192 
THE PEAKE FISHERY. 
and the extensiveness of contraband trade, may be regarded 
as a very considerable stun. It appears that till 1530 the 
value of the pearls Bent to Europe amounted yearly on an 
average to more than eight hundred thousand piastres. In 
order to judge of the importance of this branch of commerce 
to Seville, Toledo, Antwerp, and G-enoa, we should recollect 
that at the same period the whole of the mines of America 
did not furnish two millions of piastres ; and that the fleet 
of Ovando was thought to contain immense wealth, because 
it had on board nearly two thousand six hundred marks of 
silver. Pearls were the more sought after, as the luxury 
of Asia had been introduced into Europe by two ways 
diametrically opposite .- that of Constantinople, where the 
Palscologi 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 were preferred to those of the West; but 
the number of the latter which circulated in commerce was 
nevertheless considerable at the period immediately fol- 
lowed the discovery of America. In Italy as well as in 
Spain, the islet of Cubagua became the object of numerous 
mercantile speculations. 
Benzoni* relates the adventure of one Luigi Lampagnauo, 
to whom Charles the Eiffch granted the privilege of proceed- 
ing with five carvels to the coasts of Cumana to fish for 
pearls. The colonists sent him back with this bold mes- 
sage : “ That the emperor was too liberal of what was not 
his own, and that he had no right to dispose of the oysters 
which live at the bottom of the sea.” 
The pearl fishery diminished rapidly about the end of the 
sixteenth century; and, according to Laet, it had long ceased 
in 1633. f The industry of the "Venetians, who imitated fine 
pearls with great exactness, and the frequent use of cut 
La Hist, del Mondo Nuovo, p. 34. Luigi Lampagnauo, a relation 
of the assassin of the Duke of Milan, Galeazzo 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. 
"f (( Insularum Cubaguje et Coches quondam magna fuit dignitas, quum 
Unionum captura floreret: nunc, ilia deficiente, obscura admodum fam a. ' ’ 
Laet, Nova Orbis, p. 609. This accurate compiler, speaking of Punta 
Araya, adds, this country is so forgotten, “ut vix utla America? meridi 
inalis pars hodie obscurior sit.” 
