462 Note by Sir Atexanprr Jounston on the Pearl Banks of Ceylon. 
the Insula Solis of the Romans, an island situated between the peninsula of India and 
the island of Ceylon, from the meridian of which many of the Hindi astronomers 
commence their calculations, and a place as celebrated in the south as Jeggannit’ha is 
in the north of the peninsula, for its sanctity amongst the Hindis, and for the number 
of Hindi pilgrims who resort to it annually from every part of India. 
Second. From the accounts given by the Muhammedans of the historical facts to 
which they trace the traditions that prevail amongst them, that the island of Ceylon 
was the place to which Apam retired after he had been driven out of Paradise; that the 
high peak on that island, called * Apam’s Peak,’ was the spot on which he was buried; 
that the ridge of rocks extending across the gulf of Mandr, from the island of Rd- 
miseram to the island of Mandr, and known by the name of * Adam’s Bridge,’ is the 
bridge by which he passed over the gulf of Mand, when coming from the penin- 
sula of India to the island of Ceylon, and that the two large tombs on the island of 
Ramiseram are the tombs of Apex and Carn. 
Third. From the accounts given by the Portuguese histories of the introduction of the 
Catholic religion by St. Francis Xavier, in the sixteenth century, amongst the people 
called the Parawas, and Marawas, who lived along the northern shores of the gulf of 
Mandar, of the martyrdom suffered by six hundred of the Catholic converts in the island 
of Mandir, of the success of the Jesuits in the conversion and instruction of the inhabitants 
of the kingdom of Jaffna, and of the political, moral, and commercial effects which 
were produced on the natives of the different countries situated on that gulf by the 
measures which the Catholic missionaries adopted for the purpose of extending the 
Christian religion amongst all the different castes of fishermen who were employed in 
the Pearl and Chank fisheries. 
Fourth. From the accounts given by the Dutch histories of all the Dutch factories 
established along the Southern Peninsula of India between Cape Comorin and Point 
Calymere, particularly from the history of that established at Tuticorin, which is near the 
Pearl and Chank banks off the coast of Madura, and is the place of residence of some 
of the most wealthy and powerful of the Parawas, who possess considerable influence 
over most of the divers who are employed in the Pearl and Chank fisheries which are 
situated along the south-east coast of the peninsula and the north-west coast of the 
island of Ceylon. 
Fifth. From the ancient traditions that prevail in India relative to the great con- 
vulsion of nature which, in a very remote age, is believed to have caused the sea to break 
through the Southern Peninsula of India, and form the gulf of Mandr, separating what 
is now the most southern part of that peninsula from the island of Ceylon. 
Sixth. From the description of all the different Pearl and Chank fisheries in the gulf 
of Mandar, of which there are accounts in any Hindi, Greek, Roman, Venetian, Por- 
tuguese, Dutch, or English history, and from the several Hindé works upon the size, 
weight, colour, shape, and various species of pearls which are found on the different 
Pearl Banks. 
