20 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN [VOL. XVI, 



" as the Portuguese were already killed or wounded, for only the fal- 



" cons and bercos were now of any use to our men, and they did not 



" fire them so often as did the Moors, and our men were continually 



'becoming less able to fire; wherefore the Moors knowing the 



' weakness of our men came in a body with their arms, and their 



" shouts and war charges, and boarded the vessel, and killed as 



" many as they found alive, without sparing any one, and carried 



' off all that they found, and took the falcons and bercos and 



" ammunition, and set fire to the vessels so that they went down, 



" and then returned to Ceylon. Our foists, hearing the news of the 



" burning of those vessels, fled to where Manuel da Gama was 



"staying." 



The description of the conduct of the fishery under the Portu- 

 guese by Juan Ribeyro in his '* History of Ceylon " dated 1685, is 

 the only detailed account handed clown to us.* 

 It runs as follows : — 



" Having now related all that we know of the natural riches 

 " of the land of Ceylon, we shall describe those which its sea 

 " produces. The pearls which are procured from the coasts of 

 "the island, and more especially from Aripo, are of the highest 

 " value. As few persons know how that fishery is conducted, we 

 " shall here relate what we know of it- 



" At the beginning of March there assemble on that coast 4,000 

 " or 5,000 boats got together and paid by Moorish or Heathen 

 "merchants and by some Christians.! These merchants have 

 " many partnerships among themselves, and they first makeup a 

 " fund to arm four, five or six boats, more or less, according as 

 " the entire adventure is greater or smaller. Each of these boats 

 " has generally from ten to twelve sailors, one master and eight or 

 " nine divers. All the boats go out together, and seek where 

 " the fishery is likely to be most profitable : and they anchor at the 

 " spots where the sea is only five, six or at most seven fathoms 

 " deep. Then they send off three boats to a league distant round 

 "about, each in a different direction ; each of these boats brings 



* From the English translation from the French version of the Abbe Le Grand, 

 Ceylon, 1847. 



f " An escort of armeil men always accompanies the pearl divers, on account of the 

 Malabars, who come from the coast of that name or from the Maldives, and who live by 

 piracy so that no boat, canoe or prahu is safe in those seas. The fishers or divers cease 

 their work at noon, on account of the swell caused by the wind, and which annoys the 

 divers, who can only descend in calm weather." (Note by the French translator.) 



