EAST AFRICAN PEARL FISHERIES
The
Islanders with fleecy curls, Whose homes are compass'd by the Arabian
waves ; By whom those shells which breed the orient pearls Are dived
and fish'd for in their green sea caves.
Ό, Jerusalem Delivered.
T
HE principal pearl
fisheries of the coasts of Africa are those prosecuted in the Red Sea,
between this continent and Asia. These have already been described in
the preceding chapter, among the Asiatic fisheries; for, although
situated between the two continents, they are prosecuted largely by
Arabs rather than by natives of the western shores of the sea.
Other
than those in the Red Sea, the only pearl resources in Africa which
have received attention are on the eastern coast, south of the Gulf of
Aden. Little'information exists as to the. origin of these fisheries.
In a paper published by the Lisbon Geographical Society, January, 1903,
Seftor Ivens Ferranz states that, according to tradition, in remote
times the Ibo Archipelago, on the northeast coast of Portuguese East
Africa, was inhabited by a Semitic colony, which located there to fish
for pearls, and these were carried through the Red Sea to King Solomon.
He adds that there is little doubt that, after the great emigration
which started from the Persian Gulf in 982 and founded Zanzibar, Kilwa,
and Sofala on this coast, some Arabs engaged in fishing for pearls
about the islands near Sofala.
In
1609 Joao dos Santos wrote that on the sandy sea-bottom about the
Bazaruto Islands, which are about 150 miles south of Sofala, there were
many large oysters which bore pearls, and the natives fished for them
by diving in practically the same manner as in the Persian Gulf.1
In
a personal memorandum, Sir Robert Edgcumbe states that in the very
early times of Portuguese exploitation on the eastern coast of Africa,
pearl fishing was carried on in these waters. For a long period the
tenure of power exerted by the Portuguese was of a feeble character;
they practically occupied no position of importance on the
1 Joao dos Santos, "Ethopia Oriental," Lisbon, 1609, Vol. r, c. 27.
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