THE HISTORY OF THE PEARL 33 



ties of these gems, which were probably from the pearl 

 oyster. 



In a letter to Pier Soderini, Amerigo Vespucci related 

 the account of his first voyage and mentioned that the 

 Indians did not realize the worth of their gold, jewels, 

 pearls and other riches, and were liberal with their 

 gifts. 



In the year 1499 Sebastian Cabot made his third trip 

 to America, visiting the lands bordering the Gulf of 

 Mexico. He also found the Indians with large quanti- 

 ties of pearls. 



Pamfilo de Narvaez, in 1501, found pearls in Santo 

 Domingo, and later found them on the American conti- 

 nent. 



In 1512 the aged Juan Ponce de Leon came to Florida 

 and found pearls among the natives. 



When Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of 

 Panama in 1513, he found the Indians along the shore of 

 what is now the Bay of Panama taking pearls from oys- 

 ters which had been washed ashore during storms and 

 also diving for them near the shore. 



In 1526 Hernando Cortez discovered Lower California, 

 where he found the natives wearing lustrous pearls, gath- 

 ered from the Gulf of Lower California. History also 

 relates that when Montezuma, the Emperor of Mexico, 

 stepped from his royal palanquin, "blazing with bur- 

 nished gold and overshadowed by a canopy of gaudy 

 feather work powdered with jewels and fringed with sil- 

 ver," to grant audience to Cortez, his cloak and golden 



