[102] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 6, cap. 18.—According to Martyr, the two mints of Hispaniola yielded 300,000 lbs. of gold annually. De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 10.
[103] The pearl fisheries of Cuhagua were worth 75,000 ducats a year. Herrera, Indian Occidentales, dec 1, lib 7, cap. 9.
[104] Oviedo, Historia Natural de las Indias, lib. 4, cap. 8.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 165.
[105] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. iii. documentos 1-13.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1. lib. 7, cap. 1.
[106] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. iii. pp. 48, 134.
[107] Bernardin de Santa Clara, treasurer of Hispaniola, amassed, during a few years' residence there, 96,000 ounces of gold. This same nouveau riche used to serve gold dust, says Herrera, instead of salt, at his entertainments. (Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 7, cap. 3.) Many believed, according to the same author, that gold was so abundant, as to be dragged up in nets from the beds of the rivers! Lib. 10, cap. 14.
[108] Ante, Part II., Chapter 24.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 10, cap. 6, 7.
[109] "Per esser Sevilla nel loco che è, vi vanno tanti di loro alle Indie, che la città resta mal popolata, e quasi in man di donne." (Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 15.) Horace said, fifteen centuries before,
"Impiger extremes curris mercator ad Indos,
Per mare pauperiem fugieus, per saxa, per ignes."
Epist. i. 1.
[110] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 9, cap. 10.—Almost all the Spanish expeditions in the New World, whether on the northern or southern continent, have a tinge of romance, beyond what is found in those of other European nations. One of the most striking and least familiar of them is that of Ferdinand de Soto, the ill-fated discoverer of the Mississippi, whose bones bleach beneath its waters. His adventures are told with uncommon spirit by Mr. Bancroft, vol. i. chap. 2, of his History of the United States.