TJie Persian Gulf Fishery. 2 1 5 



While the Portuguese were masters of Ormuz and 

 Mascati, every vessel which went to fish was 

 obliged to take a passport from them at a dear 

 rate ; and they maintained always five or six small 

 galleys in the gulph, to sink those barks which 

 took no passports ; but at present they have no 

 further power upon those coasts, and each fisher 

 forfeits to the king of Persia, not above one third 

 of what they gave to the Portugals. 



"The second fishing is over against Bahren, 

 upon the coast of Arabia Felix, near to the city 

 of Catif, which belongeth to an Arabian prince 

 who commandeth that province. The most part of 

 the Pearls which are fished in these two places, 

 are carried into India, because that the Indians 

 are not so hard, but give a better price for them 

 than we ; they are therefore carried thither, the 

 unequal as well as the round, the yellow as well 

 as the white, every one according to its rate : some 

 of them also are sold at Balfora, and those which 

 are transported into Persia and Moscovy, are sold 

 at Bandarcongue, two days' journey from Ormuz. 

 They fish twice in a year, in the months of 

 March and April, and in the months of August and 

 September ; the depth where they fish is from four 

 to twelve fathoms, and the deeper the oyster is 

 found the Pearls are the whiter, because the water 



