129 
belong to the Company, which shine uncommonly but 
have no real substance.’’* 
In 1700, Father Martin, a Jesuit Missionary, wrote 
(Letives Edifianies, Il, p. 278, edition of 1843), ‘It is 
scarcely credible how jealous the Dutch are of this com- 
merce. It isdeath 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 ina chank of this description that one of their 
gods hid himself in order to escapethe 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. 
9 
