PEARL FISHERIES. 227 



beades; others are Pater Nosters, being bigger. Seldome LlB - IV 



shall you finde two of one greatnesse, forme, and colour. 



For this reason the Romans (as Pliny writeth) called them P!&quot; 1 - ! 1 ?- 



v J in, c. 35. 



Unions. Whenas they doe finde two that are alike in all 

 poyntes, they raise the price much, especially for ear-rings. 

 I have seene some payres valued at thousands of ducats, 

 although they were not like to Cleopatra s two pearles, 

 whereof Pliny reportes either of them being woorfch a hun 

 dred thousand ducats, with the which this foolish Queene 

 wonne a wager she hadde made against Marc Anthony to 

 spend in one supper above an hundred thousand ducats so, 

 at the last course, shee dissolved one of these pearles in 

 strong vinegar, and dranke it vp. They say the other 

 pearle was cutt in two, and placed in the Pantheon at Rome, 

 at th eares of the image of Venus. Of the other Clodius, the 

 son of the tragedian Esop, relates that in a banquet he pre 

 sented to every one of his guests (amongest other meates) a 

 rich pearle dissolved in vineger, to make his feast the more 

 royall and sumptuous. 



These were the follies of those ages, and those at this 

 day are nothing lesse, for that we see not onely hattes and 

 bandes, but also buskins, and womens pantofles (yea, of 

 base condition), imbrodred all over with pearle. They fish 

 for pearles in diverse partes of the Indies, the greatest 

 aboundaunce is in the South Seas, neere vnto Panama, 

 where the Ilandes of pearles be, as they call them. But at 

 this day they finde greatest store, and the best, in the North 

 Sea, the which is neare to the Rio de la Hacha. I did see 

 them make their fishing, the which is done with great 

 charge and labor of the poore slaves, which dive sixe, nine, 

 yea twelve fadomes into the sea, to seeke for oysters, the 

 which commonly are fastened to the rockes and gravell in 

 the sea. They pull them vp, and bring them above the water 

 to their canoes, where they open them, drawing forth the 

 treasure they have within them. The water of the sea in 



Q 2 



