ENDNOTES:

18. Blavet was situated at the mouth of the River Blavet, on the southern
coast of Brittany. Its occupation had been granted to the Spanish by
the Duke de Mercoeur during the civil war, and, with other places held
by the Spanish, was surrendered by the treaty of Vervins, in June,
1598. It was rebuilt and fortified by Louis XIII, and is now known as
Port Louis.

19. _Deseada_, signifying in Spanish the desired land.

20. _Margarita_, a Spanish word from the Greek [Greek: margaritaes],
signifying a pearl. The following account by an eye-witness will not be
uninteresting: "Especially it yieldeth store of pearls, those gems
which the Latin writers call _Uniones_, because _nulli duo reperiuntur
discreti_, they always are found to grow in couples. In this Island
there are many rich Merchants who have thirty, forty, fifty _Blackmore_
slaves only to fish out of the sea about the rocks these pearls....
They are let down in baskets into the Sea, and so long continue under
the water, until by pulling the rope by which they are let down, they
make their sign to be taken up.... From _Margarita_ are all the Pearls
sent to be refined and bored to _Carthagena_, where is a fair and
goodly street of no other shops then of these Pearl dressers. Commonly
in the month of _July_ there is a ship or two at most ready in the
Island to carry the King's revenue, and the Merchant's pearls to
_Carthagena_. One of these ships is valued commonly at three score
thousand or four score thousand ducats and sometimes more, and
therefore are reasonable well manned; for that the _Spaniards_ much
fear our _English_ and the _Holland_ ships."--_Vide New Survey of the
West Indies_, by Thomas Gage, London, 1677, p. 174.