Excerpt from The Pearl-Oyster Resources of Panama Indians who valued only the meat of pearl oysters could not understand the white man's joy at seeing the pearls, which they could not eat. The fact that Indians who inhabited the territory of the Isthmus of Panama were not interested in pearls and did not use them for adornment is confirmed by subsequent archaeological explorations, for pearls were not found in the graves, which, besides skeletons. Contained large numbers of shark teeth and sting rays' spines. It is known, however, that together with various sea foods, including crawfish, pearl oysters were commonly eaten by the tribes inhabiting the eastern shore of the Gulf of Panama and the islands. At the beginning the pearl fishing was profitable. In H days Balboa's men gathered about 96 ounces of pearls. The success of the first days encouraged the Spaniards. They organized pearl fishing parties, employed large numbers of Indian divers, and showed them how to open the oysters without roasting them, as was their custom, and spoiling the pearls. _scarcity of historical records makes it impossible to estimate the quantity and value of pearls gathered at this time from the Pearl Islands. It is known, however, that upon leaving the coast of the Gulf of Panama, Balboa received from a local chief a tribute consisting of 160 ounces of gold and 200 large pearls. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.