ored the trade of Egypt and the navigation of
the Red Sea, which had decayed with the prosperity of the empire; and
the Roman vessels might have sailed, for the purchase of silk, to the
ports of Ceylon, of Malacca, or even of China. Justinian embraced a more
humble expedient, and solicited the aid of his Christian allies, the
AEthiopians of Abyssinia, who had recently acquired the arts of
navigation, the spirit of trade, and the seaport of Adulis, still
decorated with the trophies of a Grecian conqueror. Along the African
coast they penetrated to the Equator in search of gold, emeralds, and
aromatics; but they wisely declined an unequal competition, in which
they must be always prevented by the vicinity of the Persians to the
markets of India; and the Emperor submitted to the disappointment till
his wishes were gratified by an unexpected event. The gospel had been
preached to the Indians; a bishop already governed the Christians of St.
Thomas on the pepper coast of Malabar; a church was planted in Ceylon,
and the missionaries pursued the footsteps of commerce to the
extremities of Asia. Two Persian monks had long resided in China,
perhaps in the royal city of Nankin, the seat of a monarch addicted to
foreign superstitions, and who actually received an embassy from the
Isle of Ceylon. 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 as the labor of queens. They soon
discovered that it was impracticable to transport the short-lived
insect, but that in the eggs a numerous progeny might be preserved and
multiplied in a distant climate. Religion or interest had more power
over the Persian monks than the love of their country: after a long
journey they arrived at Constantinople, imparted their project to the
Emperor, and were liberally encouraged by the gifts and promises of
Justinian. To the historians of that prince, a campaign at the foot of
Mount Caucasus has seemed more deserving of a minute relation than the
labors of these missionaries of commerce, who again entered China,
deceived a jealous people by concealing the eggs of the silkworm in a
hollow cane, and returned in triumph with the spoils of the East. Under
their direction the eggs were hatched at the proper season by the
artificial heat of dung; the worms were fed with mulberry leaves; they
li