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.[97] 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 diverted some of the attention which the Persian waters had been receiving, but it was not long before these regained their ascendancy. In 1838, Lieutenant J. R. Wellsted, an officer in the British India service, reported that the fisheries of the gulf employed 4300 boats, manned by somewhat more than 30,000 men.[98] Of these boats, 3500 were from the Island of Bahrein, 100 from the Persian coast, and the remaining 700 from the Pirate Coast situated between Bahrein and the entrance to the Gulf of Oman. Lieutenant Wellsted estimated the value of the pearls secured annually as approximately £400,000, which is somewhat less than the average value of the output in recent years. Twenty-seven years later, according to Sir Lewis Pelly,[99] who was in the Indian service from 1851 to 1877, there were 1500 boats at Bahrein, and the annual return from the whole fishery was £400,000, the same as previously reported by Wellsted. In 1879, the value of the output was estimated at £600,000 by the British Resident, Colonel Ross, and at £800,000 by Captain L. E. Durand, of the British Protectorate of the Persian Gulf. Owing to the increased market value, the average output in the last five years has amounted to approximately four million dollars annually. This refers to the local value only, which is greatly increased by the time the pearls leave the markets in Bombay and Bagdad.