1922] MADRAS PEARL FISHERIES 23 



In no Portuguese work have I found any indication of the 

 frequency of the recurrence of fisheries under the Portuguese or of 

 the approximate value and locality of any, a lack of knowledge 

 greatly to be regretted as it becomes impossible to say with 

 certainty whether or not there has been deterioration, progressive 

 or intermittent, in the oyster-producing qualities of the beds. The 

 only hint I have come across is a chance remark in Ribeyro's 

 " History ", to the effect that the inhabitants of Mannar had in his 

 time (circa 1658) become impoverished by the decadence of the 

 pearl fishery on the Ceylon coast and its transference to the 

 Tuticorin side, his words being " at present the oysters have 

 migrated and are to be found on the coast of Tuticorin."* 



Even prior to the Portuguese we find the uncertainty of the 

 pearl fisheries a matter of notoriety for Albyrouni who served 

 under Mahmoud of Ghazni and wrote in the eleventh century, says 

 that the pearl fishery which formerly existed in the Gulf of Seren- 

 dib, had become exhausted in his time simultaneously with the 

 appearance of a fishery at Sofala, in the country of the Zends, 

 where pearls were unknown before, and remarks that hence arose 

 the conjecture that the pearl oyster of Serendib had migrated to 

 Sofalat, i.e., to the Persian Gulf. 



Few other facts of importance are to be gleaned from Portuguese 

 writers. We see however that in fulfilment of the treaty made 

 with the new-comers the Paravas become zealous Roman 

 Catholics. Thus they won the confidence of their masters and 

 under the protection of the priesthood enjoyed a comparative 

 tranquillity and immunity from extortionate tyranny seldom met 

 with by Indians living within the Portuguese influence. 



St, Francis Xavier did great work among the Paravas and it 

 was on the fishery coast at or about Pinnakayal that he commenced 

 his missionary labours in 1542, thereafter visiting Tuticorin 



* See also Baldaeus' Description of Malabar and Coromandel, English edition, 

 London, 1703, where in volume 3, page 792, referring to the condition of affairs in 165^, 

 he states that "this island (Mannar) was formerly celebrated for the pearl fishery as 

 well as the city of Tutecoryn ; but no pearls having been taken there for these ten years 

 last past, the inhabitants are reduced to great poverty ; whereas the sumptuous edifices, 

 churches and monasteries, with their ornaments, are sufficient demonstrations of its 

 former grandeur." 



f Reinaud's " Fragmers Arabes," page 125, quoted by Tennenl in The Natural 

 History of Ceylon, page 375. 



