1922] MADRAS PEARL FISHERIES 177 



APPENDIX C 



Instructions given in 1722 by the Governor of Ceylon 

 defining the respective rights of the dutch, the 

 Nayak, and the Setupati at Pearl Fisheries held 

 in the Gulf of Mannar. 



Extracts from a despatch, dated 20th January 1 7 '22, from the Extra- 

 ordinary Councillor and Governor of Ceylon, M. J. A. Rumpf, and 

 his Council in Colombo, addressed to the Senior Merchant and 

 Chief Authority at Jaffna, Jacob de Jong, and his Council there* 



" It is now upwards of 2 2 years since the Company has indulged its 

 own subjects or strangers with any fishery in the Bay of Condatchy. 



" The Valy, or general fishing on the Company's account, is together 

 with the payment for the stones, a double token of the Company's sovereignty 

 over the divers and the Banks from Cape Comorin, north, to Negombo, 

 south, or at least by these tributes enough is done to show the dominion 

 conceded to the Company over those seas, the bay and the pearl-banks lying 

 there, and the result of the enquiry of the Commissioners for the last three 

 years proves that this claim is indisputably made with greater foundation 

 than that of the Naick to the ships along the coast of Madura, when that 

 prince, to show his mixed authority, sets up his flag next to the Company's 

 standard at the fort of Tutucoryn, assists in laying down rules for the 

 fishery, exercises magistracy over the black people who come to that fishery, 

 permits all misdeeds, except treason, to go unpunished among his own 

 subjects during the time of fishing, and the Company winks at this and 

 receives tax from all pearls carried away from Tutucoryn. but with the 

 exception of 96^ free stones he has no part or share in the produce of the 

 stones sold at the Banks of Madura or Aripo, which payments are received 

 and kept solely for the Company as Lords of these seas and bays ; but at 

 the same time (though it appears rather unreasonable) from old custom, a 

 kind of authority is exercised by the Naick over the Champanothy of every 

 nation, which obliges them to give to this Prince of Madura one day's 

 fishing free of payment, but His Highness, through his ambassadors who 

 came to the fishery of Condatchy, has now and then endeavoured and more 



* Ceylon Literary Register, Volume III, pp. 166, 167. 

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