The pearl fisheries of the Indies: a title of the law written around the diver

Book IIII, title 25 of the Recopilación de leyes de las Indias governs the Caribbean pearl fishery law by law: free access for Indians in 1578, the death penalty for forcing anyone to dive in 1585, rules against overfishing a bed, a duty to rescue a sinking canoe and to recover a drowned diver. The same title conscripts enslaved Africans in place of the Indians it protects, and orders the pursuit of any canoe whose crew escapes with it.