sail
and ran along the coast as far as Cape Vela, and from there came to
Santo Domingo, with the intention of returning to Cubagua after
regulating the affairs of the government. He suppressed the joy he felt at
having found such treasures, and did not write to the king regarding
the discovery of pearls, or at all events did not write it until it was
already known in Castile. This was largely the cause for the anger of
the king, and the order to bring Columbus a prisoner to Spain. They say
that he did not so much intend to conceal this discovery from the king,
who has many eyes, as that he thought by a new agreement to get this
rich island for himself.
Of
the sailors who went with Christopher Columbus when he found the
pearls, the greater number were from Palos. As soon as these came to
Spain, they told about the country of pearls, displayed many, and
carried them to Seville to sell, whence they went to the court and into
the palace. Excited by this report, some persons there hurriedly
prepared a ship and made Pedro Alonso Nino its captain. He had from the
Catholic king license to go in search of pearls and land, provided he
should not go within fifty leagues of any discovered by Columbus.
Nino
embarked in August, 1499, with thirty-three companions, some of whom
had been with Columbus. He sailed as far as Paria, visited the coast of
Cumana, Maracapan, Port Plechado, and Curiana, which lies united to
Venezuela. There he landed, and a chief, who came to the coast with
fifty Indians, conducted him amicably to a large town to take water,
refreshments, and the barter he was in search of. He bartered for and
secured fifteen ounces of pearls in exchange for pins, rings of horn
and tin, glass beads, small bells, and similar trifles. The Spaniards
stayed in the town twenty days, trading for pearls. The natives gave a
pigeon for a needle, a turtledove for one glass bead, a pheasant for
two, and a turkey for four. For that price they also gave rabbits and
quarters of deer. The Indians asked to be shown the use of needles,
since they went naked and could not sew, and were told to extract the
thorns with them, for they went barefooted: Nino brought to Galicia
ninety-six pounds of rough pearls, among which were many fine, round,
lustrous ones of five and six carats, and some of more. But they were
not well pierced, which was a great fault. On the route a quarrel arose
over the division, and certain sailors accused Nino before the governor
in Galicia, saying that he had stolen many pearls and cheated the king
in his fifth, and traded in Cumana and other places where Columbus had
been. The governor seized Nino, but did not keep him in prison very
long, where he consumed pearls enough.1
This
expedition of Pedro Alonso Nino 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
1"Historia general de las Indias," by Francisco Lopez de Gomara, l2mo, 1554, pp. 104-106 b.
