Note 119 — VI THE PEARL FISHERIES OF THE PERSIAN GULF

Writers describing the early pearl fisheries on the American coast, and especially at Cubagua on the present coast of Venezuela, also reported very lengthy stays. In 1526, Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdés wrote: “The thing that causeth men most to marvel is to consider how many of them can remain at the bottom for the space of one whole hour, and some more or less, according to expertness.” (“Natural Historia de las Indias,” Toledo, 1526.) About 1588, the Jesuit priest José de Acosta wrote: “I did see them make their fishing, the which is done with great charge and labor of the poor slaves, which dive 6, 7, yea 12 fathoms into the sea...; but yet the labor and toil is greatest in holding their breath, sometimes a quarter, yea, half an hour together under water.” (Acosta, “Natural and Moral History of the Indies,” Hakluyt Society, 1880, p. 227.)