Whether the chank fishery was included in this rent 

 we have no means of knowing. Eventually when the 

 new comers took actual possession of the Tinnevelly 

 coast line — the Pescaria or Fishery coast as they called 

 it — and settled agents and troops at the principal ports, 

 the chank fishery was certainly made to contribute to 

 the revenue, being farmed out to a group of wealthy 

 merchants. 



With the definite seizure of the coast in 1532 the 

 status of Kayal rapidly changed. The Parawas who by 

 the terms of the treaty of 1532 were now the sworn allies 

 of the Portuguese and had sealed the compact by going 

 over in a body to the Roman Catholic faith, required the 

 protection of the guns of the Portuguese ships and moved 

 from Kayal now left two miles inland by the growth 

 of deltaic deposits and founded Pinnakayal on the sea- 

 shore about two miles distant. The local Muhammadans 

 left about the same time and founded the new port of 

 Kayalpattanam originally called Sonagapattanam {i.e., 

 "The Muhammadans' Port"), five miles to the south of 

 Pinnakayal. 



Pinnakayal thus became the head-quarters of Portu- 

 guese domination on this coast and so remained till about 

 1580, when they were transferred to Tuticorin. Unfor- 

 tunately no information as to the importance of the chank 

 fishery during Portuguese supremacy is available— the 

 Dutch who took possession of the coast towns in 1658 

 purposely destroyed the records of their predecessors 

 wherever these fell into their hands. 



Under the Dutch the chank fishery had considerable 

 value ; it was leased out regularly to renters, the shells 

 being forwarded by sea to Bengal as in the days of the 

 Portuguese. 



Father Martin, a French missionary who wrote an 

 account of the pearl fishery carried on in 1 700 off Tuti- 

 corin, mentions that at that time the "conch-shell fishery- 

 was also theirs (the Dutch) within the same limits as 

 the pearl-fishery and yielded a considerable profit." 



The Portuguese during at least the first 50 years of 

 their domination exercised much greater and more effect- 

 ive control over the coast than did their successors the 

 Dutch. They completely crushed the power of the coast 

 Muhammadans and were able to defy the lieutenants of 



