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82 PEARL-FISHERIES. 
Among the mulattoes, whose hovels surrounded 
the salt-lake near which they had passed the night, 
they found an indigent Spanish cobbler, who received 
them with an air of gravity and importance. After 
amusing them with a display of his knowledge, he 
drew from a leathern bag a few very small pearls, 
which he forced them to accept, enjoining them to 
note on their tablets, “ that a poor shoemaker of 
Araya, but a white man, and of noble Castilian de- 
scent, was enabled to give them what, on the other 
side of the sea, would be sought for as a thing of 
great value.” 
\ The pearl-shell (Avécula margaritifera) is abun- 
dant on the shoals which extend from Cape Paria 
to the Cape of Vela. Margarita, Cubagua, Coche, 
Punta Araya, and the mouth of the Rio la Hacha, 
were as celebrated in the sixteenth century for them, 
as the Persian Gulf was among the ancients. At 
the beginning of the conquest, the island of Coche 
alone furnished 1500 marks (1029 Troy pounds) 
monthly. The portion which the king’s officers 
drew from the produce of the pearls amounted to 
£3406, 5s.; and it would appear, that up to 1530, 
the value of those sent to Europe amounted, at a 
yearly average, to more than £130,000. Towards 
the end of the sixteenth century, this fishery dimi- 
nished rapidly ; and, according to Laet, had been 
long given up in 1683. The artificial imitations, 
and the great diminution of the shells, rendered it 
less lucrative. At present, the Gulf of Panama and 
the mouth of the Rio de la Hacha are the only parts 
of South America in which this branch of industry 
is continued. : 
On the morning of the 20th, a young Indian con- 
