1922] MADRAS PEARL FISHERIES 17 



Fortunately many of the Portuguese soldiers of fortune have 

 left memoirs of their lives in the east, and several furnish interest- 

 ing accounts of the conduct and management of the fisheries at this 

 time. The two most important are those left by Gaspar Correa and 

 by Juan Ribeyro; the former dealing with the condition of the 

 fishery at the beginning of the Portuguese connection, the latter 

 with an account of it in the years when his nation was being dis- 

 lodged foot by foot and fort by fort from Ceylon and India by the 

 Dutch. Both are worthy of being better known and therefore it 

 will be better to give the extracts in full. 



Gaspar Correa's account tells * us that in the year I523 the King 

 of Portugal commissioned Manuel de Frias to make inquiries in 

 India regarding the tomb of the apostle Thomas, and it proceeds 

 thus : — "And he commanded that with him should go Joao Froles, 

 " who had taken part in the affairs in Ceylon when Lopo Soares 

 ' went there, and who had been appointed by the King captain and 

 " factor of the pearl fishery which is carried on by the natives of 

 " the country between Ceylon and the Cape of Comoryn ;t in former 

 " times the Moors of that coast had possession of this pearl fishery, 

 "for which they paid a large rent to the lords of the land, where- 

 " fore the Governors had a good right thereto, since they were 

 " rulers of the sea. Therefore now Joao Froles having come thus 



* " Lendas da India." 



t From Correa it would appear that it was circa 1525 that the Portuguese seized the 

 pearl fishery on the Indian coast (this is to be inferred as his narrative tells of the Moor 

 pirates returning to Ceylon after the sea-fight described on the next page) Jt does not 

 appear that they settled on the Tinnevelly coast at this period ; they probably did little 

 except raiding the fishery when they heard that one was in progress — holding it to 

 ransom and squeezing what profit they could out of the merchants and divers. This 

 will explain Caldwell's statement that the settlement (seizure) of this coast by the 

 Portuguese took place in 1532. He was apparently not aware of the raiding of the 

 fishery in 1525 and 152S. According to his account {History of Tinnevelly, page 6S), 

 in 1532 a deputation of Paravas went to Cochin to pray for aid against the Muhammadans. 

 The deputation is said to have comprised 70 persons. The appeal was granted and an 

 expedition was fitted out. The idea of seeking this aid and the offer of the caste, 

 which was made at the same time, to embrace the Roman Catholic religion, is credited 

 to the advice of a native convert, Joao de Cruz. Father Michael Vaz, the Vicar-General 

 at Cochin, accompanied the expedition with seme priests and on his arrival on the coast, 

 after the overthrow of the Muhammadans, 20,000 Paravas, occupying 30 villages, are 

 said to have been baptized. St. F. Xavier stated some years later that the Chiefs of the 

 Saracens were slain and their power utterly broken. Father Michael Vaz was described 

 by Xavier as "the tri:e father of the Comorin Christians." Xavier arrived in 1542 

 and laboured on this coast two years. Up to the last he seems never to have been able 

 to speak Tamil, though he learned off by heart certain prayers and formula;, 



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