The story of pearls is more than meets the eye. It is the story of early modern empire, risk, slavery, religious conversion, Carib power, and piracy. The early story of pearls is the story of the Cardona family, who were granted a royal monopoly in the early 17th century. The Cardonas repeatedly lost fleets and capital in the pursuit of wealth, royal grace, sunken treasure, slaves and converts. Tomás de Cardona grew up as a page of Philip III. In 1610, Tomás won the asiento (monopoly) for pearl extraction in the Caribbean and California. His small fleet sailed from Cadiz looking for wrecks, pearls, and captives to rescue. Cardona’s company needed slave divers to collect both pearls and treasure from shipwrecks. He got his slaves from Caribs, the famed ‘cannibals’ who moved from island to island staging raids and constantly setting limits to European geopolitical aspirations. Cardona spent nine months reconnoitring California, which he mapped as an elongated peninsula, not an island as it was then imagined, rich in silver mines and, he claimed, pliant, convertible Indians. Nearing Acapulco, one of Cardona’s ships was attacked by the Dutch privateer George Spilberg. Cardona lost the friars, the slave divers and his ship, although not before jumping off the vessel. Broke, Cardona returned to Spain in 1617. The fleet made several more journeys, and was captured and commandeered on several occasions. Cardona’s fascinating memoir exposes the nature of the pearl enterprise, one in which the Caribs loom large.
