A STUDY OF PRIMITIVE MONEY. 299 



of Columbus and his hardy companions and followers, the descriptions 



of the beautiful summer isles of the west, and the tales of unexplored 

 regions of wealth locked up in unbounded wildernesses, had an effect 

 upon the imaginations of the young aud the adventurous not unlike 

 the preaching of the chivalric crusades for the recovery of the Holy 

 Sepulchre. The gallant knight, the servile retainer, the soldier of for- 

 tune, the hooded friar, the painstaking mechanic, the toilful husband- 

 man, the loose profligate, and the hardy mariner, all were touched with 

 the pervading passion ; all left home, country, friends, wives, children, 

 loves, to seek some imaginary El lorado, confidently expecting to return 

 with countless treasure.' 7 * 



The glamour of wealth in gold and silver, the precious metals and 

 precious pearls, the presents of these articles made by the kindly, hos- 

 pitable, and unsuspecting natives to the Spanish captain, Diego Miruelo, 

 and to the subsequent visitors to their country connected with de Ayl- 

 lon's enterprise, was followed in 1539 "by the most splendid expedition 

 that had yet set out for the New World," commanded by Hernando De 

 Soto, and the conquest of Florida was soon an accomplished fact. The 

 Portuguese and Spanish chroniclers of the exploits and adventures of 

 De Soto and his men have given fabulous accounts of the quantities of 

 pearls seen in the possession of the natives. One Portuguese narrator 

 says "they obtained fourteen bushels of pearls" from a certain sepulchre, 

 and at another place in the text it is stated that a common foot soldier, 

 whose name is given as Juan Terron, 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." That pearls were abundant and 

 that great quantities were seen in the possession of the natives has 

 been fairly corroborated in these later times. Within a few years a 

 great number have been discovered in aboriginal graves. 



Professor Putnam f has stated that in excavating the mounds near 

 Madisonville, Indiana, not less than fifty thousand pearls were found, 

 most of them pierced and injured by heat. Squier and Davis found 

 them on the hearths of five distinct groups of mounds in Ohio, and 

 sometimes in such abundance that they could be gathered by the hun- 

 dred. Like the British pearls, these also were obtained from the fresh- 

 water mussels of the rivers and streams, from shells of various species, 

 all different from the British form. 



Before proceeding to the main theme of this paper mention may be 

 made of the Pectens or scallop-shells, which have a place in history and 

 in song. " In the days when Ossian sang, the flat valves were the plates, 

 the hollow ones the drinking-cups of Fingal and his heroes." $ 



* Irving's Conquest of Florida. t Proc. Am. Assn. Adv. Sci., 1884. 



t The species referred to by the poet was most likely Pecten ( Yo a) maximus. 



