20. _Margarita_, a Spanish word from the Greek [Greek: margaritaes], signifying a pearl. The following account by an eye-witness will not be uninteresting: "Especially it yieldeth store of pearls, those gems which the Latin writers call _Uniones_, because _nulli duo reperiuntur discreti_, they always are found to grow in couples. In this Island there are many rich Merchants who have thirty, forty, fifty _Blackmore_ slaves only to fish out of the sea about the rocks these pearls.... They are let down in baskets into the Sea, and so long continue under the water, until by pulling the rope by which they are let down, they make their sign to be taken up.... From _Margarita_ are all the Pearls sent to be refined and bored to _Carthagena_, where is a fair and goodly street of no other shops then of these Pearl dressers. Commonly in the month of _July_ there is a ship or two at most ready in the Island to carry the King's revenue, and the Merchant's pearls to _Carthagena_. One of these ships is valued commonly at three score thousand or four score thousand ducats and sometimes more, and therefore are reasonable well manned; for that the _Spaniards_ much fear our _English_ and the _Holland_ ships."--_Vide New Survey of the West Indies_, by Thomas Gage, London, 1677, p. 174. 21. _Caymans_, Crocodiles. 22. For an interesting Account of the best route to and from the West Indies in order to avoid the vigilant French and English corsairs, see _Notes on Giovanni da Verrazano_, by J. C. Brevoort, New York, 1874, p. 101. 23. At the time that Champlain was at the isthmus, in 1599-1601, the gold and silver of Peru were brought to Panama, then transported on mules a distance of about four leagues to a river, known as the Rio Chagres, whence they were conveyed by water first to Chagres, and thence along the coast to Porto-bello, and there shipped to Spain.