in the sand on different Atlantic coasts, have been cast up from the depths of the sea by storms, and do not come there of themselves.  Why brilliant morning dew gives a white tint to pearls; why bad weather causes them to turn yellow; why they like a clear sky, and remain immovable when it thunders, are questions which cannot be examined with precision by those ignorant natives.  It is not a subject that can be treated by limited minds.  It is further said that the largest pearl oysters remain at the bottom, the commoner ones in the half-depths, and the little ones near the surface; but the reasons given to sustain this theory are poor ones.  The immovable mollusc does not reason about the choice of its home.  Everything depends on the determination, the ability, and the breath of the divers.  The large pearl oysters do not move about; they are created and find their sustenance in the deepest places, for the number of divers who venture to penetrate to the bottom of the sea to collect them is few.  They are afraid of polyps, which are greedy for oyster meat and are always grouped about the places where they are.  They are likewise afraid of other sea-monsters, and most of all they fear to suffocate if they stay too long under water.  The pearl oysters in the profoundest depths of the sea consequently have time to grow, and the larger and older the shell becomes, the larger the pearls they harbour, though in number they are few.  Those born at the bottom of the sea are believed to become food for the fish; when first gathered they are soft, and the shape of the ear is different from the larger ones.  It is alleged that no pearl adheres to the shell as it grows old, but there grows in the shell itself a sort of round and brilliant lump which acquires lustre by filing.  This, however, is not valuable, and takes its nature rather from the shell than from the pearl.  The Spaniards call the tympanum pati.[2] Sometimes pearl oysters have been found growing in small colonies upon rocks, but they are not prized.  It is credible that the oysters of India, Arabia, the Red Sea, and Ceylon exist in the manner described by celebrated authors, nor should the explanations given by such eminent writers be entirely rejected; I speak of those who have been for a long time in contradiction with one another.

[Note 2:  Pati appellat Hispanus tympanum; a sentence for which the translator has found no satisfactory meaning.]

We have already spoken enough about these sea-animals and their eggs, which luxury-loving people stupidly prefer to the eggs of chickens or ducks.  Let us add some further details outside our subject.

We have above described the entrance to the Gulf of Uraba, and said the different countries washed by its waters were strangely different from one another.  I have nothing new to relate of the western shore, where the Spaniards established their colony on the banks of the Darien River.