WHOLE VOL. THE WEST INDIES — ^VAZQUEZ DE ESPINOSA 51 



be a canoe master, one has to have at least a dozen Negro divers, plus 

 their captain who is a Negro expert in the profession, the canoeman 

 (canoero, who is a Spanish pilot), and the superintendent; with this 

 crew he is a canoe master, although generally there are more persons 

 in each pearl-fishing canoe. 



128. When the canoe anchors near the rancherias at night, the 

 Negro divers come out, each presenting in his shell the pearls he 

 has got that day ; they turn in tljeir shells and the superintendent 

 takes them over. Now each canoe master has in his house, or 

 rancheria, a room or large chamber like a hospital ward, called the 

 prison, where the Negroes have their beds and sleep under lock and 

 key, for even in pearl fishing chastity is necessary, to such a degree 

 that if anyone among them did otherwise, he would not be able to 

 fish or dive under water, but would stay on the surface like a cork. 

 Those who have disappointed their master in their catch of pearls, 

 or who are contrary, they keep in these dormitories or prisons, grills, 

 and cells, and they punish them by beating and flogging them in a 

 cruel and savage manner, a procedure quite alien to the profession 

 of Christianity, except that in what concerns this traffic, every possi- 

 ble means is required, for without it they would not do a thing. 



129. The following day the canoe master leaves with his outfit and 

 boards his ship, or canoe, and sets sail for the oyster bed or pearl 

 fishery, which generally lies offshore i, i^, or 2 leagues or even more, 

 and anchors at the bed ; and there are canoemen so expert and with 

 such keen discrimination that, having purposely dropped a knife the 

 previous evening on a certain bed, the canoeman keeps such a sure 

 recollection of the spot where he left it that when he sees he is sail- 

 ing over the place, he drops anchor and tells one of the Negroes to 

 bring up the knife he left there the day before, and this in 8, lO, I2, 

 and even 14 fathoms, according to the depth of the bed, and that of 

 Macanao lies deep. When they dive under water, they carry down 

 a little net or reticule, fastened by a rope to the canoe ; and they walk 

 about under the water picking up the shells and putting them into 

 this net or reticule ; and with great speed and skill they come up this 

 rope to the surface, and each empties out his shells into his own pile ; 

 when they have caught their breath and rested a little, they start div- 

 ing again; and they continue thus till evening when their task is 

 over and they return to their dormitory to sleep. 



130. Every 30 days the Negroes give their masters the cacona, i.e., 

 the best pearls among those that they have fished up and kept ; and 

 besides that, the canoe masters have other understandings with the 

 Negroes, redeeming their valuable pearls which they have secreted. 



