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THE BOOK OF THE PEARL
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per grain the same pearl would be worth $54,080, equaling 15,320 times its weight in gold.
Temple of Talomeco. Among
great collections of pearls, some writers would place that described
by Garcilasso de la Vega as having been found by De Soto and his
followers in 1540 in the Temple of Talomeco near the Savannah River in
America.1 According to Garcilasso, the quantity of pearls
there was so great that 300 horses and 900 men would not have sufficed
for its transportation, vastly excelling every other if not all other
collections in the history of the world. Unfortunately the accuracy of
this account has not been unquestioned.
La Peregrina. Most
celebrated among the early American pearls was La Peregrina (the
incomparable), or the Philip II pearl, which weighed 134 grains.
According to Garcilasso de la Vega, who says that he saw it at Seville
in 1597,2 this was found at Panama in 1560 by a negro who
was rewarded with his liberty, and his owner with the office of alcalde
of Panama. Other authorities note that it came from the Venezuelan
fisheries in 1574. It was carried to Spain by Don Diego de Temes, who
presented it to Philip II ( 1527-1598). Jacques de Treco, court jeweler
to the king, is credited with saying that it might be worth 30,000,
50,000 or 100,000 ducats, as one might choose to estimate, for in fact
it was so remarkable as to be beyond any standard valuation. If we can
credit Garcilasso, at one time this pearl decorated the crown of the
Blessed Virgin in the church of Guadeloupe, which was resplendent with
gems.3 A contemporaneous account4 notes that it
was worn at Madrid by Queen Margarita, wife of Philip III, at the fêtes
given in celebration of the treaty of peace between that country and
England in 1605.
Charles II Pearl. Somewhat
similar to the foregoing was the pearl of Charles II of Spain
(1661-1700), which was presented to that monarch by Don Pedro de
Aponte, Conde del Palmer, a native of the Canaries. This gem was found
in 1691, or more than a century after La Peregrina. These two pearls
were nearly equal in size, and for many years they were worn as
earrings by the successive queens of Spain. It is reported that they
were destroyed in 1734, when a large portion of the old palace at
Madrid was burned.5
The jewels of the Spanish crown have passed through so many vicissitudes that it is not surprising that but few of them remain in the
1 See p. 254 for Garcilasso's description. * Miscel. Academ. Nat. Curios, Dec. I,
* Garcilasso, "Historie des Incas, Rois du Ann. II, obs. 288.
Pérou," Amsterdam, 1704, Vol. II, p. 352. ""Hawkins' Voyages," Hakluyt Society,
'Ibid., p. 351-
1878, p. 315 note.
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