The Pearl Oyster Resources Of Panama PDF Download

Excerpt from The Pearl-Oyster Resources of Panama Indians who valued only the meat of pearl oysters could not understand the white man's Joy at seeing the pearls, which they could not eat. The fact that Indians who inhabited the territory of the Isthmus of Panama were not interested in pearls and did not use them for adornment is confirmed by subsequent archaeological explorations. For pearls were not found in the graves. Which. Besides skeletons. Contained large numbers of shark teeth and sting rays' spines. It is known, however. That together with various sea foods. Including crawfish. Pearl oysters were commonly eaten by the tribes inhabiting the eastern shore of the Gulf of Panama and the islands. At the beginning the pearl fishing was profitable. In u days Balboa's men gathered about 96 ounces of pearls. The success of the first days encouraged the Spaniards. They organized pearl fishing parties. Employed large numbers of Indian divers. And showed them how to open the oysters without roasting them, as was their custom. And spoiling the pearls. Scarcity of historical records makes it impossible to estimate the quantity and value of pearls gathered at this time from the Pearl Islands. It is known. However. That upon leaving the coast of the Gulf of Panama. Balboa received from a local chief a tribute consisting of 160 ounces of gold and 200 large pearls. The value of the pearls shipped from the New World to Spain is not known. The official records of the amount of the quint or one-fifth of the appraised figure which the King's officers collected as a duty on pearl fishery are scarce and obviously too low. Von Humboldt (1822) mentions that until 1530 the annual value of the pearls shipped to Europe averaged. According to the Spanish Treasury records. Only 800 piastres. He probably refers to pesos a silver or gold coin weighing about 25 grams and equivalent to the American dollar. One must remember. However. That real values of different Spanish coins known as peso duro. 'peso fuerte. Peso sencillo should be determined on the basis of their purchasing power at different historical periods and cannot be compared directly with the present day evaluations. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.