Pearls: Pearl Fisheries of the South Sea Islands Page 249



	ISLANDS OF THE PACIFIC	201

	by his partner named Seubert.¹ This was on the northwest coast, and the output reached the market by way of Singapore. At first the oysters were so abundant in shallow water that they could be picked up at low tide, and beach-combing was profitable, especially when carried on with cheap native labor. As the beach-beds became exhausted, the natives were encouraged to wade out to greater depths, and soon they became accustomed to "bob under" for those oysters visible from the surface. The Australian blacks were thus taught to dive, and in 1867 diving from boats in two or three fathoms was attempted with such success that in the following year the practice was generally adopted, the depth in which they worked gradually extending to six or eight fathoms. In diving from a boat, the men imitated "bobbing under" which they had practised in shoaler water; they slipped off the gunwale feet foremost, and when six or eight feet below the surface, turned and swam downward. Owing to the close labor relations existing between the natives and the sheep-raisers of northwestern Australia, the latter were brought into the business, and for a number of years pearling and sheep-raising were closely associated. The blacks were employed in various duties in connection with raising and shearing sheep, and it was important to find some occupation for them when ranch-work was slack, not only for their own subsistence but for the protection of the herdsmen and their property. Fortunately, this opportunity was furnished by the pearl fishery, for which these men were well qualified. The profits of the business soon attracted many outside capitalists, and it became difficult to procure divers. Not only did the pearlers— and particularly new-comers—resort to impressing the blacks into service, but skilled fishermen were brought over from the Malay Archipelago, and in some cases the methods used in securing them were by no means regular. In 1871 the Northwest pearl fishery gave employment to 12 vessels of 15 to 50 tons each, and yielded about 180 tons of mother-of-pearl. During the same year, in Torres Straits, where the industry had extended about 1868, there were 10 vessels—mostly from the port of Sydney—and the catch of mother-of-pearl approximated 200 tons, valued at f 60,000 in London.² Each vessel was commonly manned by two or three white men and from ten to fifty divers, who worked from dinghys, in gangs of six or eight each with an overseer in charge. As the fishery increased rapidly in extent, the problem of securing nude divers became a serious one, and "nigger hunting" became rather common, the Australian black man representing the cheapest form of ¹ Garran, "Australasia Illustrated," Syd- ² Gill, "Life in the Southern Isles," Lon- ney, 1892, Vol. II, p. 886. don, 1876, p. 294.