Page 72 - History of Portuguese in the Gulf_Neat

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178 APPENDIX A.
from sixty to ninety men. One third of them are karoas? that is,
divers, and the rest are called mandccas,2 and attend them, two to
each diver. The boats are all divided into certain compartments
called peitacas,2 wherein every diver throws his catch of oysters
separately. They call the oyster chipoP They may not open
these until the day fixed by the officers of the camp,5 after the
fishery is over. This is generally of two balyos? of eight working
days each. They reckon up every day’s catch, as one hundred,
two hundred, or a thousand oysters of each boat, separately, in
order to know when there has been fishing enough. For they wish
to keep the production pretty close to a mean, lest they cheapen
the pearls. When two balyos are not enough, they allow half a
balyo more, or even a whole one. The fishermen or divers are
regularly paid, and have also their own catch ; save that every day
they must give one dive each to the owner of the boat, at his
choice; and at the end of each week, one whole day’s fishing.
The Nayque of Madureh, who is the lord of their land,7
receives the whole fishery of one day in the season.8 Another
used to be given to shoe the wife of the captain of Manar, a Por­
tuguese officer in charge of that sea. But this has been put a stop
to by the good order of the Fathers of the Company,9 who manage
everything here.10 The fishing takes place in from six to eight
1 Sinh. kdrdva (pi. kdrdvd) — " a man of the fisher caste,” which was
the one that engaged in diving. Ant. Gouvea {op. cit., p. 13 v) applies
the term corod to a diver of Mdskat.—D. F.
2 Tamil mandakkan, mandakdl,—“ one that draws up the divers”
(Winslow’s Tam. Diet.).—D. F.
* G. de Orta(f. 223 v) says that at Malacca the spaces in the interior
of the durian were called peitacas. Dom. Vieira’s Dice. Port, explains
the word as meaning the room in a junk. It is Javanesepetak, which
has various meanings, one being “a compartment or subdivision in
the hold of a ship” (Crawford’s Malay Diet.).—D. F.
4 Tam. sippi— bivalve shell-fish or shell (see Hobson-Jobson, s.v.
“ Chipe”).—D. F.
* “Real? the temporary settlement on the beach, from which the
Ceylon pearl fishery is conducted.
6 I cannot explain balyo, unless (as Mr. H. Beveridge suggests) it
represents Sanskrit pdla=a turn of work.—D. F.
7 “ Aquellas tierras de su habitation.” The “ lands ” referred to are
those on the mainland, whence the fishermen come. [See foot-note,
supra, p. 177.] On the Ndyaks of Madura, see J. H. Nelson’s The
Madura Country, Pt. Ill, pp. 82-86, and Caldwell’s History of
Tinnevelly, p. 55 et seq.— D. F.
8 After the Dutch had ousted the Portuguese from Ceylon, the
claims of the Ndyak of Madura and others formed the subject of
much dispute and correspondence for many years.—D. F.
9 The Jesuits.
10 The spiritual care of the inhabitants of the north-western coast or
Ceylon, and the rents of certain towns therein, were allotted to the
KINOS OF HORMUZ. 7 79
fathoms of water, and diving stones arc used. There arc usually
two Portuguese galeots to convoy the fleet, by reason of the
Malabars, who have sometimes plundered or injured the fisher­
men. The people who resort to the fishery, merchants, public
and private servants, and fishermen, may be fifty to sixty thousand
in number. Of these is formed a camp, where it may be conve­
nient to the fishery. For that is not always in the same place ;
but now in one, and again in another ; and the trade comes
probably to more than a million and a half in gold every year.
When the fishery is over, proclamation is made that the oysters
may be opened. When this has been done, the flesh removed,
and the pearls extracted, the people go over to Tutan Cory, where
there is a fair which begins in the middle of June, and lasts
through July, August, September, and sometimes all October.1
All dealings take place in the pat arc? which is a building like a
custom house, by means of brokers appointed by the Nayquc.
Me levies four per cent from the seller, but nothing from the
buyer. The latter has forty-eight hours’ time allowed him, within
which he may cancel the bargain if he repent of it: which is done
easily and honestly. There is much trade in smuggled pearls
outside of the pat ark, free from such hindrances as customs or
return of the goods. They balance their accounts by numbers
and weight, with some difficulty, but very cleverly and closely.::
There are pearls in China also, but not of the highest value,
except those of unusual form,4 which we call here topos f by the
exportation of which to India the Portuguese have more than
once made fortunes. So much has been written about pearls and
seed-pearls6 that nothing remains to say. Yet, with due respect
to all writers on the subject, I must say that it seems to me
Jesuits when, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, they were
permitted (much against the wishes of the Franciscans) to establish a
regular mission in Ceylon. From contemporary official documents, it
appears that the captain of Man,dr was guilty of levying blackmail
from the natives ; hence the loss of his wife’s privileges referred to.
—D. F.
1 Cf. Caldwell’s History of Tinnevelly, p. 73 cl seq.; Nicuhofs
Travels, op. tit., p. 295 ct scq.—D. F.
2 I cannot explain this word, unless it is intended to represent
Tamil dyatlurai = “custom-house.”—D. F.
2 Lit. : “the reckoning and weight is by chegos, by a method not
easy [Stevens has ‘very easy’!] but very subtle and ingenious.” Dom.
Vieira’s Dice. Port, explains chcgo by quilate — carat.—D. F.
4 « Barrocos,” including drop-formed pearls, fit for pendants.
6 Lit. “tops.”—D. F.
c «
Perlas y Aljofar,” with the usual distinction. But Teixeira
constantly uses aljofar as meaning full-sized pearls, and I have had
to translate according to the context.
N 2