Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 314 of 779 - First - Home
The
Pearl Coast Presents The Same Aspect Of Misery As The Countries Of
Gold And Diamonds, Choco And Brazil; But Misery Is Not There
Attended With That Immoderate Desire Of Gain Which Is Excited By
Mineral Wealth.
The pearl-breeding oyster (Avicula margaritifera, Cuvier) abounds
on the shoals which extend from Cape Paria to Cape la Vela.
The
islands of Margareta, Cubagua, Coche, Punta Araya, and the mouth of
the Rio la Hacha, were, in the sixteenth century, as celebrated as
were the Persian Gulf and the island of Taprobana among the
ancients. It is incorrectly alleged by some historians that the
natives of America were unacquainted with the luxury of pearls. The
first Spaniards who landed in Terra Firma found the savages decked
with pearl necklaces and bracelets; and among the civilized people
of Mexico and Peru, pearls of a beautiful form were extremely
sought after. I have published a dissertation on the statue of a
Mexican priestess in basalt, whose head-dress, resembling the
calantica of the heads of Isis, is ornamented with pearls. Las
Casas and Benzoni have described, but not without some
exaggeration, the cruelties which were exercised on the unhappy
Indian slaves and negroes employed in the pearl fishery. At the
beginning of the conquest the island of Coche alone furnished
pearls amounting in value to fifteen hundred marks per month.
The quint which the king's officers drew from the produce of
pearls, amounted to fifteen thousand ducats; which, according to
the value of the precious metals in those times, and the
extensiveness of contraband trade, may be regarded as a very
considerable sum.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 314 of 779
Words from 85254 to 85522
of 211363
