CHAPTER XIII. 



The American Pearl-Fisheries. 



' The floor is of sand like the mountain drift, 

 And the Pearl-shells spangle the flinty snow ; 



From coral-rocks the sea-plants lift 



Their boughs where the tides and billows flow." 



— James Per civ al (^American Poet). 



MONG the treasures of the Western 

 Hemisphere, which were first brought 

 to the notice of Europeans by the 

 discovery of America, at the close of the fifteenth 

 century, not the least remarkable were the vast 

 hordes of Pearls. Garcilaso de la Vega and other 

 old Spanish chroniclers, make frequent mention of 

 the surprising number of Pearls which they found 

 in the possession of the various tribes of Indians, 

 who used them as personal ornaments. 



But we have evidence that ages prior to the 



