Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ix. (1916), No. \% 47 



of a man, " all black, dressed with chaynes of perle." The 

 process of preserving the remains of the chiefs is described 

 as follows : " After the body had been disemboweled, the 

 skin was laid back and the flesh was cut away from the 

 bones. When this operation was completed, the skeleton, 

 held together by its ligaments, was again inclosed in the 

 skin, and stuffed with white sand, or with ' pearle, copper, 

 beads, and such trash sowed in a skynne.' It was then 

 dressed in fine skins and adorned with all sorts of 

 valuables, including strings of pearls and beads. The 

 same kinds of treasures were also deposited in a basket 

 at the feet of the mummy." 122 



The chroniclers of De Soto's expedition to Florida in 

 1539, speak of almost fabulous quantities of pearls in the 

 possession of the Indians of the parts traversed by them. 

 One Portuguese narrator says, " they obtained fourteen 

 bushels of pearls " from a certain sepulchre, and it is 

 stated that a common foot soldier had " a linen bag, in 

 which were six pounds of pearls," and pearls are elsewhere 

 spoken of that are " as large as filberts." Garcillasso de la 

 Vega says " while de Soto sojourned in the province of 

 Ichiaha the cacique visited him one day and gave him a 

 string of pearls about two fathoms long. This present 

 might have been a valuable one if the pearls had not 

 been pierced, for they were all of equal size and as large 

 as hazelnuts." 123 



" As in Cleopatra's time in Egypt," says Streeter, 124 

 " so in Florida, the graves of the kings were decorated 

 with pearls. Soto's soldiers found in one of their temples 



122 Ibid., pp. 486-8. 



123 Stearns, Rept. U.S. Nat. Mies., 1887(1889), pt. ii.. p. 279, quoting 

 Irving's " Conquest of Florida " ; see also Grace King, ;i De Soto and his 

 men in the Land of Florida," New York, 1914, pp. 136-143, etc. 



324 Streeter, op. cit., pp. 45-6. 



