Note 1 — Chapter XIV · VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY CAPTAIN GEORGE ANSON, IN THE YEARS 1740-1744.1 (continued 5)
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Footnote 1:
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The intelligent reader will demand more than the tradition of the country to induce his belief, that this diving business is not most certainly destructive of the miserable wretches who are compelled to pursue it. The divers in the Persian gulph, where it is well known the pearl fishery is carried on by individuals on their own account, "seldom live to a great age," (says Mr Morier in the account of his Journey through Persia.) "Their bodies break out in sores, and their eyes become very weak and blood-shot. They are restricted to a certain regimen; and to food composed of dates and other light ingredients." It cannot be imagined that the negroes of Panama fare better in this hazardous occupation. But to the expression of any solicitude as to their blood, it is very probable the answer might be something in the style of one of Juvenal's worthy ladies:
ita servus homo est? Hoc volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas.P.