252 Natural History of Molluscous Animals : — 
which, according to the value of the metals in those times, and 
the éextensiveness of the contraband trade, might be considered 
as a very considerable sum. It appears that till 1530 the 
value of the pearls sent to Europe amounted yearly, on an 
average, to more than 800,000 piastres. In order to judge of 
the importance of this br anch of commerce to Seville, Toledo, 
Antwerp, and Genoa, we should recollect, that at the same 
period the whole of the mines of America did not furnish two 
millions cf piastres, and that the fleet of Ovando seemed to 
be of immense wealth, because it contained nearly 2600 marks 
of silver. Pearls were so much the more sought after, as the 
luxury of Asia had been introduced into Europe by two ways 
diametr ically opposite; that of Constantinople, where the 
Paleologi wore garments covered with strings of pearls ; and 
that of Grenada, the residence of the Moorish kings, who 
displayed at their court all the luxury of the East. The 
pearls of the East Indies were preferred to those of the West ; 
but the number of the ee which circulated in commerce 
was no less considerable in the times which immediately fol- 
lowed the discovery of America. In Italy, as well as in 
Spain, the islet of Cubagna became the object of numberless 
mercantile speculations.” (Humboldt?’s Personal Narrative, 
vol. ii. p. 279, 280.) 
At present Spanish America furnishes no other pearls for 
trade than those of the Gulf of Panama, and the mouth of the 
Rio de la Hacha. The bulk of them, as I formerly men- 
tioned, are procured from the Indian Ocean, particularly from 
the Bay of Condeatchy in Ceylon, the ‘Taprobane of the 
Romans. You will naturally enquire of me how it has hap- 
pened that in all other stations the oysters have disappeared, 
while here they continue in undiminished numbers, though 
fished for centuries. The answer is that the fishery has been 
conducted in a different manner, and with an eye to the 
future. The banks, which eed several miles along the 
coast, are divided into three or four portions, and fished in 
succession ; a repose of three or four years being thus given 
to the ainiinale to grow and propagate. Further, ‘the beds are 
carefully survey ed, and the state of the oysters ascertained, 
previously to their being let or farmed; and the merchant is 
permitted to fish them for only six or eight weeks: but from 
the number of holidays observed by the divers of different 
sects and nations, the fishing days do not in reality much 
exceed thirty. 
The fishing season commences in February, and ends about 
the beginning of April. During its continuance, there is no 
3 co] x 
spectacle which Ceylon affords more striking to a European 
