Notwithstanding the strong indorsement given to Garcilasso’s narrative by Theodore Irving and some other writers, his tendency to exaggerate depreciates greatly the historical value of his account, and it seems wholly unreliable as an authority relative to early resources in America. We may reasonably doubt whether De Soto’s expedition came in contact with more pearls than those mentioned by Biedma and the Portuguese writer. The account of the first voyage along the coast of the United States, that of the Italian, Juan Verrazano, in 1524, contains no reference to pearls, although he penetrated into the interior a score or two of miles, and was frequently in contact with the natives, who lived largely by fishing, and who prized many ornaments of different colored stones, copper rings, etc. The first expedition which went far into the interior was the ill-fated one under command of Pánfilo de Narvaez in 1528. A thrilling account[310] of this journey was written by Cabeza de Vaca, who was one of the four survivors, after eight years’ wandering through America to Mexico. Cabeza had been controller and royal treasurer of the expedition, and in that position it was his particular duty to acquaint himself with all the pearls, gold, and similar riches found by the party. Notwithstanding his tradings with the Indians and their efforts to gain his friendship by means of presents, his account makes no mention of pearls, except to refer to a statement made by some Indians that on the coast of the South Sea there were pearls and great riches. Hernando D’Escalante Fontaneda, who was shipwrecked on the Florida coast about 1550, and was detained there a prisoner for seventeen years, wrote: “Between Abolachi [Appalachicola] and Olagale is a river which the Indians call Guasaca-Esqui, which means Reed River. It is on the sea-coast, and at the mouth of this river the pearls are found in oysters and other shells; from thence they are carried into all the provinces and villages of Florida.”[311] The European narrators also reported great stores of pearls along the Atlantic seaboard. Among the first of these may be mentioned David Ingram, who is represented as traveling by land from the Gulf of Mexico to the vicinity of Cape Breton in the years 1568 and 1569. As it appeared in the first edition of Hakluyt’s Voyages, this relation states: “There is in some of those Countreys great abundance of Pearle, for in every Cottage he founde Pearle, in some howse a quarte, in some a pottel [half a gallon], in some a pecke, more or less, where he did see some as great as an Acorn; and Richard Browne, one of his Companyons, found one of these great Pearls in one of their Canoes, or Boates, wch Pearls he gave to Mouns Campaine, whoe toke them aboarde his shippe.”[312] Estimation of Ingram’s wonderful relation is decreased by Purchas’s comment: