63 



from these canoes, its use being restricted to the catamarans 

 The latter as well as the canoes use sails in going to and from 

 the fishing grounds, hut in the case of the catamarans using 

 the Maddai valai, which necessitates the co-operation of two 

 boats, it is customary for one only to carry mast and sail, the 

 second lashing alongside the first, one sail doing for the pair, a 

 neat contrivance to economise space and give more room for 

 nets and fish. 



The principal havens on this section of our coast are as fol- 

 lows, taken from north to south : — Punnaikayal, Kayalpattanain, 

 Virapandiyanpattanam and Trichendur, Kulasekarapattanam 

 and Manapad, Periya and Sinna Thalai, Ovari and Kumari or 

 Cape Comorin. 



28. 'Punnaikayal or Pinnacoil as the orthography is usually 

 corrupted has proud memories of the past. It was for long the 

 principal settlement of the Portuguese on the fishery coast, 

 being the centre of the pearl fishery administration in their 

 earlier days. It was one of the many scenes of Saint Francis 

 Xavier's activities ; his eloquence and energy here rendered 

 stable and permanent the adhesion of the Paravars to the 

 Roman Catholic faith given a few years before for political 

 reasons. Here too was reared the finest cathedral church ever 

 erected on this coast, the fragment which exists attesting pro- 

 portions nobler, and design more elegant than any church now 

 existing locally. The town is of comparatively recent origin ; 

 it did not exist at the time of Marco Polo's visit to this coast 

 (A.D. 1292). Then Kayal, the Palaikayal of to-day, was the 

 centre of the pearl trade and stood at one of the mouths of the 

 Tambraparni. To-day it is several miles inland, separated from 

 the sea by long stretches of low deltaic land intersected by 

 winding creeks. Prior to the advent of the Portuguese the 

 silting up of Kayal harbour had progressed so far that new 

 settlements were made on^ the actual coast line, one at what 

 is now known as Kayalpatnam, by the Muhammadan traders, 

 the other by the Paravars at Punnaikayal, at the mouth of a 

 branch of the Tambraparni. The Muhammadan choice was the 

 better, for while both places have suffered by the steady 

 accretion of sand on the seaward side, cargo boats of 30 and 40 

 tons are still able to ship cargo from the beach at Kayalpatnam, 

 whereas Punnaikayal is now about a mile and a half distant 

 from the creek entrance into which no boats larger than a canoe 

 can enter. 



At present Punnaikayal is an extremely dirty and poor- 

 looking village set round about four whitewashed Roman 

 Catholic churches in the middle of a waste of unreclaimed 



