found.
A necklace made in California from the finest specimens was valued at
over $2,000. A pearl over half an inch long and of good color cost $30
and was used as the body of a jeweled fly. The abalone pearls from the
coasts of Korea and Japan are often very beautiful. In a lot of about
one hundred shells only five were found bearing pearls, two with three
pearls each, two with two pearls each, and one with a single pearl.
The history of American pearls dates back to the discovery of the New World. Arthur Helps1 says :
"
It is strange that this little glistening bead, the pearl, should have
been the cause of so much movement in the world as it has been. There
must be something essentially beautiful in it, however, for it has been
dear to the eyes both of civilized and uncivilized people. The
dark-haired Roman lady, in the palmiest days of Rome, cognizant of all
the beautiful productions in the world, valued the pearl as highly as
ever did the simple Indian woman, and a love for these glistening beads
came upon the Spaniards from two quarters, from the Romans who had
colonized them, and from the Moors they had con. quered. The perilous
nature, however, of his submarine possessions was not yet visible to
the poor innocent Indian on the coast of Paria or Cumana, and it was
with childish delight that he threw the strings of pearls, strung in a
way that would have driven the jewelers of Europe wild with vexation,
on the smooth brown arm or rich brown neck of his beloved."
Of
Columbus' it is said that the natives of Paria possessed such
quantities of fine pearls that the most sanguine anticipations were
roused in him. Remembering the assertion of Pliny, that pearls were
generated from drops of dew which fell into the mouths of oysters, he
deemed no place so propitious as this coast for their growth and
multiplication. When nearing the island of Cubagua, this admiral,
Charlevoix tells us, beheld a number of Indians fishing for pearls, who
at the approach of the strangers at once made for the land. A boat
being sent to communicate with them, one of the sailors noticed many
strings
1 The Spanish Conquest of America (London, 1855), Vol. 2, p. 89.
2 Life and Voyages of Columbus and his Companions, by Washington Irving (New York, 1849), Vol. 2, p. 123.
