12 



disquieted so effectually that the renters and overseers (of the Nayak) on account of 

 the great loss they suffered in their revenues were ohliged to request the Nayak to 

 call the Portuguese back again. " 



During this period of disturbance the Tarawa? held pearl fisheries from the small 

 islands along the Madura coast and " assisted to the best of their power the Portu- 

 guese vessels."* 



I refer to this period of the temporary settlement of the Parawas in the Madura 

 islands, the unmistakable evidence of a fishery camp to be seen to-day among the 

 sand-dunes of Nallatanui tivu, an island lying off the coast between Kilakarai and 

 Tutieoriu. If we fix the date of this fishery at 1560 to 1570 we cannot be far out, 

 for, it was in J 560 that the Viceroy Don Constantine de Braganca erected the fort of 

 Mannar and transferred thereto the inhabitants of the Parawa town of Piunacoil, the 

 scene of Francis Xavier's labours twenty years previously, and one of their chief and 

 most prosperous settlements, f 



By this change the island of Mannar become rich and prosperous as long as the 

 fisheries continued to give handsome returns. De Sa e Menezes (loc. cit.) writing in 

 1622 states that for many years the fisheries had become extinct " because of the 

 great poverty into which the Parawas had fallen, for they made no profit for want of 

 accommodation and of boats" — a result likely to arise from the exactions of Church 

 and of State, from the natural improvidence of the race and from the rapid decay of 

 Portuguese sea-power consequent upon the successful inroads made upon their mono- 

 poly of sea-borne commerce between India and Europe. The Portuguese, struggling 

 for very existence and in continual straits for the money requisite to carry on an 

 exhausting contest, increased their exactions from the natives and at the same time 

 were unable to give them adequate protection, especially at sea. "We may infer with 

 every probability of this being true, that from the time the Dutch first appeared in 

 force in Indian seas, a time coinciding with a period of great official corruption 

 and internal unrest among the Portuguese, the management of the pearl banks 

 became inefficient and badly conducted. 



Tutieorin and the sovereignty of the pearl banks and of the Parawas passed to 

 the Dutch in 1658. In 1663 the first fishery under the new rule was held, 

 resulting in a profit of 18,000 florins. % 



At this fishery the Nayak of Madura and the Setupati of Eamnad and the head 

 Moor of Kayalpattanam had their accustomed number of boats free as under the Portu- 

 guese. 



Just prior to this fishery Cornelis Valkenburg had written " The fishery of 

 Mannar (Gulf of Mannar) is in great repute with the Portuguese and everybody else, 

 but if it be really of much importance has not yet been experienced and therefore I 

 can give no information on the subject ". § 



The second Dutch fishery took place six years later, in 1669, with what profit I 

 do not know. Then a long interval of 22 years occurred bringing us to the third 

 fishery, 1691, at which there were 385| stones admitted free, viz. : — 

 96 1 for the ]S T ayak of Madura. 



59 for the Setupati of Eamnad and the remainder for the headmen of the divers 

 divided on the lines detailed in the statement of these arrangements at the Ceylon 

 fishery of 1694 appended. 



Six years later, 1697, we find Croon, the Commandant of Jaffna, writing that 

 " the pearl fishery is an extraordinary source of revenue, on which no certain reliance 

 can be placed, as it depends on various contingencies which may ruin the banks or 

 spoil the oysters. If no particular accident happen, it may take place for several 



* Van Reede and Pyl he. cit. 



t De Sa e Menezes describes Finnaooil (Putioale aB he spells the name — probably a misprint) at the time of this 

 transference as " a place on the Fishery Coast, inhabited by Parawas, who tired of the continual attacks of the Bodaguas, 

 their neighbours, live! more the life of fronteros than of fishermen, which trade they plied for subsistence, but were 

 continually robbed and cut off by their neighbours." "The Rebellion of Ceylon," translated from the Spanish try 

 Lieutenant-Colonel H. H. St. George.) 



1 See Appendix A, page 80. 



§ In instructions left for the guidance of his successors, the Residents of the 6even Harbours on the Madura Coast, 

 " Ceylon Lit. Keg. ", Vol. Ill, page 160. 



