s in some degree of the quality of
the bottom on which the oyster is found; so that if the bottom be
muddy, the pearl is dark and ill-coloured.

The diving for oysters is a work performed by negro slaves, of whom
the inhabitants of Panama and the neighbouring coast formerly kept
great numbers, carefully trained to this business. These are not
esteemed complete divers, till they are able to protract their stay
under water so long, that the blood gushes out from their nose, mouth,
and ears. 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; that no inconvenience attends it, the bleeding
generally stopping of itself, and that there is no probability of
their being subject to it a second time.[1]

[Footnote 1: 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.]

The sea at this place furnished us with a dainty, in the greatest
plenty and perfection, viz. the turtle. There are reckoned four
species of turtle: the trunk-turtle, the loggerhead, the hawksbill,
and the green turtle. The two first are rank and unwholesome; the
hawksbill (which furnishes the tortoise-shell) is but indifferent
food, though better than the other two; but the green turtle is
esteemed, by the greatest part of those who are acquainted with
its taste, as the most delicious of eatables; and that it is a most
wholesome food, we were amply convinced by our own experience: For we
fed on this for near four months, and consequently had it been in any
degree noxious, its ill eff