19 



Indian Banks. As already mentioned, at the Ceylon Fishery held at Aripu in 176S 

 violent disputes occurred with the Nawab's envoys who went to the fishery attended 

 by a large body of armed sepoys and tried to carry matters with a high hand. 



The Dutch loth, with their usual caution and fear for the interruption of their 

 cloth monopoly in Madura, to bring matters to a crisis, preferred to let the pearl 

 fisheries remain virtually in abeyance till a settlement was effected on equitable terms — 

 terms which meant the curtailment if possible of the Nawab's pretensions. 



It was not till 1786 that the Dutch, pressed by the English Government in 

 Madras (to whom the Nawab had appealed as his ally and virtual suzerain) to effect a 

 settlement of the long-standing dispute, made provisional terms with the Nawab.* 

 By these the Nawab obtained much greater advantage than had been contemplated 

 twenty years previously, due to the dwindling power of the Dutch and their growing 

 fear of the rapid extension of the military power and commercial supremacy of the 

 English East India Company. 



The chief articles of the agreement affecting the Pearl fisheries were that the 

 Nawab should be granted one-half of the profits arising from fisheries off the Madura 

 coast and have 36 free dhonies at any fisheries held on the Ceylon side, privileges 

 allowed in return for a confirmation of the Dutch trading monopoly in Madura cloth — 

 ever one of the most lucrative sources of revenue to the Dutch Company. 



The treaty, however, was never fully ratified, but by the advice of the English 

 Governor of Madras its terms were allowed to govern the fisheries of 1787 and 1792, 

 the profits therefrom being accordingly shared equally by the Circar or Government 

 of the Carnatic (i.e., the Nawab) and the Dutch Company. 



The fishery of 1787 took place on the Tolayiram Par and gave a gross revenue 

 of Es. 63.000 : that of 1792 upon the Dti, Uduruvi, Kilati and Attuveiarpagom 

 Pars, which lie inshore of Tolayiram Par; it yielded Es. 42,525 to the joint 

 Governments. 



Except with regard to the conduct of these two fisheries, the treaty never came 

 into force, the Madras Government steadily refusing its consent because of the 

 objectionable clause relating to the cloth monopoly. In this unsettled condition, 

 marked by the continual interchange of despatches between Colombo and Madras, 

 matters remained till the Dutch dominion of the Pearl Banks on both sides passed to 

 the British in 1796. 



The Pearl Banks undee the British. 



Not long after the acquisition of the Pearl Banks by the British, the districts 

 bordering the coast in this region and now known as that of Tinnevelly in the south 

 and Madura in the north, passed to the British from the Carnatic Nawab. Thus the 

 " Lords of the Pearl Fishery " acquired sovereign rights over the districts supplying 

 the whole body of divers and by their own power could ensure safe conducts from 

 Madura, Eamnad, Bombay, and Madras to the dealers in pearls whose attendance is 

 necessary to the success of any fishery. The dues levied for assistance by local 

 potentates, the source of constant anxiety and loss to the Portuguese and the Dutch, 

 were brought to an end and for the last half century we hear of no privileges allowed 

 save a few on a reduced scale to the headman of the Parawas. It is noteworthy to 

 observe that this system of remuneration by fishery privileges of which the last 

 remaining trace was abrogated in Ceylon in 1863, still lingers in the management of 

 the Indian banks, the headman of the Parawas having the right to employ a limited 

 and specified number of " free " boats at each fishery in return for help {rendered 

 during the inspection of the banks and at the fisheries when held. 



This hereditary chief or Jati Talaivan f of the Parawas, like many of the 

 descendants of natives of Ceylon who gave assistance to the Portuguese, bears the 

 honorific prefix of " Don ", while the name of the present holder of the Chieftainship — 

 Gabriel de Cruz Lazarus Motha Vas — further indicates the intimacy of his family's 

 connection with Portuguese rule. 



* Two years liter a definite treaty on the same lines was signed by the Datch. 



t Literally "Head of the Caste'. Hib fall title is Jati Talaiyamore — the snfSx "more" being, I believe. 

 Jiorjorifie. 



