In Prosecuting Our Determination Of
Returning Home, It Pleased God To Conduct Us To A Place For Repairing Our
Vessels, Where We Found A People Who Received Us With Much Kindness, And
From Whom We Procured A Great Number Of Oriental Pearls.
During
forty-seven days which we spent among this tribe, we purchased an hundred
and nineteen fine pearls, at an expence not exceeding forty ducats; as we
gave them in return bells, mirrors, and beads of glass and amber of very
little value.
For one bell we could obtain as many pearls as we pleased to
take. We also learned where and how they procured their pearls, and they
even gave us many of the oysters in which they are found, several of which
we likewise bought, in some of which we found an hundred and thirty pearls,
but in others considerably fewer. Unless when perfectly ripe, and quite
detached from the shells in which they grow, they are very imperfect, for
they wither and come to nothing, as I have frequently experienced; but
when ripe, they separate from among the flesh, except that they then
merely stick to it, and these, are always the best.
After a stay of forty-seven days at this place in great friendship with
the natives, we took our departure, and went to the island of Antilia[6],
which was discovered a few years ago by Christopher Columbus, where we
remained two months and two days repairing our vessels and procuring
necessaries for the voyage home.
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