the introduction of wheels; and I am told that they have not yet
found their way into some parts of it. Their loom seemed to be in one
respect preferable to ours, for the web was not stretched upon a frame,
but extended by a piece of wood at each end, round one of which the
cloth was rolled, and round the other the threads: The web was about
half a yard broad, and the length of the shuttle was equal to the
breadth of the web, so that probably their work goes on but slowly. That
they dyed this cloth we first guessed from its colour, and from the
indigo which we saw in their plantations; and our conjecture was
afterwards confirmed by Mr Lange's account. I have already observed,
that it is dyed in the yarn, and we once saw them dying what was said to
be girdles for the women, of a dirty red, but with what drug we did not
think it worth while to enquire.

The religion of these people, according to Mr Lange's information, is an
absurd kind of paganism, every man chusing his own god, and determining
for himself how he should be worshipped; so that there are almost as
many gods and modes of worship as people. In their morals, however, they
are said to be irreproachable, even upon the principles of Christianity:
No man is allowed more than one wife; yet an illicit commerce between
the sexes is in a manner unknown among them: Instances of th