ing, and the strongest man could not dive oftener tban seven 

 or eight times in a day, so that the day's diving was finished 

 always before noon. 



" The diving over, the vessels returned to the coast and 

 discharged their cargoes ; and the oysters were all thrown into 

 a kind of park, and left for two or three days, at the end of 

 which they opened and disclosed their treasures. The pearls, 

 having been extracted from the shells and carefully washed, 

 were placed in a metal receptacle containing some five or six 

 colanders of graduated sizes, which were fitted one into another 

 so as to leave a space between the bottoms of every two, and 

 were pierced with holes of varying sizes, that which had 

 the largest holes being the topmost colander, and that which 

 had the smallest being the undermost. When dropped into 

 colander No. 1 , all but the very finest pearls fell through into 

 No. 2, and most of them passed into Nos. 3, 4, and 5 ; whilst 

 the smallest of all, the seeds, were strained off into the re- 

 ceptacle at the bottom. When all had staid in their proper 

 colanders, they were classified and valued accordingly. The 

 largest or those of the first class were the most valuable, and 

 it is expressly stated in the letter from which this information 

 is extracted that the value of any given pearl was appraised 

 almost exclusively with reference to its size, and was held to be 

 affected but little by its shape and lustre. The valuation 

 over, the Dutch generally bought the finest pearls. They 

 considered that they had a right of pre-emption. At the 

 same time they did not compel individuals to sell if unwilling. 

 All the pearls taken on the first day belonged by express reser- 

 vation to the King or to the Setupati according as the place 

 of their taking lay off' the coasts of the one or the other. The 

 Dutch did not, as was often asserted, claim the pearls taken 

 on the second day. They had other and more certain modes of 

 making profit, of which the very best was to bring plenty of 

 cash into a market where cash was not very plentiful, and so 

 enable themselves to purchase at very easy prices. The amount 

 of oysters f ou.nd in different years varied infinitely. Some years 

 the divers had only to pick up as fast as they were able and 

 as long as they could keep under water ; in others they could 

 only find a few here and there. In 1700 the testing was most 

 encouraging, and an unusually large number of boat-owners 

 took out licenses to fish ; but the season proved most disastrous. 

 Only a few thousands were taken on the first day by all the 

 divers together, and a day or two afterwards not a single oyster 

 could be found. It was supposed by many that strong under- 

 currents had suddenly set in owing to some unknown cause. 

 Whatever the cause, the results of the failure were most ruinous. 

 Several merchants had advanced large sums of money to the 

 boat-owners on speculation, which were, of course, lost. The 

 boat-owners had in like manner advanced money to the divers 

 and others, and they also lost their money." 



