THE INDIAN OCEAN. 367 
points an inspection of the state of the banks, and 
those selected as fit for fishing are advertised ac- 
‘cordingly, the fishery for the ensuing season being 
offered for sale. In January, the boats begin to 
assemble, and the adventurers from all parts of 
India congregate on a narrow spot of barren sand 
which is deserted for the greatest portion of the 
year, but now presents the life and gaiety of a fair. 
“There is, perhaps, no spectacle,” says Captain 
Percival, “ which the Island of Ceylon affords, more 
striking to an European than the bay of Condatchy 
during the season of the pearl-fishery. This desert 
and barren spot is at that time converted into a 
scene which exceeds in novelty and variety almost 
any thing I ever witnessed; several thousands of 
people of different colours, countries, castes, and 
occupations, continually passing and repassing in a 
busy crowd; the vast numbers of small tents and 
huts erected on the shore, with the bazaar or mar- 
ket-place before each; the multitude of boats re- 
turning in the afternoon from the pearl. banks, some 
of them laden with riches; the anxious expecting 
countenances of the boat-owners, while the boats 
are approaching the shore, and the eagerness and 
avidity with which they run to them when arrived, 
in hopes of a rich cargo; the vast numbers of jewel- 
lers, brokers, merchants, of all colours, and all de- 
scriptions, both natives and foreigners, who are 
occupied in some way or other with the pearls, some 
separating and assorting them, others weighing and 
ascertaining their number and value, while others 
are hawking them about, or drilling and boring them 
for future use;—all these circumstances tend to im- 
