275 



dustry of the Venetians, who imitated fine pearls 

 with great exactness, and the frequent use of 

 cut diamonds *, rendered the fisheries of Cuba- 

 gua less lucrative. At the same time the oys- 

 ters which yielded the pearls became scarcer, 

 not, as it is believed from a popular tradition, 

 because these animals, frightened by the noise 

 of the oars, conveyed themselves elsewhere ; 

 but because their propagation had been prevent- 

 ed from the imprudent destruction of the shells 

 by thousands, The pearla ronde is of a much 

 more delicate constitution than the greater part 

 of the other acephalous molluscae. At the isle 

 of Ceylon, where, in the bay of Condeatchy, the 

 fishery employs six hundred divers, and where 

 the annual produce is more than half a million 

 of piastres, it has vainly been attempted to trans- 

 plant the animals to other parts of the coast. 

 The government permits fishing there only dur- 

 ing a single month ; while at Cubagua the bank 

 of shells was fished at all seasons. To form an 

 idea of the destruction of the species caused by 



dignitas, quum unionum captura floreret: nunc, ilia deficiente, 

 obscura admodum fama." Laet. Nov. Orbis, p. 669. This 

 accurate compiler, speaking of Punta Araya, adds, this coun- 

 try is so forgotten, " ut vix ulla alia Americas meridionalis 

 pars hodie obscurior sit." 



* The cutting of diamonds was invented by Lewis de Ber- 

 quen, in 1456, but it became common only in the following 

 century. 



