Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/372

colors of the cotton were extremely fine^[1]." That the Mexicans should have understood the art of dyeing those beautiful colors referred to in the above extract, is not to be wondered at when we consider that they had both indigo and cochineal among their native productions.

Columbus also found the cotton plant growing wild, and in great abundance, in Hispaniola, and other West India islands, and on the continent of South America, where the inhabitants wore cotton dresses, and made their fishing nets of the same material^[2]; and when Magellan went on his circumnavigation of the globe, in 1519, the Brazilians were accustomed to make their beds of this vegetable down^[3].

1. Clavigero's History of Mexico, book vii. sect. 58.
2. Sommario dell'Indie Occidentali del S. Don Pietro Martire, in Ramusio's Collection, tom. ii. pp. 2, 4, 16, 50. (See Appendix D.)
3. Vincentino's Viaggio atorno il Mondo, (with Ferd. Magellan,) in Ramusio, tom. i. p. 353.