tell
of the opportunities of those days when choice pearls could be obtained
for a pinch of opium or for a few ounces of tobacco.
Far
from the highways of the world, the Selangs remained undisturbed in
their beautiful seas until nearly twenty years ago. Meanwhile, 800
miles distant, Singapore had arisen from a desert shore to the rank of
a great seaport, and the headquarters for the pearl fishery of the
Malay Archipelago and of the northwestern coast of Australia. In this
fishery the vessels were well equipped and depended on the use of
diving apparatus rather than on nude divers.
Beginning
about 1888, some of these vessels made occasional visits to the Mergui
pearl-oyster reefs, and usually with very profitable results. This was
the first instance in which diving apparatus was successfully
introduced on any part of the Asiatic coast from the Red Sea to Malacca
Strait. So great was the profit that nearly every one on the lower
coast of Burma with sufficient capital or credit hastened to obtain a
boat and diving equipment. The success of some of these early ventures
was remarkable, single pearls worth $3000, $5000, and even $10,000 each
being secured. The reefs in the shoal waters were rapidly depleted, to
the great disadvantage of the nude Selangs, who can do little in deep
water.
With
a view to deriving a revenue from these well-equipped vessels, the
government of Burma in 1898 divided the 11,000 square-miles of pearling
territory into five definite areas known as "blocks." The area within
each of these blocks was surveyed, marked, and charted; and the
financial commissioner from time to time determined as to each block
whether licenses for pearl fishing should be issued, or whether the
exclusive right therein should be leased. These leases were disposed of
either by inviting tenders and granting the lease to any of the persons
who might tender, or by public auction, as the financial commissioner
might direct. By the terms of the lease, the lessee was obliged to
register at the office of the deputy commissioner of finance the number
of boats and pumps employed by him ; to declare by letter, at the end
of each month, the number, weight, and estimated value of all
mother-of-pearl shell and pearls collected during the month, and to
refrain from taking any mother-of-pearl measuring less than six inches
from lip to hinge.
Outside
the limits of blocks in which the exclusive pearl fishing was leased,
licenses to use diving implements were granted in such number and on
payment of such fees, not exceeding Rs.iooo per apparatus, as might
from time to time be fixed, every such license expiring on June 30 next
following the date on which it was granted, and no license was
transferable.
The five blocks in which the Mergui pearling rights were leased are
