GRAY PEARLS FROM LOWER CALIFORNIA, AND DIAMONDS
Pan-American Exposition, 1901
This expedition of Pedro Alonso Niño was the first financially profitable voyage to America. After his return, the Cubagua pearl fishery became the object of numerous speculations, and many other Spaniards fitted out voyages, most of them sailing from Hispaniola or Haiti, nine hundred miles distant. Owing to the ill-treatment of the Indians and excessive cruelties toward them, much difficulty was experienced in securing divers. This was relieved in 1508 by transporting large numbers of Indians from the Lucayan or Bahama Islands and impressing them into the service. These were so expert in the work that individuals sold for upward of 150 ducats each.[[271]] With their aid the fishery prospered so greatly that in 1515 a settlement, called New Cadiz, was established on Cubagua Island by the governor of Hispaniola, Diego Columbus, son of the discoverer. This small island was dry and desolate, without water or wood, which were brought from the mainland twenty miles distant, or from Margarita Island about three miles to the northward.
An interesting description of the manner of securing the pearls by these early adventurers was given by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes (1478–1557) in his “Historia natural y general de las Indias,” written less than thirty years after the discovery of the mainland of America. A translation of this book was published in 1555 by Richard Eden in his “Decades of the New World”; from which we extract the following account, the retention of Eden’s quaint phraseology seeming permissible owing to this being one of the very earliest books on America.
Of the maner of fyshynge for perles
The Indians exercise this kynde of fyschynge for the moste parte in the coastes of the North in Cubagua and Cumana. And manye of theym which dwell in the houses of certeyne particular lordes in the Ilandes of San Dominico and Sancti Iohannis, resort to the Ilande of Cubagua for this purpose. Theyr custome is to go fyve, syxe, or seven, or more in one of theyr Canoas or barkes erly in the mornynge to sume place in the sea there about where it appeareth unto them that there shulde bee greate plentie of those shell fyshes (which sume caule muscles and sume oysters) wherein perles are engendered. And there they plonge them selves under the water, even unto the bottome, savynge one that remaynethe in the Canoa or boate which he keepeth styll in one place as neare as he can, lookynge for theyr returne owte of the water. And when one of them hath byn a good whyle under the water, he ryseth up and commeth swymmynge to the boate, enterynge into the same, and leavynge there all the oysters whiche he hath taken and brought with hym. For in these, are the perles founde. And when he hathe there rested hym selfe a whyle, and eaten parte of the oysters, he returneth ageyne to the water, where he remaynethe as longe as he can endure, and then ryseth ageyne, and swimmeth to the boate with his pray, where he resteth hym as before, and thus continueth course by course, as doo all the other in lyke maner, being all moste experte swymmers and dyvers. And when the nyght draweth neare, they returne to the Ilande to theyr houses, and presente all the oysters to the master or stewarde of the house of theyr lorde who hath charge of the sayde Indians. And when he hath gyven them sumwhat to eate, he layeth up the oysters in safe custodie untyll he have a great quantitie thereof. Then hee causeth the same fyssher men to open them. And they fynde in every of them pearles other great or smaul, two or three or foure, and sumtymes five and syxe, and many smaule graines accordyng to the lyberalitie of nature. They save the pearles bothe smaule and great whiche they have founde: And eyther eate the oysters if they wyl, or caste them away, havynge so great quantitie thereof that they in maner abhorre them. Those oysters are of hard fleshe, and not so pleasant in eatyng as are owres of Spayne. This Ilande of Cubagua where this manner of fysching is exercised, is in the Northe coaste, and is no bygger then the Iland of Zelande. Oftentymes the sea encreaseth greatly, and muche more then the fyshers for pearles wold, bycause where as the place is very depe, a man can not naturally rest at the bottome by reason of the aboundaunce of aery substannce whiche is in hym, as I have oftentymes proved. For althoughe he may by vyolence and force descende to the bottome, yet are his feete lyfted up ageyne so that he can continue no tyme there. And therefore where the sea is verye deepe, these Indian fyshers use to tye two great stoones aboute them with a corde, on every side one, by the weyght whereof they descend to the bottome and remayne there untyl them lysteth to ryse ageine: At which tyme they unlose the stones, and ryse uppe at their pleasure. But this their aptenesse and agilitie in swimming, is not the thynge that causeth men moste to marvaile: But rather to consyder how many of them can stande in the bottome of the water for the space of one hole houre and summe more or lesse, accordynge as one is more apte hereunto then an other. An other thynge there is whiche seemeth to me very straunge. And this is, that where as I have oftentymes demaunded of summe of these lordes of the Indians, if the place where they accustomed to fysche for pearles beynge but lyttle and narrowe wyll not in shorte tyme bee utterly without oysters if they consume them so faste, they al answered me, that although they be consumed in one parte, yet if they go a fyschynge in an other parte or on another coaste of the Ilande, or at an other contrary wynd, and continue fysshing there also untyll the oysters be lykewyse consumed, and then returne ageyne to the fyrste place, or any other place where they fysshed before and emptied the same in lyke maner, they find them ageine as ful of oysters as though they had never bin fysshed. Wherby we may judge that these oysters eyther remove from one place to an other as do other fysshes, or elles that they are engendered and encrease in certeyne ordinaire places. This Iland of Cumana and Cubagua where they fyshe for these perles, is in the twelfe degree of the part of the said coaste which inclineth toward the North.
The cupidity of the proprietors of the fishery led to most cruel treatment of the divers and, if the accounts of the time are to be relied upon, a large percentage of them died under the harsh regime. About 1515 the unfortunate natives obtained an earnest and influential advocate in Bartolomé de las Casas, who, in 1516, prevailed upon the youthful Charles V to decree that the fishery should be prosecuted only in summer, that the divers should not be required to work more than four hours a day where the depth exceeded six fathoms, that they should receive good nourishment and half a quart of wine daily, should have hammocks or beds in which to sleep, and should be provided with clothes to put on as soon as they left the water.[[272]] And by later ordinances it was stipulated that death should be inflicted on any one forcing a free Indian to dive for pearls.
In 1528 the resources of Coche Island were exploited with so much success that within six months “1500 marcs (12,000 ounces) of pearls” were secured. Pearl banks were successively found at Porlamar, Maracapana, Curiano, and at various places on the coast from the Gulf of Paria to the Gulf of Coro, a distance of over five hundred miles, which became designated the “Pearl Coast.” For a number of years previous to 1530, the output exceeded in value 800,000 piastres annually, approximating one half the produce of the American mines at that time.[[273]] It was largely these pearls that enriched the cargoes of many of those famous caravels that crossed the Atlantic to Spain. Indeed, for several decades, America was best known in continental Europe as the land whence the pearls came.
An interesting account of an early effort to use dredges in the Cubagua pearl fishery was given by Girolamo Benzoni, who had lived in America from 1542 to 1555, and was familiar with the conditions. He states:
“At the time the pearl fishery flourished on this island there came here one Louis de Lampugnan with an imperial license authorizing him to fish such quantities of pearls as he pleased within all the limits and bounds of Cubagua. This man set out from Spain with four caravels loaded with all the necessary provisions and munitions for such an enterprise, which some Spanish merchants furnished him. He had made a kind of rake, the fashion of which was such that in whatever part of the sea it was used, not an oyster would escape. At the same time he would have raked and drawn out all that bore pearls if he had not been disappointed. But the Spaniards in Cubagua all banded against him in the execution of his privilege. They said the emperor was too liberal with other people’s goods, and if he wished to give he might give his own as he wished. As for themselves they had conquered and kept that country with great labor and at the peril of their lives, and there were far better reasons why they should enjoy it than a stranger. Poor Lampugnan, seeing that his patents did not avail him the value of a straw, and at the same time not daring to return to Spain, partly through fear of being ridiculed and partly on account of the money he owed, was ruined. In fact, the business and its anxieties drove him crazy and he was exposed to the mockery of all the world as a lunatic. In the end, after dragging out five years in this miserable condition, he died in this isle of Cubagua.”[[274]]