THE BISHOP OF CHIAPA CHAMPIONS THE INDIAN PEARL DIVERS: SIZE OF THE OLD PEARL FIELDS: VALUE OF EXPORTS TO EUROPE IN 16TH CENTURY: THE PERSIAN GULF: THE CEYLON FISHERIES: THE “BINDER OF SHARKS”: THE PEARL CHARM OF THE DIVERS: CLASSIFICATION OF PEARLS IN CEYLON: THE RED SEA FISHERIES, THE SOURCE OF KLEOPATRA’S PEARLS: THE AUSTRALIAN FISHERIES: NEED FOR THEIR PROTECTION: OTHER FISHERIES: STORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF NEW GUINEA PEARLS: TOWN OF THE NYMPHS: RIVER FISHERIES: A RIVER PEARL IN THE BRITISH CROWN: “SHELLS OF THE FLOOD”: DIVERS BENEATH THE SEA: THE FOLK LORE OF THE PEARL: VISHNU’S NECKLACE OF 5 PRECIOUS STONES: EMBLEMS OF PEARLS: PEARLS AND PERSONS: PEARLS AND LUNAR NUMBERS: A MADAGASCAR BIRTH CUSTOM: THE ANGEL, DAY, SIGN AND PLANET OF THE PEARL: AS A DREAM SYMBOL: PREJUDICE AND ITS VALUE: THE PEARLS OF LINNAEUS: CHINESE AND JAPANESE CULTURE PEARLS: PEARL “FAKING”: COCOANUT PEARLS. “_Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Showers on her Kings barbaric pearl and gold._” MILTON. The benevolent Bishop of Chiapa, Mexico, Bartolome de las Casas, came forth as the protector of the Indians in the cruel times of their oppression. On their behalf he crossed the Atlantic sixteen times, and he tells of the hellish tortures to which they were subjected by their Spanish conquerors: “Nothing,” says this good man, “nothing could be more cruel and more detestable.” (“Brevissima Relacion de la Destruccion de las Indias,”1539). The story he writes of the Indian pearl divers is a sad one; as soon as the diver came up from the depths the brutal overseer, scarcely allowing him time to breathe the pure air, beat him savagely and compelled him to go down again. His food was poor and scanty, and Mother Earth his bed; his glossy black hair turned prematurely gray, his lungs became diseased, he spat blood freely and the ravenous shark ended his tragic life on earth. The natural result of greed and oppression practically exhausted these fisheries from the neighborhood of which the ancient kings of Mexico drew so much wealth. Indeed, it was the sight of the poor natives adorned with ropes of pearls which excited the cupidity of the first Spaniards who adventured to their shores. There being no provision made for the protection of the oysters in this fishery, it “gave out” almost entirely towards the end of the 17th century. An idea of the magnitude of these fisheries (which included the ancient grounds between Acapulco and the Gulf of Tehuantepec on the West Mexican coast, and the Caribbean Sea by the islands of Coche, Cubagua, and Margarita) can be gathered from the value of the export to Europe up to the first half of the 16th century. The annual value exported was stated to exceed 800,000 Spanish dollars, those famous “Pieces of Eight” which bring us back to the time of “Treasure Island” and the buccaneers of the Spanish Main.