PEARL-FISHERIES. 



71 



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 (Avicula margaritifera) is abundant 

 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 be- 

 ginning 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 six- 

 teenth century, this fishery diminished 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- 

 ducted the travellers over Barigon and Caney to the 

 village of Maniquarez. The thermometer kept as 

 high as 78'5°, and before their guide had travelled a 

 league he frequently sat down to rest himself, and 

 expressed a desire to repose under the shade of a 

 tamarind-tree until night should approach. Hum- 

 boldt explains the circumstance, that the natives 

 complain more of lassitude under an intense heat 

 than Europeans not inured to it, by a reference to 



