THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
CHAPTER III. 
The Pearl Fishery — Customs of the various Indian nations who 
frequent it. 
TlIERE is perhaps no spectacle which the island of Ceylon 
affords, more striking to an European, than the bay of Con- 
datcliy, during the season of the pearl fishery. This desert 
and barren spot is at that time converted into a scene, which 
exceeds in novelty and variety, almost any thing I ever wit- 
nessed. Several thousands of people of different colours, coun- 
tries, casts, and occupations, continually passing and re-passing 
in a busy crow r d : the vast numbers of small tents and huts 
erected on the shore ; with the bazar or market place before 
each; the multitude of boats returning in the afternoon from 
the pearl banks, some of them laden with riches; the anxious 
expecting countenances of the boat-owners, while the boats are 
approaching the shore, and the eagerness and avidity with 
which they run to them when arrived, in hopes of a rich 
cargo; the vast numbers of jewellers, brokers, merchants, of 
all colours and all descriptions, both natives and foreigners, 
who are occupied in some way or other with the pearls, some 
separating and assorting them, others weighing and ascertain- 
ing their number and value, while others are hawking them 
about, or drilling and boring them for future use: all these 
circumstances tend to impress the mind w ith the value and 
