PEARLS. 99 
Las Casas, and Belzoni, who accurately describe the 
cruelties that were exercised on the unhappy Indian 
slaves and negroes employed in the fisheries, and that 
even as far back as the commencement of the sangui- 
nary contest which marked the reign of Ferdinand and 
Isabella, the beautiful little palm-encircled island of 
Loche alone, furnished Pearls to the value of fifteen 
hundred marks each month. In short 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. 
These were sought after with the more avidity as the 
splendid decorations of the East were introduced into 
Europe by two opposite channels; that of Constan- 
tinople, where the Paleologi wore garments covered 
with strings of Pearls, and that of Grenada, the resi- 
dence of the Moorish kings, who strove to emulate 
the splendour of the Oriental caliphs. Undoubtedly 
the Pearls of Asia were preferred to those of South 
America, and were generally monopolized by the 
great; but still a vast demand subsisted for the 
latter, while the exportation of the former scarcely 
experienced the slightest diminution; and hence in 
Italy, as well as at Grenada, the island of Cubaqua 
became the object of numerous mercantile specula- 
tions. That, especially of Lampagnano, an unfor- 
tunate Castilian, who having obtained permission 
H 2 
