252 Natural History of Molluscous Animals : — 



which, according to the value of the metals in those times, and 

 the extensiveness 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 branch 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 of 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 

 diametrically 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 latter 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.'^ (Humboldfs 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 extend 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 animals to grow and propagate. Further, the beds are 

 carefully surveyed, 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 

 spectacle which Ceylon affords more striking to a European 



