72 PEARL FISHERIES. 



CHAP. VI. provisions, who led them through a wood of nopals to 

 IndiaiT" ^^^ '^^^ '^^ ^^ Indian, where they were received with 

 hospitality, cordial liospitality. The several classes of natives in 

 this district live by catching fish, part of which they 

 carry to Curaana. The wealth of the inhabitants consists 

 chiefly of goats, which are of a very large size, and 

 brownisli-yellow colour. They are marked like the 

 mules, and roam at large. 

 Spanisii Among the muLittoes, whose hovels surrounded the 



^"^"^ salt-lake near which they had passed the night, they 



found an indigent Spanish cobbler, who received them 

 with an air of gravity and importance. After amusing 

 them with a display of his knowledge, he drew from a 

 leathern bag a few very small pearls, which he forced 

 them to accept, enjoining them to note on their tablets, 

 "that a poor shoemaker of Araya, but a white man, and 

 of noble Castilian descent, was enabled to give them 

 what, on the other side of the sea, would be sought for 

 as a tiling of great value." 

 Pearl-bheU. The pearl-shell (^Avicula Margaritifera) is abundant 

 on the slioals wliich extend from Cape Paria to the Cape 

 of Vela. Margarita, Cuhagua, Coche, Punta Araya, and 

 the mouth of the Rio la Ilacha, were as celebrated in 

 the sixteenth century for them as the Persian Gulf was 

 among the ancients. At the beginning of the conquest, 

 the island of Coche alone furnished 1500 marks (i)25 

 Produce r,f Troy pounds) monthly. The portion whicli the king's 

 uie peai ». offi(.(.i.3 drew from the produce of the pearls amounted 

 to £32G5 ; and it would a])pear, tliat up to 1530 the 

 value of those sent to Europe amounted, at a yearly 

 average, to more than £170,000. Towards the end of 

 the sixteenth century, this fishery diminished rapidly ; 

 and, according to Laet, had been long given up in 1633. 

 Tlie artificial imitations, and the great diminution of the 

 shells, rendered it less lucrative. At present, the Gulf 

 of Panama and tlie mouth of the Rio de la Hacha are 

 the only parts of Soutli America in which this branch 

 of industry is continued. 



On the morning of the 20thj a young Indian conducted 



