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But the Manar diver knows naught of the three-mile law, presumably. Does the fishery pay? Tremendously, so far as facts upon which to base an answer are obtainable. The government treasury is sometimes enormously expanded as a result of the enterprise.
It is separated from the continent by a strait called the Gulf of Manar, and is about the size of Massachusetts; containing, also, nearly the same aggregate population. It is believed to be the Ophir of the Hebrews, abounding as it does, to-day, in precious stones, such as rubies, sapphires, amethysts, garnets, and various mineral wealth.
The calm period of the northeast monsoon is gentleness itself by the middle of February, and the Gulf of Manar is seldom more than rippled by its zephyrs. The fishery begins then. For weeks the divers have been arriving by craft of every conceivable type and rig.
He passed over from Manar to Negapatan; but there he found all things in a far different condition from what he hoped. The Portuguese navy diminished daily; and the commanders, who at the beginning had been so zealous for the Holy War, were now the first to condemn it.
His letter to the king of Portugal. The success of the voyage undertaken by Michael Vaz. He converts a debauched Portuguese. He engages the viceroy of the Indies to make war on the king of Jafanatapan. Divers predictions of the saint. He goes to join the Portuguese fleet, and raises one from the dead. He frees the island of Manar from the plague. The enterprise of Jafanatapan defeated.
And God so blessed the labours of that missioner, that the Manarois not only became Christians, but died generously for the faith; and this was the occasion of their martyrdom. The isle of Manar was at that time under the dominion of the king of Jafanatapan; for by that name the northern part of Ceylon is called. This prince had usurped the crown from his elder brother, and enslaved his subjects.
The bed of the Gulf of Manar, the arm of the Indian Ocean that separates Ceylon from India, has given the world more pearls than all other fisheries combined, for it has been prolific as a pearling-ground for thousands of years.
I have had an opportunity of inspecting the banks about Manar and Tutacoryn, as well as all the banks in the Sulo seas; but the former have not banks near as extensive, equaling in the quantity of oysters, in productiveness, size, or richness, the Sulo pearl, nor are they to be compared in any way to the Sulo beds.
In 1905, the most prosperous of all Manar fisheries, the government sold its fifty million oysters for two and one half million rupees, and at least $600,000 of this was profit. Years ago, it is true, there were several fisheries producing for the treasury nothing but deficits.
The great sailor was specially interested in the manner of drilling the holes in pearls for stringing, which was probably the same that it is to-day. In the exuberant phraseology of the Orient, Ceylon is "the pearl-drop on India's brow," and the Gulf of Manar is "the sea abounding in pearls" and "the sea of gain."
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