8; 



Tuticorin in 1791, when the net produce was divided 

 equally between the Dutch and Mr. Torin acting for the 

 Madras Government who had assumed the revenues of 

 the Nawab. And in 1794 the Dutch received as their 

 half share in the chank fishery for that year, the sum of 

 2,000 pagodas. In the next year the Madras Govern- 

 ment had again to take possession of Tuticorin from the 

 Dutch to whom it was not given back till 18 18. 



Upon the rendition of the fort and factory, the Nether- 

 lands Commissioner demanded an admission of his ria^ht 

 to the whole revenue from the pearl and chank fisheries, 

 a claim which the East India Company resisted as having 

 succeeded to the sovereign rights of the Nawab of the 

 Carnatic. The Madras Government pointed out that 

 the pearl banks being scattered along the coast of 

 Tinnevelly could not therefore come within the limits of 

 any Dutch settlement ; that the Portuguese and after- 

 wards the Dutch usurped the command of the whole 

 Gulf, they said was very probable and it was quite 

 probable that the Dutch for a time kept to themselves 

 the whole revenues derived from these fisheries, but as 

 they held them by no deed and by no cession, they might 

 be said to have held them so long only as they could 

 keep them. Voluminous evidence was collected to prove 

 that the native rulers — the Nayak of Madura and the 

 Nawab of the Carnatic had never relinquished their 

 claims to these fisheries and the dispute had been 

 referred to Europe for settlement when, in 1825, the 

 annexation of all Dutch settlements in India rendered it 

 unnecessary to further debate this contention ; since 1825 

 and indeed since 1801, when the Carnatic was ceded 

 finally to the British, the Madras Government have 

 exercised absolute and undivided control of both the 

 pearl and chank fisheries off the Tinnevelly coast. 



A summary of the condition of the fishery coast 

 during the Dutch period contained in a letter dated 30th 

 June 1803 from the Collector of Tinnevelly to the Board 

 of Revenue at Madras is so interesting that no apology 

 is needed for its reproduction here. It runs as 

 follows : — 



** As the preliminary articles of peace with the 

 French Republic stipulate for the restoration to Holland 

 of all the possessions she held on the coast previous to 



