The American Pearl-Fisheries. 227
" The fifth and last is at the isle of S. Martha, threescore leagues from the river La Hache.
"
All the Pearls of these five fishings are of a white water, weak, dry,
faint, milky, or leady ; not but that they find some fair ones, but
they have not so Jive a water as those of the East : in recompence,
they are great ones, in weight from eighteen to forty-two carats, and
are almost all of the shape-of a pear.
"These
five fishings of which I have spoken, are all in the North sea, but
they find also great quantities in the South sea near to Panama, they
are long rather than round, but not so fair as the others, and
ordinarily are somewhat black, for the Indians opened the oyster by
fire, till Vasques Dugnez taught the Cacique to open them without it,
and since they find the Pearls whiter. Experience teacheth us that
oysters change their places as well as other fish, and that they pass
sometimes to one side of the island, and sometimes to the other.
"
It is a considerable curiosity to know how they fish for Pearls ;
seven, eight or nine men at most go in one bark, two of which descend
to the bottom of the sea, six, nine, or twelve fathoms deep. About the
isles of Margarita and Cubagua the water is very cold, but the greatest
difficulty in fishing is
