'• with his clerk, in a large boat well armed ; and in order that the factor might not be 

 " able to steal any of the money from the rent of the fishery, he took other measures, 

 " obtaining from the fishers themselves the pearls, whereby he committed many 

 " robberies, as is done nowadays ; for the ills of India are not improving, but are 

 " increasing continually, as I shall recount further in speaking of the end that this 

 <( Joao Froles came to at this fishery, in which he paid for a portion of the evils that 

 " he had committed." 



An interval of over three years then elapses before we again hear of the pearl 

 fishery, Lopo Yaz de Sampayo being then Governor in India. We read that in 

 January 152 S : — 



" Manuel da Gama wa3 appointed by the King as captain of the coast of Coro- 

 " mandel, and Joao Froles as captain and factor of the pearl fishery. This act of 

 " friendship towards Manuel da Gama was managed by Hector ])a Silveira before he 

 " departed ; and the Governor gave him a ship and four foists well fitted and armed, 

 " as he had had tidings that paraos of Calicut were going along the coast of Paleacate 

 " committing great robberies, and had seized a ship that had come from Malacca very 

 -' richly laden, with eight Portuguese whom they put to death. To this Manuel da 

 " Gama retaliated so well, that he cleared the coast of the robbers, and managed to get 

 " back on land all the goods from the ship which the robbers had sold, and many male 

 " and female slaves of the Portuguese whom they had killed on board the ship ; 

 " which robbers went over to Ceylon with much booty, and joined the others who had 

 ''• gone from Calicut, and went about robbing as much as they liked by sea and land. 

 " The Governor sent to Joao Froles as captain and factor of the fishery, in a caravel 

 ' : and a large boat and three foists, with which he went about collecting the rent of 

 " the fishery, as I have already said. This being known to the robbers, who went 

 '■' about strongly armed with artillery and men, twenty of them came in a body to 

 " attack Joao Froles as Manuel da Gama had gone to the other coast and could not help 

 " him and they came upon Joao Froles who was in the caravel, with the large boat, 

 " the foists having gone to another place ; and as they were moored and the wind was 

 " calm, twelve of the paraos made for the caravel, dividing into six on each side, and 

 " the other eight likewise divided to attack the large boat. Joao Froles, seeing the 

 " paraos preparing for the attack, made ready as well as he could with twenty Portu- 

 £; guese men that he had, and threw a rope to the large boat, so that the two lay stern 

 '•' to stern. Six Portuguese men went into the large boat: the caravel had a camello 

 " and two falcons and six bercos,* and the large boat, two falcons and six bercos, but 

 '• there were only a few men as several had gone to the foists that Joao Froles had 

 " sent to the coast of Ceylon as prizes. Our men having thus got ready, the paraos 

 " divided into two attacking parties, ten approaching from each side avoiding the shots 

 ' : from the camello, and shifting as they pleased, all the while discharging from 

 u roqueras * iron balls of the size of quinces, and firing as they liked they gave the 

 " caravel and large boat so many shots, that they cut their shrouds and caused them 

 " to fall with the yards, at which they set up loud shouts. Neither Joao Froles nor 

 " the master of the caravel had thought of putting belts under the yards, which if they 

 " had done the yard would not have fallen. At this the Moors considered themselves 

 " victors, as the Portuguese were already killed or wounded, for only the falcons and 

 " bercos were now of any use to our men, and they did not fire them so often as did 

 " the Moors,-and our men were continually becoming less able to fire ; wherefore the 

 •'• Moors knowing the weakness of our men came in a body with their arms, and their 

 '• shouts and war charges, and boarded the vessel, and killed as many as they found 

 " alive, without sparing any one, and carried off all that they found, and took the 

 " falcons and bercos and ammunition, and set fire to the vessels so that they went down, 

 " and then returned to Ceylon. Our foists, hearing the news of the burning of those 

 " vessels, fled to where Manuel da Gama was staying." 



The description of the conduct of the fishery under the Portuguese by Juan 

 Ribeyro in his " History of Ceylon," dated 1685, is the only detailed account handed 

 down to us.f 



* Different kinds of cannon. 



t From the Er.g.ioh translation from the Fr.eneh version of the Ahb? Le Grand, Ceylon, 1847. 



