271 



To show us how familiar to him were the sacred 

 writings, he took a pride in quoting to us Job, 

 who preferred wisdom to all the pearls of the 

 Indies. His philosophy was circumscribed to 

 the narrow circle of the wants of life. A very 

 strong ass, able to carry a heavy load of plan- 

 tains to the embarcadere, was the object of all 

 his wishes. 



After a long discourse on the emptiness of 

 human grandeur, he drew from a leathern pouch 

 a few very small and opake pearls, which he 

 forced us to accept, enjoining us at the same 

 time to note on our tablets, that a poor shoe- 

 maker of Araya, but a white man, and of noble 

 Castilian race, had been enabled to give us what 

 on the other side of the sea * was sought for as 

 a very precious thing. I acquit myself rather 

 late of the promise I made this honest man ; and 

 I am happy to add, that his disinterestedness did 

 not permit him to accept of the slightest retri- 

 bution. The Pearl Coast presents, it is true, 

 the same aspect of misery as the countries of 

 gold and diamonds, Choco and Brasil ; but mi- 

 sery is not there attended with that immoderate 

 desire of gain, which is excited by mineral 

 riches. 



The pearl aronde ( avicula margaritifera, Cu- 



* For alia, or, del otro lado del charco (properly, " beyond 

 the great mere"), a figurative expression, by which the people 

 in the Spanish colonies denote Europe. 



