Benefits. ^3S 



than the Bay of Condeatchy. '* This desert and barren spot 

 is at that time," says an eye-witness, " converted into a scene 

 which exceeds in novelty and variety almost any thing I ever 

 witnessed. Several thousands of people, of different colours, 

 countries, casts, and occupations, continally passing and repass- 

 ing in a busy crowd ; the vast numbers of small tents and 

 huts erected on the shore, with the bazaar or market-place 

 before each ; the multitude of boats returning in the after- 

 noon from the pearl banks, some of them laden with riches ; 

 the anxious expecting countenances of the boat-owners, while 

 the boats are approaching the shore, and the eagerness and 

 avidity with which they run to them when arrived, in hopes 

 of a rich cargo; the vast numbers of jewellers, brokers^ mer- 

 chants, of all colours and all descriptions, both natives and 

 foreigners, who are occupied in some way or other with the 

 pearls, sbme separating and assorting them, others weighing 

 and ascertaining their number and valu^, while others are 

 hawking them about, or drilling and boring them for future 

 use : all these circumstances tend to impress the mind with 

 the value and importance of that object which can of itself 

 create this scene." (Percival.) The inference is just, and yet 

 when we remember in what manner and by whose means 

 these vain ornaments are and have been procured, the impres- 

 sions which such a gay scene conveys come not unalloyed. 

 Poor negroes, sold to slavery, were compelled to dive for 

 them, and we cannot read of the cruel treatment they received 

 from the American Spaniards, without feelings of indignation 

 and horror. Nor is it methodistical, but it is wholesome, to 

 view the desolation which overtook their cities, and the depar- 

 ture of the " pomp of their strength,^' as the just punishment 

 of their wickedness^ The divers, I believe, now employed 

 are not slaves, nor, I hope, are they maltreated : but still they 

 drive a laborious trade, and one not void of danger ; for the 

 ground shark prowls among the banks, and is ever on the 

 watch to devour them. 



I will not dwell further on the importance of the pearl 

 muscle, but shall leave you to form your own opinion on that 

 point from the facts above stated. I must not, however, omit 

 to remark that Linnaeus in part owed his elevation to nobility 

 to a discovery he made of causing the fresh-water muscle 

 (U'nio margaritifera) of Sweden to produce pearls at his 

 pleasure. It is conjectured that he accomplished this by 

 drilling small holes through the shells, but his method is not 

 certainly known, nor is this of any consequence, since it seems 

 to have been soon abandoned. The States of Sweden viewed 

 it at first in such an important light that they rewarded the 



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