s necessarie, and nowe and then it is neere vnto places that
are inhabited, and other times farre off, according to the place where they
fishe. The Fishermen are all Christians of the countrey, and who so will
may goe to fishing, paying a certaine dutie to the king of Portugall, and
to the Churches of the Friers of Saint Paule, which are in that coast. All
the while that they are fishing, there are three or foure Fustes armed to
defend the Fishermen from Rouers. It was my chance to bee there one time in
my passage, and I saw the order that they vsed in fishing, which is this.
There are three or foure Barkes that make consort together, which are like
to our litle Pilot boates, and a litle lesse, there goe seuen or eight men
in a boate: and I haue seene in a morning a great number of them goe out,
and anker in fifteene or eighteene fadome of water, which is the Ordinarie
depth of all that coast. When they are at anker, they cast a rope into the
Sea, and at the ende of the rope, they make fast a great stone, and then
there is readie a man that hath his nose and his eares well stopped, and
annointed with oyle, and a basket about his necke, or vnder his left arme,
then hee goeth downe by the rope to the bottome of the Sea, and as fast as
he can he filleth the basket, and when it is full, he shaketh the rope, and
his fellowes that are in the Barke hale him vp with the basket: and in such
wise they goe one by one vntill they haue laden their barke with oysters,
and at euening they come to the village, and then euery company maketh
their mountaine or heape of oysters one distant from another, in such wise
that you shall see a great long rowe of mountaines or heapes of oysters,
and they are not touched vntill such time as the fishing bee ended, and at
the ende of the fishing euery companie sitteth round about their mountaine
or heape of oysters, and fall to opening of them, which they may easilie
doe because they bee dead, drie and brittle: and if euery oyster had
pearles in them, it would bee a very good purchase, but there are very many
that haue no pearles in them: when the fishing is ended, then they see
whether it bee a great gathering or a badde: there are certaine expert in
the pearles whom they call Chitini, which set and make the price of pearles
[Marginal note: These pearles are prised according to the caracts which
they weigh, euery caract is 4. graines, and these men that prise hem haue
an instrument of copper with holes