guese,
were the whole world a golden ring, Ormus would be the jeweled signet.
It was built on an island, supported a population of 40,000 persons,
and was particularly well situated as a distributing point for the
pearls, which enriched the argosies of Portugal, and contributed so
largely to
the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand Show'rs on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
which
Milton celebrates in "Paradise Lost." This wonderful Ormus, in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries one of the wealthiest places in the
world, is now only a fishing village of less than a hundred huts.
It
was at Ormus, nearly a century later, in 1670, that the shrewd old
jewel merchant, Tavernier, whose acquaintance with gems doubtless
equaled that of any man of his time, saw what he called "the most
beautiful pearl in the world" ; not so much for its size, for it
weighed only 48-1/4 grains, nor for its regularity in form, but because
of its most wonderful luster.1
In
describing the fisheries, which had been retaken by the Persians in
1622, Tavernier wrote in 1670, according to Ball's translation:
There
is a pearl fishery round the island of Bahren, in the Persian Gulf. It
belongs to the King of Persia, and there is a good fortress there,
where a garrison of 300 men is kept. . . . When the Portuguese held
Hormuz [Ormus] and Muscat, each boat which went to fish was obliged to
take out a license from them, which cost fifteen abassis [$5.45],
and many brigantines were maintained there, to sink those who were
unwilling to take out licenses. But since the Arabs have retaken
Muscat, and the Portuguese are no longer supreme in the Gulf, every man
who fishes pays to the King of Persia only five abassis, whether
his fishing is successful or not. The merchant also pays the king
something small for every 1,000 oysters. The second pearl-fishery is
opposite Bahren, on the coast of Arabia-Felix, close to the town of El
Katif, which, with all the neighboring country, belongs to an Arab
prince.2
During
the century following Tavernier's time, the fisheries were vigorously
prosecuted, owing to the impoverished condition of the reefs in India
and America, and to the large demand for pearls, not only by the
Oriental courts, but by the wealth and fashion of Europe. Except for
the last four years, when the Ceylon fishery was very productive,
throughout the eighteenth century the Persian Gulf was almost the only
important source of supply for pearls. For several years following the
reopening of the Ceylon fishery in 1796, that region
1 See p. 457, for Tavernier's description of 2Tavernier, "Travels in India," London,
this gem.
1889, Vol. II, p. 108.
