MEDIEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY 23
ered
it to her. ' When she, with great joy, lookt for her biiliment, she
found, far from her expectation, a billiment of peaze; and so she
almost wept for verie griefe.1
Meanwhile,
in the yet unknown America, pearls were highly prized, and their magic
charm had taken an irresistible hold on aborigines and on the more
highly civilized inhabitants of Mexico and Peru. In Mexico the palaces
of Montezuma were studded with pearls and emeralds, and the Aztec
kings possessed pearls of inestimable value. That they had been
collected elsewhere for a long time is evidenced by the large
quantities in the recently opened mounds of the Ohio Valley, which rank
among the ancient works of man in America. As in the Old World, so in
the New, they had been used as decoration for the gods and for the
temples, as well as for men and women.
The
principal immediate effect of Columbus's discovery and of the
commercial intercourse with the New World, was the great wealth of
pearls which enriched the Spanish traders. The natives were found in
possession of rich fisheries on the coast of Venezuela, and somewhat
later on the Pacific coast of Panama and Mexico, whence Eldorado
adventurers returned to Spain with such large collections that—using an
old chronicler's expression—"they were to every man like chaff." For
many years America was best known in Seville, Cadiz, and some other
ports of Europe, as the land whence the pearls came. Until the
development of the mines in Mexico and Peru, the value of the pearls
exceeded that of all other exports combined. Humboldt states that till
1530 these averaged in value more than 800,000 piastres yearly.2
And throughout the sixteenth century the American fisheries—prosecuted
by the Spaniards with the help of native labor—furnished Europe with
large quantities, the records for one year showing imports of "697
pounds' weight" into Seville alone.
For
two centuries following the discovery of America, extravagance in
personal decoration was almost unlimited at the European courts, and
the pearls exceeded in quantity that of all other gems. Enormous
numbers were worn by persons of rank and fortune. This is apparent, not
only from the antiquarian records and the historical accounts, but also
in the paintings and engravings of that time; portraits of the
Hapsburgs, the Valois, the Medicis, the Borgias, the Tudors, and the
Stuarts show great quantities of pearls, and relatively few other gems.
Probably the largest treasures were in possession of the Hapsburg
1 Jones, "History and Mystery of Precious to the New Continent," London, 1822, Vol. Stones," London, 1880, p. 135. II, p. 273.
2 Humboldt, "Personal Narrative of Travels
