.22a APPENDIX. 



commerce, were little fpoken of, however clofely fallowed' 

 and well underftood. 



We gather from fcripture, the only hiftbry of thefe early 

 times to be depended upon, that precious ftones were im- 

 ported from the fouthcrn coaft of Africa* This trade, how- 

 ever great it might be, is mentioned but flightly, and as it 

 were accidentally, being abforbed in the very great articles^ 

 of commerce then fpoken of. In the fame manner we 

 read of the beauty and excellence of pearls curforily intro- 

 duced, often by allufions and eomparifons throughout the 

 facred books, but always in a manner which fufliciently 

 mews the great intrinfie eftimation in which they were 

 held. 



Pearls are found in all the four quarters of the 

 world, but in no degree of excellence, excepting in the 

 eaft of Africa and in Afia. They are in every part of the 

 Red Sea, they are in the Indian Ocean, in that low part of 

 the coaft of Arabia Felix called the Baherein, which joins 

 to the Gulf of Perfia. There are banks where they are found 

 about Gombron to the eaftward of that Gulf, or in the flat 

 coaft there ;, and in the feas which warn the ifland of Ceylon ? 

 many have been found of the greateft beauty and price ; and' 

 for number, they are nowhere fo plentiful as in the Bahe- 

 rein, between the coaft of Arabia Felix and the ifland of Or- 

 mus, whence they are tranfported to Aleppo, then fent to 

 Leghorn, and circulated through Europe, and this above all 

 others is the market for feed pearls._ 



The oyfter is currently reported to be the fpecies of fifli 

 where this precious gueft is lodged,, and many a weary 



& fearch 



