The oysters most productive of pearls are those found in considerable depths; for though what are taken up by wading near shore are of the same species, yet the pearls they contain are few in number, and very small. It is said, too, that the pearl partakes, in some degree, of the quality of the bottom on which the oyster is lodged; so that if the bottom be muddy, the pearl is dark and ill coloured.
The taking up oysters from great depths for the sake of their pearls is a work performed by negro slaves, of which the inhabitants of Panama and the neighbouring coast formerly kept vast numbers, which were carefully trained to this business. These are said not to be esteemed compleat divers till they have by degrees been able to protract their stay under water so long that the blood gushes out from their nose, mouth, and ears. And it is the tradition of the country, that when this accident has once befallen them, they dive for the future with much greater facility than before; and they have no apprehension either that any inconvenience can attend it, the bleeding generally stopping of itself, or that there is any probability of their being ever subject to it a second time. But to return from this digression.
Though the pearl oyster, as hath been said, was incapable of being eaten, yet that defect was more than repaid by the { 204} turtle, a dainty which the sea at this place furnished us with in the greatest plenty and perfection. There are generally reckoned four species of turtle; that is, the trunk turtle, the loggerhead, the hawksbill, and the green turtle. The two first are rank and unwholesome; the hawksbill (which affords the tortoise-shell) is but indifferent food, though better than the other two; but the green turtle is generally esteemed, by the greatest part of those who are acquainted with its taste, to be the most delicious of all eatables; and that it is a most wholesome food we are amply convinced by our own experience, for we fed on this last species, or the green turtle, near four months, and consequently, had it been in any degree noxious, its ill effects could not possibly have escaped us. At this island we caught what quantity we pleased with great facility; for as they are an amphibious animal, and get on shore to lay their eggs, which they generally deposit in a large hole in the sand just above the high-water mark, covering them up, and leaving them to be hatched by the heat of the sun, we usually dispersed several of our men along the beach, whose business it was to turn them on their backs when they came to land, and the turtle being thereby prevented from getting away, we brought them off at our leisure. By this means we not only secured a sufficient stock for the time we stayed on the island, but we carried a number of them with us to sea, which proved of great service both in lengthening out our store of provision, and in heartening the whole crew with an almost constant supply of fresh and palatable food. For the turtle being large, they generally weighing about 200 lb. weight each, those we took with us lasted near a month: so that before our store was spent, we met with a fresh recruit on the coast of Mexico, where in the heat of the day we often saw great numbers of them fast asleep, floating on the surface of the water. Upon discovering them, we usually sent out our boat with a man in the bow who was a dextrous diver; and as the boat came within a few yards of the turtle, the diver plunged into the water, taking care to rise close upon it, when seizing the shell near the tail, and pressing down the hinder parts, the turtle was thereby awakened, and began to strike with its claws, which motion supported both it and the diver till the boat came up and took them in. By this management we never wanted turtle for the succeeding four months in which we continued { 205} at sea; and though, when at the island of Quibo, we had already been three months on board, without otherwise putting our feet on shore than in the few days we stayed there (except those employed in the attack at Paita), yet in the whole seven months from our leaving Juan Fernandes to our anchoring in the harbour of Chequetan, we buried no more in the whole squadron than two men; a most incontestable proof that the turtle, on which we fed for the last four months of this term, was at least innocent, if not something more.