read for the purpose of barter. In Cuba he
was surprised to find hammocks made from cotton cord in very general
use. What Columbus observed in the West Indies as to the growth and
manufacture of cotton, was found afterwards to be by no means confined
to these islands, but that in South and Central America the natives were
quite accustomed both to the growth and manufacture of cotton.

Indisputable evidence can be presented to prove that the ancient
civilisations of Mexico, Peru, and Central America, were well acquainted
with cotton. When Peru was subjugated in 1522 by Pizarro, the
manufacture of cotton was in a flourishing condition.

Similarly when Mexico fell into the hands of Cortez in 1519, he too
found that the use of cotton was very general. So delighted was he at
what he saw of the quality and beauty of their manufactured goods, that
he had no hesitation in dispatching to Europe a present consisting of
mantles, to the Emperor Charles V.

Five years after Columbus started on his momentous voyage, another
expedition under Vasco da Gama set out from the Tagus to make the voyage
to India by the way of the Cape of Good Hope.

Immediately Gama had safely reached India, there were others who quickly
desired to follow, and in 1516 another adventurous Spaniard on his way
to India called at S. Africa, and found the natives wearing garments
made of cotton.

There is therefore no reason to question the statement which has
repeatedly been made, that at least three centres are known in which the
Cotton plant from very early times has been indigenous, and that the
peoples of these countries were well acquainted with the property and
uses of the cotton wool obtained from the plant. An average of more than
1,000,000 bales, each weighing 500 lbs., are exported from Egypt every
year, and the question has been raised whether the cultivation of the
plant in Egypt can be said to date far back. This is not so. The fibre
almost exclusively used by the ancient Egyptians was flax, and the
nature of the garments covering the mummies of the ancient Egyptians has
been satisfactorily decided by the microscope. It is very probable that
the cultivation of the plant at the beginning of the thirteenth century
was carried on purely for the purpose of ornamental gardening, and even
when the seventeenth century was fairly well advanced, the Egyptians
still imported cotton.

The nineteenth century, however, has seen important developments in th