Blood for Pearls

By Peter Von Perle

A Legacy Written in Blood and Pearls...

In 1498, the world was on the brink of a seismic shift. Christopher Columbus, during his fateful third voyage, stumbled upon the Pearl Coast-an enchanting realm teeming with riches beyond imagination. Yet, behind the glistening pearls lay a dark and treacherous h

• Language: English
• Publisher: Patricia Perle Von
• Release date: Dec 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798869050502

Book preview

BLOOD

FOR

PEARLS

The First American Genocide

Special Edition

Based on historical events

PETER VON PERLE

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1498

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COLUMBUS’ THIRD VOYAGE

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This pearl necklace is comprised of fifty-three natural pearls weighing 184.42 carats. The age range has been determined to be 1455 AD to 1615 AD. Columbus received a similar necklace from a Guaiquery native woman upon his arrival in 1498.

PEARLS ARE NATURE’S EXPRESSION OF PERFECTION,

THEY ARE THE ONLY GEMS THAT

DO NOT REQUIRE

HUMAN INTERVENTION

Peter Von Perle

Table of Contents

DEDICATION

DISCLAIMER

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

PREFACE

PART I

PARADISE

CHAPTER ONE: People of Water

CHAPTER TWO: Charaima

CHAPTER THREE: Daily Life

PART II

THE ARRIVAL

CHAPTER FOUR: Conquistadors

CHAPTER FIVE: The Pearl Necklace

CHAPTER SIX: The First Days

CHAPTER SEVEN: Charagato Island

CHAPTER EIGHT: Signs of Trouble

CHAPTER NINE: Hispaniola

PART III

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

PART III

CHAPTER TEN: The Uprise

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Enslavement

CHAPTER TWELVE: The First Profitable Voyage

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Cubagua & The Port of Pearls

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: The Attack

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: From the Bahamas to Florida

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Bartolomé de las Casas

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: The Clay Jar

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Dembe

PART IV

RISE AND FALL

CHAPTER NINETEEN: Colonization

CHAPTER TWENTY: Nueva Cádiz

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Pirates

PART V

THE END

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Depletion

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: L’Ange Exterminateur

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Destruction

EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

GLOSSARY

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

APPENDIX C

APPENDIX D

REFERENCES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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DEDICATION

T

his book is dedicated to Miklos Szabadics Roka (1931-2011). He was a passionate archaeologist, artist, author, and antique weapons recreationist. He lived, felt, relived, and recreated ancient American culture and Native societies, he understood their art, their culture, and the construction and use of their tools and weapons.

To my beloved Jenny, who patiently guided and supported me in my weak and doubtful moments and always stood by my side, and to my children, Andrea, Chris, and Steffie.

© Copyright 2023 - All rights reserved.

The content of this book may not be reproduced, copied, or transmitted without explicit written permission from the author(s) or publisher. Doing so would constitute a breach of copyright law and could result in serious legal repercussions for any party participating in the illicit reproduction of the material. Furthermore, due to the nature of intellectual rights, it is impossible to duplicate or replace the original work produced by the author(s) or publisher; therefore, the only way to legally gain access to this content is through direct authorization from either party.

Legal Notice:

This book is subject to copyright protection and should only be used for personal use. Furthermore, it should not be shared with any other individual or persons for any purpose other than that for which it was initially intended. It is strictly prohibited to amend, reproduce, distribute, utilize, quote, or paraphrase any part of the content within this publication without prior authorization from the writer or publisher. Any violation of these regulations may result in legal action.

DISCLAIMER

T

his story with fictional characters is based on historical events that may have been altered to increase dramatism. Any similarity with actual people is a coincidence.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means.

The paleo-emojis© in this book are recreations from petroglyphs found in the geographic location of the described events. All the images belong to Jenny B. and are protected by US copyright law. No part may be used or published without written authorization.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

F

IRST, I MUST THANK my mother, Eva. Without her, this over a decade-long exciting endeavor wouldn’t have started.

Everything I have learned about natural pearls I owe to Antoinette Matlins. She is an internationally recognized gemologist and accomplished book author, among them The Pearl Book (first published in 1996 and now in its 4th edition), and public speaker; over the last several years, she has always been available for my research, pointing me into the right direction, providing me with contact information and every time we meet, her sophistication and expertise deeply humble me.

If you have an interest in learning more about pearls, either natural or cultured, her book The Pearl Book-The Definitive Buying Guide, by Antoinette Matlins, P.G. is the holy grail of pearls. There you will learn how to Select, Buy, Care For & Enjoy Pearls.

Kenneth Scarratt, a British gemologist and pearl expert, an authority on the British crown jewels and co-author of The Pearl and the Dragon and The Crown Jewels: The History of the Coronation Regalia in the Jewel House of the Tower of London, took time out of his busy professional agenda when he was CEO of the newly established DANAT, the Bahrain Institute for Pearls and Gemstones located in Manama Bahrain and he had a cache of five-hundred-year-old saltwater pearls examined and tested, I owe him my gratitude and admiration. As part of his former team, I also want to thank Stefanos Karampelas and Abeer Al Alawi. In 2017, their team allowed me to be part of their exhibits at international jewelry fairs in Manama and Hong Kong.

As a special note to you, my dear reader, if you want to visit Bahrain, the oldest natural pearl fishing capital of the world, with more than seven thousand years of pearl fishing activity, please don’t forget to leave your cultured pearls at home before leaving. Upon arrival at the Manama airport, signs on the airport walls indicate that between firearms and drugs, cultured pearls are not allowed in the country. Once in Manama, you can take a guided pearl fishing tour and visit the Bahrain National Museum, where you will gain extensive knowledge about the history of natural pearl fishing and trade.

Special thanks to a very special couple of friends in Madrid, Spain, who put me in touch with historians and gemologists who shared valuable historical information. With their help, I was able to visit the Maritime Museum in Madrid, La Casa de los Hidalgos (the House of the Nobles), whose President is the King of Spain, Alhambra, the castle in Granada and Sevilla, the Archives of the Indies where most of the original documents of the discovery of America are stored.

The Gemological Institute of America published an article in the prestigious quarterly magazine Gems & Gemology in the fall of 2017 titled Radiocarbon Dating of Columbian-Era Saltwater Pearls. The authors were Chunhui Zhou, Gregory Hodgins, Todd Lange, Kazuko Saruwatari, Nicolas Sturman, Lore Kiefert and Klaus Schollenbruch. A huge thank you to them all.

Hubert Bari, former Museum curator of the Qatari pearl exhibit, who gave me a copy of his book Pearls, published by the Qatar Museums Authority, and Olivier Segura, who provided me with a copy of the book Marchands de Perles, published by L’Ecole Van Cleef & Arpels, when we met in Paris in 2018. Before leaving Europe and heading back to the USA, a stop at the Imperial Treasure Chambers in Vienna, Austria, was a mandatory visit, as to their vast number of royal artifacts decorated with thousands of natural saltwater pearls, many possibly with provenance from Cubagua Island.

Gary Smith, a forensic gemologist and expert in antique and vintage jewelry, and Barry Block, a master gemologist appraiser, helped me with the gemological aspects of my research.

Robert S. Carr, an American archaeologist, and co-founder of the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, author of Digging Miami and The Everglades, Images of America, took time out of his busy schedule to guide me through the book reviewing process. His expertise and firsthand professional knowledge of the archaeological site known as the Miami Circle were fundamental for the plot development.

My most profound admiration and respect for Daniel Benveniste, a family friend for many years and clinical psychologist, book author of Libido, Culture and Consciousness-Revisiting Freud’s Totem and Taboo, among others, his love and passion for Venezuelan indigenous tribes and his love for Venezuelan Archaeology made him a world of resource for my research.

Martha Lombana in Australia and Ch. Yousaf alias Mr. Mukhtar in Pakistan, whose input made the book a reality, thank you. Faramroze Sarkari patiently listened to me for years and has become a friend and mentor who raised my mood in the worst moments and always kept me on track; thank you.

Finally, my wife Jenny, has been there day and night, supporting, advising, and guiding me through the process. She has been my beacon and crutches; she is my angel and guardian; thank you, morci.

THANK YOU

INTRODUCTION

PEARLS, WHAT ARE THEY?

P

EARLS HAVE BEEN PART of human evolution for thousands of years. Chinese royalty received pearls as far back as four thousand five hundred years ago; they were revered by the Romans and Egyptians and used as ornamental décor. In Australia, an archaeologist found a three thousand-five-hundred-year-old pearl, and the Abu Dhabi Pearl is estimated to be around seven thousand five hundred years old. In Oman, several pearls encrusted in human skulls were discovered with an estimated age of one thousand five hundred years.

Hundreds of different types of shellfish produce natural pearls: Saltwater, freshwater, bivalve, gastropods, etc. Aside from natural pearls, there are also cultured pearls, imitation pearls, and fake pearls, and then there are blister pearls and cluster pearls.

The excessive harvesting of natural pearls and the constant increase in water pollution and climate change have decreased their availability. Many international laws try to protect species that are near extinction. For example, the queen conch (Strombus gigas) gastropod creates a unique and desirable, pinkish-colored pearl. It can take up to three decades to do that, and only one out of every several hundred queen conchs produce a pearl, so nowadays, they are a protected species. Despite that, several countries still need to enforce those protective laws.

How are pearls formed? A grain of sand has nothing to do with creating a pearl. Yes, a foreign object inserts itself into a mollusk, but it must be of organic origin. A grain of sand will not produce a pearl. The mollusk tries to protect itself from the organic irritant. It slowly starts to secrete layers of a crystalline substance called aragonite, which is the same material the shell is made of. The final product is a thin layer of nacre surrounding the foreign object. The process repeats itself, and many layers of nacre later, inside a pearl sack, a pearl is formed. This process can take years, just the same way the rings of a tree develop over the years, and the number of rings can determine the tree's age. A natural saltwater pearl, therefore, is like an onion with layer upon layer of pure nacre. The nacre thickness, and characteristics such as color, orient, and luster, besides the size and shape of the pearl, give it its desirability.

The creation of a pearl inside a mollusk is an accident of nature. Typically, oysters do not produce pearls. Only one out of several hundred mollusks may have a pearl; depending on the mollusk type, it can be as rare as one in every ten thousand shells a natural pearl is formed.

Contrary to popular belief, the other important fact is that most natural pearls are not round. They come in so many different shapes, sizes, colors, and types that you can state that natural pearls are as individualistic as human beings. You can have thousands of them, and upon closer examination, you will find that they are all different, even if they are from the same species.

A natural pearl is one that’s created with no human intervention.

Cultured pearls are a different scenario. Meanwhile, natural pearls can only be fished; cultured pearls are produced. A round organic bead is introduced manually into a mollusk, and within a short period, that bead is covered with a thin layer of nacre. Often, several beads are introduced into one shell so that each mollusk can produce many pearls. All the cultivated pearls are round as the introduced beads are pre-formed and perfectly round. They do not possess the individual characteristics of natural pearls; on the contrary, they are like clones; they look identical.

If you cut a cultured pearl in half, instead of layers upon layers of nacre, you would only have a skinny outer layer of nacre, usually less than a fifth of a millimeter. Compare the rings of a tree to a bamboo shoot or compare an onion with an orange.

The industry of cultured pearls produces an estimated forty tons of cultured pearls worldwide every year. During that same period, less than fifty kilos of natural pearls are harvested nowadays. As in any other industry, the production of cultured pearls is regulated and measured, but there is no official and precise information about the harvest of natural pearls.

It can take a five to seven-millimeter natural saltwater pearl between four to eight years to grow. A twelve-millimeter cultured pearl can be produced in a short period of a few months.

The events in this book recreate the first American pearl fisheries, specifically the pearls from the Pinctada Imbricata family and Pteria complex. Most of those pearls were between two and three millimeters in diameter, rarely exceeding five to seven millimeters.

PREFACE

T

HE NATIVES CALLED IT Charagato Island, the Spaniards referred to it as Pearl Island or Rich Island, and nowadays it is known as Cubagua Island; these four words describe the same place: A tiny arid island in the Southern Caribbean region that at the beginning of the sixteenth century became the epicenter of events that changed the world's history when the third voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1498 found vast amounts of pearls.

The first two voyages did not bring the financial benefits the Spanish Crown had hoped for, but the third voyage finally did.

In 1499, eight months after the discovery of Pearl Island, Spanish explorer Peralonso Niño sailed back to Spain with forty-five kilos of pearls for the royals, at least, according to the official documentation (it is believed that he arrived with twice the amount, keeping the difference for himself). It became the first profitable voyage for Queen Isabella, who had financed Columbus' voyages for the past eight years. This voyage triggered the most significant exodus to the Rich Island, similar to the California gold rush three hundred years later.

Pearls created immense wealth for the European kingdoms, influencing every social stratus, and the geographic and economic power that belonged to Venice shifted to Sevilla.

In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of local Natives were wiped off the face of the earth.

Being enslaved and forced pearl divers and the sicknesses brought by the conquistadors, the incredible cruelty the exploiters showed toward the locals.

African enslaved people were shipped as early as 1500 to replace the dwindling indigenous enslaved pearl divers.

The first African people on American soil were pearl divers on Cubagua Island, perishing in huge numbers, many, within days of their arrival. Only a few of the strongest were able to survive.

Within two decades, the invaders managed to wipe out the entire native population, destroy the ecological habitat, and forcefully bring enslaved Africans by the thousands, only to prove that the real savages were them; THE FIRST AMERICAN GENOCIDE.

Here is the story.

BLOOD

FOR

PEARLS

The First American Genocide

Special Edition

Based on historical events

PETER VON PERLE

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PART ONE

PARADISE

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CHAPTER ONE

PEOPLE OF WATER

T

HE YEAR WAS 1498, on the mainland shore of the Caribbean Ocean, located off the eastern coast of Venezuela, around the same region as the Coche, Cubagua, and Margarita islands. The settlement at the seashore bore a pacifying feeling of paradise, with abundant palm and coconut trees, shiny sand that glittered below a lovely clear blue sky, and a soothing blue body of water bathing the mainland. A gentle and warm ocean breeze moved the majestic palm trees with their dark green foliage, like the invisible waves of a rhythmic concert. Below the palm trees tucked between bushes at the line where the rainforest ends, and the shore begins are straw huts seemingly in disarray but, upon closer analysis, reveal a particular formation—a semi-circular arrangement.

The coastal paradise environment encouraged high-spirited antics amongst the children playing around and amongst the loud, chatty adults, especially the women. It was a peaceful, serene environment, beautiful to behold. The water at the ocean's shores was blue and crystal-clear—one could see the bottom of the ocean with its coral reef, sea urchins, schools of fish, and rock formations. The shoreline is a beautiful golden-colored sand beach, where little children ran from one end of it to the other end in carefree enthusiasm. There was laughter and playfulness everywhere. Everyone wanted to help everyone, and everyone shared everything. There was a sense of oneness and unity. It was a utopian and harmonic society. Such was the delightful state of the inhabitants of the mainland of the Venezuelan Ocean —the Guaiquery tribe.

The Guaiqueries were one of the several tribes that inhabited this region for thousands of years. The Cochaima, Mochima, Guraguao, Chaima, and Paria were also there. They shared the same language, the Mayum language, although each tribe had a different dialect. All those local tribes belonged to the Arawak people, who stretched from the Orinoco River to the Taíno. In a certain way, they can be considered cousins, as those tribes, divided into hundreds of chiefdoms, shared certain physical, social, and linguistic traits from marrying among themselves. Arawak people, also known as Lokono, lived in the Northern Antilles and the northern coast of South America. The Caribs, known as the Kalina people, lived in the lower Antilles. Those two ethnographic groups were quite different because of physical differences and customs and because the Kalina people were hostile and the Lokono were friendly.

The Guaiqueries, however, and the Cumanagotos were the most populous tribe on the coast of northern Venezuela, living not only along the coastal shore but also on nearby islands, such as Coche and Margarita. They were excellent divers and fishermen and farmed seafood along the coast in shallow, closed-off areas with reed-made fencing. They raised spiny lobsters, pearl oysters, ark clams, and crabs. Their lives were intricately connected to ocean life, and their name, Guaiquery, literally translated means "People of Water."

Guaiqueries were tradespeople and seafarers; they traveled throughout the Caribbean waters in large dugout canoes called guairas, equipped with sails. They traveled to Trinidad & Tobago, Santa Lucia, and eventually, as far North as the Bahamas and the Southern tip of Florida, visiting neighboring tribes, such as the Taíno, Tequesta, and the Lucayan people. Their spiritual belief was that everything and everyone are connected through their gods. Despite belonging to different tribes, most were interconnected by trade and organized commerce, although a few tribes, such as the nomadic Caribs, were constantly at war.

Their peaceful life was governed by deep-rooted spirituality. They revered every element of Mother Nature, respecting all living beings, from the tiniest insect to the most prominent tree. At night, they would watch the star-filled sky; they were experts in astronomy and had names for the stars, the Milky Way, and the spiritual meaning of the cosmos, and the natural balance of nature gave them peace of mind and existential happiness. There was a deeply rooted fear of underground spirits, who, once woken up, would bring sorrow and death to their community, so through a series of rituals, those spirits had to be appeased. They had many gods and knew they had to obey the laws of nature to maintain their paradisiac harmonic lives.

A bird's eye view of the region revealed a never-ending canopy of dense Amazonian Forest, like a green carpet, a fine golden line of shimmering sand along the shoreline, and deep blue from the vast ocean. Between the green and blue, tucked underneath some swaying palm trees, was a coastal settlement of twenty to thirty thatch huts built-in groups across the shoreline, each arranged in a semi-circular pattern. In the middle of the semicircle was the largest hut, used for ceremonial purposes and day-gathering social activities; it provided shade and safety for the numerous children and toddlers running around while the women went ahead with their daily activities. On the east side of the settlement ran a small freshwater stream, creating a clear separation between the town