Niño 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: Niño 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 Niño 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 Niño, but did not keep him in prison very long, where he consumed pearls enough.[270] [Illustration: GRAY PEARLS FROM LOWER CALIFORNIA, AND DIAMONDS Pan-American Exposition, 1901 ] This expedition of Pedro Alonso Niño 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 in securing divers. This was relieved in 1508 by transporting large numbers of Indians from the Lucayan or Bahama Islands and impressing them into the service. These were so expert in the work that individuals sold for upward of 150 ducats each.[271] With their aid the fishery prospered so greatly that in 1515 a settlement, called New Cadiz, was established on Cubagua Island by the governor of Hispaniola, Diego Columbus, son of the discoverer. This small island was dry and desolate, without water or wood, which were brought from the mainland twenty miles distant, or from Margarita Island about three miles to the northward.