274 



troduced into Europe by two ways diametrically 

 opposite ; that of Constantinople, where the Pa- 

 leologi wore garments covered with strings of 

 pearls ; and that of Grenada, the residence of 

 the Moorish kings, who displayed at their court 

 all the luxury of the East. The pearls of the 

 East Indies were preferred to those of the West ; 

 but the number of the latter which circulated in 

 commerce was not less considerable in the times 

 which immediately followed the discovery of 

 America. In Italy as well as in Spain, the islet 

 of Cubagua became the object of numerous mer- 

 cantile speculations. 



Benzoni * relates the adventure of one Lewis 

 Lampagnano, to whom Charles the Fifth grant- 

 ed the privilege of proceeding with five carvels 

 to the coasts of Cumana, to fish for pearls. The 

 colonists sent him back with this bold anwer : 

 " That the Emperor, too liberal of what was not 

 his own, had not the right to dispose of the oys- 

 ters, which live at the bottom of the sea." 



The pearl fishery diminished rapidly toward 

 the end of the sixteenth century ; and, according 

 to Laet, it had long ceased in 1683 •f. The m- 



* La Hist, del Mondo Nuovo, p. 34. Lewis Lampag- 

 nano, a relation of the assassin of the Duke of Milan, Ga- 

 leazzo Maria Sforza, could not pay the merchants of Seville, 

 who had advanced the money for his voyage ; he remained 

 five years at Cubagua, and died in a fit of insanity. 



t " Insularum Cubaguae et Coches quondam magna fuit 



