PEARLS. 277 



but this opinion is incorrect. The Spaniards who first 

 landed in Terra Pirma^ Mexico^, and Peru, assert that the 

 natives were adorned with necklaces and bracelets of the 

 finest pearls ; and this assertion, supported by the narratives 

 of modern as well as the details of early writers, receives 

 additional confirmation from the discovery at Basalt of the 

 statue of a Mexican priestess, whose head-dress is profusely 

 ornamented with gems of this kind. To which we may add 

 the testimonies of Las Casas and Belzoni, who describe the 

 the cruelties that were exercised on the Indian slaves and 

 negroes employed in the fisheries ; and that even as far 

 back as the commencement of the reign of Eerdinand 

 and Isabella the beautiful little palm-encircled island of 

 Loche alone furnished pearls to the value of fifteen hundred 

 marks each month. During this period the trade was so 

 considerable that, till the year 1630, the value of these gems 

 exported into Europe amounted on an average to eighteen 

 hundred thousand piastres. 



The pearls of Asia were introduced into Europe by two 

 opposite channels — that of Constantinople, where the Pa- 

 leologi wore garments covered with strings of pearls, and 

 that of Grenada, the residence of the Moorish kings, who 

 strove to emulate the splendour of the oriental caliphs. 



