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Romance and Poetry: Nunez

When Vasco Nunez made his first discovery of the Pacific from the heights of Quaraqua, he had passed through Indian districts, the inhabitants of which possessed pearls and gold in abundance, and gave them freely to the Spaniards in exchange for beads, bells, and trinkets. The cacique, or chief, of Tumaco gave Nunez jewels of gold weighing 614 crowns, and two hundred pearls of great size and beauty, excepting that they were somewhat discoloured, in consequence of the oysters having been opened by fire.

The cacique, seeing the value which the Spaniards set upon the pearls, sent a number of his men to fish for them at a place about ten miles distant. Certain of the Indians were trained from their youth for this purpose, so as to become expert divers and to acquire the power of remaining under water a long time. So great was the quantity of pearls in these regions that the cacique of one of the islands offered Morales and Pizarro, in 1515, as a token of his vassalage to the King of Castile, an annual tribute of one hundred pounds weight of pearls.

Precious stones have been from earliest times the symbols of power, excellence, and beauty.

Ezekiel, in his prophecy of the ruin of Tyre and Sidon, in utterances of incomparable beauty, alludes to the regal splendours of Phoenicia, and its abundance of precious stones. "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle.... Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire" (chap. xxviii. 13, 14).

The apostle John, in his rocky and desolate island of the AEgean Sea, saw the celestial visions which made his place of banishment a heavenly paradise, and in language sublime and inspired, employed the most precious objects of the earth to typify the glory that was revealed. Thus he saw the Mighty One on His throne in heaven, His countenance like a jasper and a sardine stone, so transcendent was His brightness. He saw a rainbow about the throne, like unto an emerald.

The vision of the New Jerusalem represents the gates as of pearl, Christ being the Pearl of "great price." "The building of the wall of it was of jasper, and the city was pure gold like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst."

Such heavenly brightness to which no night could come-far, far beyond the lustre of the rarest jewels, for "the Lord God giveth them light." Milton, in "Paradise Lost," describes the Fiend on his wanderings:-- "Far distant he descries Ascending by degrees magnificent Up to the wall of heaven a structure high; At top whereof, but far more rich, appear'd The work as of a kingly palace-gate, With frontispiece of diamond and gold Embellish'd; thick with sparkling orient gems The portal shone, inimitable on earth By model, or by shading pencil drawn."

Underneath the Angels' stair at the Gate of Heaven-- "A bright sea flow'd Of jasper, or of liquid pearl." In Taylor's "Golden Grove," there is a striking passage in the "Meditation on Heaven":-- "That bright eternity, Where the great King's transparent throne Is of an entire jasper stone; There the eye O'the chrysolite, And a sky Of diamonds, rubies, and chrysoprase, And, above all, Thy holy face, Make an eternal clarity. When Thou Thy jewels dost bind up, that day Remember us, we pray. That where the beryl lies, And the crystal 'bove the skies, There Thou mayst appoint us a place Within the brightness of Thy face; And our soul In the scroll Of life and blissfulness enroll, That we may praise Thee to eternity." Lucian, in his very curious "True History," the real origin of so many fabulous voyages and travels, brings his adventurers, after a visit to the moon, to the Island of the Blessed, where the city has palaces of gold and ramparts of emerald; its gates are of cinnamon-wood; its pavements are of ivory; its temples are built of beryl, with altars of amethyst. As an imagery of beauty and excellence, we find precious stones employed in the description of some fair spots of the earth. Thus, Damascus is called by the Orientals the pearl girded with emeralds, on account of the beautiful gardens that surround its whitened walls.

So we have Ireland, the emerald isle, first gem of the sea. Thomas Moore, writing from Bermuda, describes "Those leafy isles upon the ocean thrown, Like studs of emerald o'er a silver zone."

The Caliph Omar (A.D. 638) required his lieutenant Amrou to give him a description of Egypt. Amongst other matters, he stated that, "according to the vicissitudes of the seasons, the face of the country is adorned with a silver wave, a verdant emerald, and the deep yellow of a golden harvest." Milton, in "Comus," mentions-- "All the seagirt isles That, like to rich and various gems, inlay The unadorned bosom of the deep."

The Mohammedan Paradise is stated by the followers of the false prophet to be situated above the seven heavens (or in the seventh heaven), and next under the throne of God. The description of it is rich and dazzling. The very stones are pearls and jacinths, the walls of its buildings are of gold and silver, and the trunks of all its trees are of gold. The pebbles in the rivers of Paradise are rubies and emeralds; the fruits on the trees are pearls and emeralds. Besides sensual gratifications such as Mohammed alone could describe for his followers, each one admitted to Paradise will have a tent erected for him of pearls, jacinths, and emeralds, of a very large extent. They will be adorned with bracelets of gold and precious stones, and crowns set with pearls of incomparable lustre.

The Mohammedans say that the Archangel Gabriel revealed the Koran to Mohammed by parcels--some at Mecca and some at Medina--at different times during the space of twenty-three years, as the exigencies of affairs required; giving him the consolation, however, to show him the whole (which they say was bound in silk, and adorned with gold and precious stones of Paradise) once a year. In the Talmud it is said that Noah had no other light in the Ark than that furnished by precious stones. So Abraham, who was very jealous of his numerous wives, and kept them shut up in an iron city, which he built for that purpose, with walls so high as to exclude the light of day, but the whole city was illuminated by a great bowl full of jewels.

The Chinese say there are thirty-three stories of Heaven, in the uppermost of which Budhu, seated on a lotus, surveys all the world. The land of Fuh is yellow gold. Its gardens, groves, houses, and palaces are elegantly adorned with seven orders of gems. It is encircled with seven rows of trees, seven elegant networks, and seven fences of palisades. In the midst are seven towers of gems, seven flights of pearl stairs, seven pearly stairs, seven pearly bridges, nine classes of lotus, etc.

According to the Persian system, the globe is said to rest on a vast sapphire, the reflection of which colours the skies.