2$6 EXTRACT FROM TERVER'NIER , S VOYAGES*

feldom, efpecially at the Manar fifhery, where, as I have already obferved, none butfmall ones are found, the moft part of them being fuch as are fold by the ounce. Theyhave feveral as large as half a grain or a grain, but it is a great thing when they findone to weigh two or three carats. There are fome years that a thoufand oyfters areworth feven fanos, and that the filhery amounts to an hundred thoufand piaftres ormore. When the Portuguefe were in pofleflion of Manar, they impofed a duty onevery bark, and fmce the Dutch have taken pofleflion of it, from every diver they re-ceive eight piaftres, and fometimes nine, which, in a profitable year, has brought themin as much as feventeen thoufand two hundred reals. Thereafon why the Portuguefetook this tribute of thefe poor people, as likewife why the Dutch continue it, is todefray the expence of defending them againft the Malavares their enemies, who, comingin armed barks, endeavour to take them for Haves. All the time the fifhery is carriedon, the Dutch have two or three armed barks at fea, on th'e fide that the corfairs comefrom, by which means they are enabled to work in peace. Thefe divers are for themoft part idolaters, although there are fome Mahometans who have their barks bythemfelves. They never mix together, and the Dutch receive more from thefe latterthan the former, for befides that the Mahometans pay as much as the idolaters, theyalfo give the pro,duce of one day’s fifhery, which day is at the choice of the Dutch.

The more it rains in the courfe of the year, the more productive it is for the fifhery,but many perfons imagine that the deeper water the oyfter is found in, fo much is thepearl the whiter, becaufe the water is not fo hot, the fun not penetrating to the bottom,but this is an opinion I beg leave to contradict. They fifh in from four to twelve fa-thom water, which fifhery is carried on upon the banks, where there are fometimes asmany as two hundred and fifty barks, in the greater part of which there is but onediver, fome of the largeft only having two.

Thefe barks fail frotn the coaft every morning before fun rife, with a conftant breezefrom the land, which lafts till ten o’clock. After dinner they return with a breezefrom the fea, which fucceeds that of the land, regularly fpringing up about eleven ortwelve o’clock as foon as the other has ceafed. The banks on which they fifh, are fiveor fix leagues out in the fea, and when there, the following is the method ufed to pro-cure the oyfters.

Under the arms of thofe who dive, they faften a cord, one end of which is held bythem that remain in the bark, while to their great toe a ftone is tied of eighteen ortwenty pounds weight, the cord alfo being held by thofe in the bark. Then they havea net made like a fack, the mouth being encircled with a hoop to keep it open, andthis net is faftened like the reft. The diver is now let down into the fea, where diredtlyhe gets to the bottom, which he very foon does by means of the ftone faftened to histoe, he immediately unties it, and thofe who are in the bark draw it up. He now keepsfilling the net with the oyfters as long as he can hold his breath, which when he findsbeginning to fail him, he pulls the cord'faltened under his arms, and that ferving as afignal to thofe in the boat, they draw him up as quick as poflible. The divers at Ma-nar are much cleverer at fifhing, and remain longer under the water than thofe of Bah-ren and Catifa , neither doling up their noftrils with pincers, nor putting cotton in theirears to hinder the water from entering, as they do at the Perfian Gulf.

After the diver is drawn into the bark, they drag up the net with the oyfters, whenhe remains about half a quarter of an hour, as well to allow them time to take out theoyfters as to give him time to breathe, which done he returns again to the bottom of thefea in the fame manner as before, repeatedly continuing fo to do for the fpace of tenor twelve hours, when they make for land. Some that are in want of money fell

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