that
is necessary for the life of man grows there, and more especially
splendid fruits, and in particular excellent grapes, from which very
good wine can be made. This Prince possesses the most beautiful pearl
in the world, not by reason of its size, for it only weighs 12 1/16,
carats, nor on account of its perfect roundness ; but because it is so
clear and so trans* parent that you can almost see the light through
it. As the Gulf opposite Hormuz is scarcely 12 leagues wide from Arabia
Felix to the coast of Persia,1 and the Arabs were at peace
with the Persians, the Prince of Muscat came to visit the Khan of
Hormuz, who entertained him with magnificence, and invited the English,
Dutch, and some other Franks, in which number I was included, to the
festival. At the close of the feast the Prince took this pearl out of a
small purse which he carried suspended from his neck and showed it to
the Khan and the rest of the company. The Khan wished to buy it, to
present to the King of Persia, and offered up to 2,000 tomans,2
but the Prince was unwilling to part with it. Since then I crossed the
sea with a Banian merchant whom the Great Mogul was sending to this
Prince to offer him 40,000 ecus 3 for this pearl; but he refused to accept that sum.
This account proves that fine jewels ought not always to be taken to Europe,4
but rather from Europe to Asia, as I have done, because both precious
stones and pearls are esteemed there very highly when they have unusual
beauty ;
1 According to Yule's map (Marco Polo, i. 108)
the distance from Jerum, or New Hormuz, to Old Hormuz on the Persian
coast, is about 40 miles. Badger, in his note on Varthema (p. 95), says
that the channel between Hormuz and the mainland, directly opposite, is
only 4 miles broad ; between the island and Bandar 'Abbas it averages
between 11 and 12.
» About £6,900.
3 i. e. £9,000. Its value is stated to have been £32,000. (See Streeter, Precious Stones and Gems, 3rd. edition, part iii, p. 14.)
4
Ball recalled a case in India a few years since illustrative of this,
which gave rise to a trial. One or two persons residing at Simla bought
some stones as a speculation and sent them to England, where they were
valued at a lower price than had been given for them. The purchasers
thereupon sought by an action to recover their money from the native
jewel merchant, but lost their suit.
