13 



years successively .... but if the oysters happen to he washed off the banks 

 or to be disturbed by storms, the banks may be totally ruined in a very short time. 

 . . . . The examination .... is superintended by Commissioners specially 

 appointed and is conducted in . . dhonies by Pattangattyns and other native 

 headmen, who understand the business ".* 



The next glimpse we get of a fishery off the Tuticorin coast is in the graphic 

 description by Father Martin, a Jesuit missionary, of a disastrous three days' fishery 

 held in 1700. The description in spite of errors in detail is so vivid and instructive 

 that it may well be reproduced here for comparison with that left on record by flibeyro 

 of the methods pursued in Portuguese days and also with those employed at the 

 present time. 



" In the early part of the year the Dutch sent out ten or twelve vessels in 

 " different directions to test the localities in which it appeared desirable that the fishery 

 " of the year should be carried on ; and from each vessel a few divers were let down 

 " who brought up each a few thousand oysters, which were heaped upon the shore in 

 K separate heaps of a thousand each, opened and examined. If the pearls found in each 

 ' : heap were found by the appraisers to be worth an ecu or more, the beds from which 

 " the oysters were taken were held to be capable of yielding a rich harvest ; if they were 

 " worth no more than thirty sous, the beds were considered unlikely to yield a profit 

 " over and above the expense of working them. As soon as the testing was completed, 

 " it was publicly announced either that there would, or that there would not, be a fishery 

 "that year. In the former case enormous crowds of people assembled on the coast on the 

 " day appointed for the commencement of the fishery ; traders came there with wares of 

 " all kinds ; the roadstead was crowded with shipping, drums were beaten, and muskets 

 " fired ; and everywhere the greatest excitement prevailed, until the Dutch Cominis- 

 " sioners arrived from Colombo with great pomp, and ordered theproceedings to beopened 

 " with a salute of cannon. Immediately afterwards the fishing vessels all weighed 

 " anchor and stood out to sea, preceded by two large Dutch sloops, which in due time 

 " drew off to the right and left and marked the limits of the fishery, and when each 

 " vessel reached its place, half of its complement of divers plunged into the sea, each 

 " with a heavy stone tied (sic) to his feet to make him sink rapidly, t and furnished with 

 " a sack into which he put his oysters, and having a rope tied round his body, the end 

 " of which was passed round a pulley and held by some of the boatmen. Thus equip- 

 " ped, the diver plunged in, and on reaching the bottom, filled his sack with oysters 

 " until his breath failed, when he pulled a string with which he was provided, and, the 

 " signal being perceived by the boatmen above, he was forthwith hauled up by the 

 " rope, together with his sack of oysters. No artificial appliances of any kind were 

 " used to enable the men to stay under water for long periods ; they were accustomed 

 " to the work almost from infancy, and consequently did it easily and well. Some 

 " were more skilful and lasting than others, and it was usual to pay them in proportion 

 " to their powers, a practice which led to ranch emulation and occasionally to fatal 

 " results. 



" As sood as all the first set of divers had come up, and their takings had been 

 c: examined and thrown into the hold, the second set went down. After an interval, 

 ''• the first set dived again, and after them the second ; and so on turn by turn. The 

 u work was very exhausting, and the strongest could not dive oftener than seven or 

 ' : eight times in a day, so that the day's diving was finished always before noon. 



" The diving over, the vessels returned to the coast and discharged their cargoes ; 

 " and the oysters were all thrown into a kind of park, and left for two or three days, 

 " at the end of which they opened and disclosed their treasures. The pearls, having 

 " been extracted from the shells, and carefully washed, were placed in a metal receptacle 

 " containing some five or six colanders of graduated sizes, which were fitted one into 

 "another so as to leave a space between the bottoms of every two, and were pierced 

 : ' with holes of varying sizes, that which had the largest holes being the topmost 

 " colander, and that which had the smallest being the undermost. When dropped into 



* Lee's translation of Kibeyro'e " History of Ceylon ," page '247. 



t The writer is obviously in error when he states that the diving stone is "tied " to the diver's foot, that a 

 diver cannot dive oftener than seven or eight .times a day and also in his account of the method of extracting the pearls 

 from the decaying oysters. 



H15 statement that one day'B catch (not necessarily the first) belonas expressly to the King (Nayak of Madura) or 

 Setapati according to the locality where the fi<;heiy takes place is correct, only with regard to India. This privilege whs 

 frequently contended for by the Nawab of the Carnatieat the Aripu fii-heries but was consistently refused by the Dutch, 

 who however allowed the exaction to be made by mutual agreement between this potentate and thoBe of'his subjects 

 taking part in the fisheries held on the Ceylon side, the suzerain right to one day's fishing iValy or Wally) being resen ed 

 at Anpu by the Dutch Government as one of its sources of tevenue. 



4 



