8 



it appeared desirable that the fishery of the year should be carried 

 on ; and from each vessel a few divers were let down who brought 

 up each a few thousand oysters, which were heaped upon the 

 shore in separate heaps of a thousand each, opened, and exam- 

 ined. If the pearls found in each heap were found by the 

 appraisers to be worth an ecu or more, the beds from which the 

 oysters were taken were held to be capable of yielding a rich 

 harvest ; if they were worth no more than thirty sous, the beds 

 were considered .unlikely to yield a profit over and above the 

 expense of working them. As soon as the testing was com- 

 pleted it was publicly annoimced either that there would or 

 that there would not be a fishery that year. In the former case 

 enormous crowds of people assembled on the coast on the day 

 appointed for the commencement of the fishery ; traders came 

 there with wares of all kinds ; the roadstead was crowded 

 with shipping ; drums were beaten, and muskets fired ; and 

 everywhere the greatest excitement prevailed until the Dutch 

 Commissioners arrived from Colombo with great pomp and 

 ordered the proceedings to be opened with a salute of cannon. 

 Immediately afterwards the fishing vessels all weighed anchor 

 and stood out to sea, preceded by two large Dutch sloops, 

 which in due time drew olf to the right and left and marked 

 the limits of the fishery, and when each vessel reached its place, 

 half of its complement of divers plunged into the sea, each 

 with a heavy stone tied to his feet to make him sink rapidly, 

 and furnished with a sack into which to put his oysters, and 

 having a rope tied round his body, the end of which was passed 

 round a pulley and held by some of the boatmen. Thus 

 equipped, the diver plunged in, and on reaching the bottom, 

 filled his sack with oysters until his breath failed, when he 

 pulled a string with which he was provided, and, the signal 

 being perceived by the boatmen above, he was forthwith hauled 

 up by the rope, together with his sack of oysters. No artificial 

 appliances of any kind were used to enable the men to stay 

 under water for long periods ; they were accustomed to the 

 work almost from infancy, and consequently did it easily and 

 well. Some were more skilful and lasting than others, and it 

 was usual to pay them in proportion to their powers, a practice 

 which led to much emulation and occasionally to fatal results. 

 Anxious to outdo all his fellows, a diver would sometimes 

 persist in collecting until he was too weak to pull the string, 

 and would be drawn up at last half or quite drowned, and very 

 often a greedy man would attack and rob a successful neigh- 

 bour under water ; and instances were known in which divers 

 who had been thus treated took down knives, and murdered 

 their plunderers at the bottom of the sea. As soon as all the 

 first set of divers had come up, and their takings had been 

 examined and thrown into the hold, the second set went down. 

 After an interval, the first set dived again, and after them the 

 second ; and so on turn by turn. The work was very exhaust- 



