the
world in 1520, Pigopitta, a companion of Magalhaes, reported pearls
among the prized possessions of the natives. The fisheries have never
been of great importance, although the reefs are widely scattered
throughout the archipelago, and the possibilities seem favorable for
very great development. Thomas de Comyn stated a century ago, that
pearl fisheries had been undertaken "from time to time about Mindanao,
Zebu, and some of the smaller islands, but with little success and less
regularity, not because of a scarcity of fine pearls, but on account
of a lack of skill of the divers and their well-established dread of
sharks."1
Giacinto Gemmi,2
writing of Philippine pearls, repeats a strange tale from the "Storia
de Mindanao" by the Jesuit father, Combes, to the effect that in a
certain spot, under many fathoms of water, there was a pearl of
inestimable value, as large as an egg; but, although the king's ministers had made every effort to have it secured, they had always been unsuccessful.
During
the last thirty years, pearls and pearl shells have been secured from
most of the inshore waters of Malaysia, but the output has not been so
regular or so extensive as the conditions seem to warrant. Our
observation leads to the conviction that this is not due so much to
lack of skill on the part of the divers, or to their dread of sharks,
mentioned by Comyn ; but to the fact that foreign capital, attracted
to this part of the world, has found more security and profit in
developing plantations, and the natives have not had sufficient
enterprise to systematize and develop the fishery resources.
Throughout Malaysia, including the Philippine Islands, the pearl is known as mutya, mootara, or a similar name, closely resembling the Sanskrit mukta or the Cingalese mootoo, indicating the source of the influence originating the fishery and trade.
The
most widely-known pearl fisheries of Malaysia are in the Sulu
Archipelago, a group of islands comprising about 1000 square miles in
area, and containing a population of 100,000. The beautiful yellow
pearls shared with the many acts of piracy in attracting attention to
this group previous to 1878, when the islands were brought under the
influence of Spanish rule ; and since the Spanish-American War, pearl
fishing has been the leading industry, though it has received less
attention from outside sources, perhaps, than has the existence of
slavery and harems as part of the social system.
Writing
in 1820, John Crawfurd stated that the annual export of pearls from
Sulu Islands to China approximated 25,000 Spanish dollars in value,
and the mother-of-pearl similarly exported was worth
1 Comyn, "State of the Philippine Islands," ""Storia Naturale delle Gemme," Naples, London, 1820, pp. 38, 39.
1730. Vol. I, p. 461.
