129 



belong to the Company, which shine uncommonly but 

 have no real substance."* 



In 1700, Father Martin, a Jesuit Missionary, wrote 

 (^Lettres Edifiantes, II, p. 278, edition of 1843), " It is 

 scarcely credible how jealous the Dutch are of this com- 

 merce. It is death to a native to sell them to any one 

 but the servants of the Company. The shells are 

 bought by the Dutch for a trifle, and then despatched to 

 Bengal, where they are sold at great profit. These shells, 

 which are round and hollow, are sawn and fashioned into 

 bracelets equalling the most brilliant ivory in lustre. 

 Those fished on this coast (Tinnevelly) are extraordinarily 

 abundant ; they have their spiral from right to left, but if 

 one be found twisted in the other direction, it is a treasure 

 valued by Hindus at an extravagant price, for they believe 

 that it was in a chank of this description that one of their 

 gods hid himself in order to escape the fury of enemies 

 pursuing him in the sea." 



With the transfer to the British of all Dutch ports on 

 the Coromandel coast and in Ceylon together with the 

 acquirement of the Tanjore and Carnatic territories 

 about the same time, the control of all the chank fisheries 

 in these localities passed to the British. Particulars of 

 their history during the present century are given in 

 section I of this report, under the respective territorial 

 heads. 



As many of the chank-beds are situated more than 

 three miles seaward of the coast it is a matter of impor- 

 tance to note that the High Court of Madras, in a case 

 brought by the Raja of Ramnad who in reality must be 

 taken as representing the Madras Government, by whose 

 favour he enjoys the rights to the fishery under the 

 settlement of 1803, have decided that no restricted territo- 

 rial limit exists either in Palk Bay or the Gulf of Mannar 

 and that chank beds wherever they exist off the British 

 Indian coast of the Madras Presidency are vested 

 in the Government of Madras by right of immemorial 

 custom and of prescriptive sovereign right, the Madras 

 Government having acquired by treaty these sovereign 

 rights among other royal prerogatives from the Nawab 

 of the Carnatic, the Rajas of Tanjore and Ramnad and 



* Hornell, " Report to the Government of Madras on the Indian Pearl 

 Fisheries in the Gulf of Mannar," Madras, 1905. 



