40 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN [VOL. XVI 



Commissioners in the rented fishery on the coast of Madura " 

 before the fishery of 1749 : — 



' We think it necessary to inform you also that as the Armane 

 ''may cause much injury to our defenceless Linen Factories, we 

 " granted the Nabob, on his urgent request, 35 divers in the two 

 ' last fisheries, but Their Excellencies (the Government of Batavia) 

 " did not approve of this concession, and therefore, in case His 

 " Envoys should again claim this grant from you, you must 

 " endeavour to reduce the number to 17 or 18 divers, showing that 

 " even this will give greater profit than the 96% which the Nabob 

 " had formerly in an open fishery, when the whole number of 

 " stones amounted to several thousands. 



" But if you cannot effect this, and if you see any risk for the 



" Company's becoming embroiled with the Regent by a pertina- 



" ceous refusal, you will then be empowered to grant 30 or 35 divers, 



' but it must appear to be done without our knowledge, and on 



" your own private authority. 



" But if the Catta Theuver, or any other native chief, should 

 "request a similar concession, you must refuse it flatly." 



Between 1749 and 1784 I can trace no record of any further 

 pearl fishery off the Tuticorin coast save the suggestion of one in 

 I771 furnished by the existence of a set of " Conditions of a rent 

 of the Tutucoreen Fishery of 1771." Article XXX of these con- 

 ditions reads — 



" Lastly the renter of the fishery must admit 20 dhonies of the 

 " Armanie or Regent of Madura, with 96% stones and two dhonies 

 " on the part of the Catte Theuvers,* manned in the same manner 

 " as the Renter's dhonies, which 22 dhonies, together with 180 of 

 " the renters, shall fish throughout the whole fishery without the 

 " renters being permitted to make any demand on that account." 



Of the fishery of 1784, the only particulars I have (furnished by 

 the Madras Government) are that it was held on the Tolayiram 

 Par, giving to the Company, which fished it departmentally, a 



* The Tevar, the Setupati Raja of Ramnad, made a treaty with the Dutch in 1767, 

 whereby in exchange for the possession of Pamban Pass and the surrender to the Dutch 

 of the right to levy dues on shipping passing therethrough, the Dutch agreed to grant 

 the Setupati two free diving boats at all the future pearl fisheries held on the banks lying 

 off the Coast of Madura, or " under the territory of Tutucoryn together with the piivilege 

 to purchase from the Dutch Government in every fishery held on the Ceylon side five 

 boats at the same price as the renter should contract." 



