IQ22] MADRAS PEARL FISHERIES 29 



exactions of Church and of State, from the natural improvidence of 

 the race and from the rapid decay of the Portuguese sea-power 

 consequent upon the successful inroads made upon their monopoly 

 of sea-borne commerce between India and Europe. The Portu- 

 guese, struggling for very existence and in continual straits for the 

 money requisite to carry on an exhausting contest, increased their 

 exactions from the natives and at the same time were unable to 

 give them adequate protection, especially at sea. We may infer 

 with every probability of this being true, that from the time the 

 Dutch appeared in force in Indian seas, a time coinciding with a 

 period of great official corruption and internal unrest among the 

 Portuguese, the management of the pearl banks became inefficient 

 and badly conducted. 



(c) Thf Pearl Banks under the Dutch, 1658— 1796. 



Tuticorin and the sovereignty of the pearl banks and of the 

 Paravas passed to the Dutch in 1658. In 1663 the first fishery 

 under the new rule was held, resulting in a profit of 18,000 florins.* 



At this fishery the Nayak of Madura and the Setupati of 

 Ramnad and the head Moor of Kayalpattanam had their accus- 

 tomed number of boats free as under the Portuguese. 



Just prior to this fishery Cornells Valkenburg had written " The 

 "fishery of Mannar (Gulf of Mannar) is in great repute with the 

 " Portuguese and everybody else, but if it be really of much 

 "importance has not yet been experienced and therefore I can 

 " give no information on the subject, "t 



The second Dutch fishery took place six years later, in 1669, 

 with what profit I do not know. Then a long interval of 22 years 

 occurred bringing us to the third fishery, 1691, at which there were 

 385^2 stones admitted free, viz. :— 

 q6% for the Nayak of Madura. 



59 for the Setupati of Ramnad and the remainder for the 

 headmen of the divers, divided on the lines detailed in the state- 

 ment of these arrangements at the Ceylon fishery of 1694 appended. 



Six years later, 1697, we find Croon, the Commandant of Jaffna, 

 writing that "the pearl fishery is an extraordinary source of 

 revenue, on which no certain reliance can be placed, as it depends 



* See Appendix A, page 171. 



t In instructions left for the guidance of his successors, the Residents of the 

 Seven Harbours on the Madura Coast, Ceylon Lit. Reg,, Vol. Ill, page 160. 



