18 



"are by no means to permit any armed foreign boats of a suspicious kind to come 

 " within range of their shot, and if warning given does not turn them away, they must 

 " fire on them at once." 



1747. This year the unproductive cycle that had prevailed so long on the 

 Tuticorin side was broken, the fishery being rented out for 60 3 000 norms (£5,000). 



The change of system now introduced involved the abolition of the privilege of 

 free or untaxed divers hitherto granted to the native rulers of Madura and Baumad, 

 whose dominions had now merged in those of the Nawab of the Carnatic who had 

 dispossessed the last of the Nayak dynasty of Madura in 1736. lie, a more powerful 

 ruler than the Nayak, did not acquiesce without stout opposition and at the 1747 

 fishery it had been thought wise to permit the renter of the fishery to give 30 free 

 divers to the Nawab for which concession the renter received a proportionate reduc- 

 tion in the stipulated price of his rent. 



Two other fisheries, also rented out, took place in the two next succeeding years. 

 The rental of that of 1718 amounted to 114,720 florins (£9,560), while that of"l74«J 

 was florins 63,600 (£5,300). 



At the former. 35 free divers were again allowed to the Carnatic overlord, much 

 against the Dutch Company's will however, for we read in the secret instructions 

 sent to the " Company's Commissioners in the rented fishery on the coast of Madura " 

 before the fishery of 1749 : — 



" We think it necessary to inform you also that as the Armane may cause much 

 " injury to our defenceless Linen Factories, we granted the Nabob, on his urgent 

 " request, 35 divers in the two last fisheries, but Their Excellencies (the Government of 

 " Batavia) did not approve of this concession, and therefore, in case His Envoys should 

 " again claim this grant from you, you must endeavour to reduce the number to 17 or 

 "IS divers, showing that even this will give greater profit than the 96| which the 

 "Nabob had formerly in an open fishery, when the whole number of stones amounted 

 " to several thousands. 



" But if you cannot effect this, and if you see any risk for the Company's becom- 

 " ing embroiled with the Begent by a pertinaceous refusal, you will then be empowered 

 "to grant 30 or 35 divers, but it must appear to be done without our knowledge, and 

 " on your own private authority. 



" But if the Catta Theuver, or any other native chief, should request a similar 

 " concession, you must refuse it flatly." 



Between 1749 and 1784 I can trace no record of any further Pearl fishery off 

 the Tuticorin coast save the suggestion of one in 1771 furnished by the existence of 

 a set of " Conditions of a rent of the Tutucoreen Fishery of 1771 ". Article XXX 

 of these conditions reads — 



" Lastly the renter of the fishery must admit 20 dhonies of the Armanie or 

 " Regent of Madura, with 96| stones and two dhonies on the part of the Catte 

 " Theuvers *, manned in the same manner as the Benter's dhonies, which 22 dhonies, 

 "together with ISO of the renters, shall fish throughout the whole fishery without 

 " the renters being permitted to make any demand on that account." 



Of the fishery of 1784, the only particulars I have (furnished by the Madras 

 Government) are that it was held on the Tolayiram Par, giving to the Company, 

 which fished it departmentally, a gross revenue of 20,000 cully chucrums. This at 

 Bs. 2-1-11 1 per cully chucrum gives a return in rupees of lis. 42,447-14-8. 



This long series of blank years extending, with the' doubtful exception above 

 mentioned, over a period of thirty-five years, may have been due up to 1768 to 

 imperfect inspection or to natural causes or to a combination of the two, but the 

 intermittenee thereafter arose in the main from the reluctance of the Dutch to agree 

 to the pressing demands of the Nawab of the Carnatic to participate upon exorbi- 

 tant conditions in the profits arising from the fisheries both on the Ceylon and the 



* The Caite Theuvers, the Setupati Rajas of Ramnad, made a treaty with the Dutch in 1767, whereby in exchange 

 for the possession of Pamban Pass and the surrender to the Dutch of the right to levy dues on shipping passing there — 

 throngh, the Dutch agreed to grant the Setupati two free diving boats at all the future pearl fisheries held on the banks 

 lying off the coast of Madura, or " under the territory of Tutucoryn together with the privilege to purchase from the- 

 putch Government in every fishery held on the Ceylon side five boats at the ean.e price as the renter should contract..' - ' 



