out. This seemed very probable, for only fifty-four tons of pearl shell were gathered in 1869, but in May, 1870, a discovery was announced which gave a fillip to the industry. For several preceding months pearlers had moved from place to place getting only small returns, but a reef was come upon which was thought to extend for sixty miles along the coast. Every time the natives dived they brought up with them three or four pairs of shells, and in a fortnight the finds exceeded all expectation. The Messrs. Grant found some beautiful pear-shaped pearls of large size and unsullied lustre. The catch of thirty pearlers (excluding natives) for the year was eighty tons. A hurricane burst upon a little fleet in Nickol Bay on 25th December, 1870, and wrecked two or three boats; two lives were lost, and damage was done to buildings at Roebourne. In 1871 there were twenty-two vessels and boats engaged in the pearl fisheries, and 150 tons of shells were gathered. During the hurricane at Roebourne in March, 1872, several pearling boats were driven ashore, and one, the Nellie, with two men on board, disappeared, and, with her two men, was not seen again. The attention devoted to the quest in this year exceeded that of any previous period. Thirty-two vessels and forty-five boats were engaged.
It would appear that the treatment of the natives employed by the pearlers was not all it should have been. Strange statements were published in the different newspapers concerning affrays and diseases, and some people sought to justify the murder of white men by natives on the principle of the law of retaliation. The natives were engaged as divers, and the native women were preferred for this work to the men. The moral aspect of the question was sometimes inferentially referred to, and it was announced that horrible diseases were rapidly killing off the coastal tribes. The Legislative Council passed a measure prohibiting the employment of women as divers. Several pearlers were murdered by the natives.
Dismal and gruesome stories were published in 1873 which did not reflect credit on the honour and propriety of certain pearlers. In January R. Shea and Samuel Miller left their camp on the coast near the De Grey to search for natives who had deserted. They did not return, and in February their remains were found—Shea's head and legs in a pool, and Miller's body buried in the sand. They were murdered in their sleep. Miller, it was explained, would not have been attacked, but was mistaken for a certain well-known settler who had given the natives cause for enmity. At the trial of three natives, who were acquitted, for the murder, it was disclosed that molestation of native women was the incentive to the crime. The Inquirer, commenting on the affair, says:—"The north-west natives are evidently courageous savages, but it should be proved that the white men are not unjustifiably the aggressors before the fiat is sent forth to shoot them down like wild beasts, as, alas, whether by authority or not, has too often been the case in this colony. . . . Unless the natives are protected in their domestic relations, there seems no prospect of putting an end to their natural instinct for revenge." Sixteen other natives were tried for the same murder some months later; five were found guilty and sentenced to death.
A horrible murder was perpetrated on a pearler some years earlier. In 1869 Captain Gascoigne purchased a boat in Sydney for the local pearling trade. He sailed for this colony via Torres Straits, and nothing more was heard of him for some time. Finally, passing mariners noticed a wreck on one of the islands in the straits, and upon examining it they discovered evidence that it had been plundered by natives. The men then visited native huts on the shore, and found Captain Gascoigne's log book and other of his papers. Several natives were captured and taken to Cape York, where their examination tended to show that Captain Gascoigne and all the members of his crew (nine) were murdered, and that their bodies furnished a meal to the cannibals.
The year 1873, when eighty-three boats were scattered along the north-west coast, was distinguished for the number of pearls of high quality that were secured. One, a magnificent specimen, estimated to be worth £2,500, was found near Nickol Bay by Captain Black. A new bank was discovered early in the year in Flying Foam Passage, west of Port Walcott, which yielded large quantities of shell and pure pearls. In places the bank was from six to eight feet thick, yielding pearls of a more brilliant lustre than any hitherto discovered. One boat secured half a ton of shells in a day, and another 800 pairs of shells. A large fleet was soon congregated around the bank; a pearl found in February was valued at £300. The bank was located in water sixty feet and more deep, and difficulty was experienced in getting good divers; when opportunities occurred the natives ran away.
Sharks Bay was also a favourite resort of the pearlers, but the shells obtained from there were rather smaller than those further north. In August, 1873, the Dawn arrived at Fremantle with 60 tons of shells and 300 ounces of pearls gathered in the bay. There were in July between thirty and forty boats in Sharks Bay, employing about 200 persons. Shells were collected principally for the pearls, and along the shore of the bay there were about 1,000 tons of shells which were considered valueless. The large boats worked all the year round; the smaller ones only part of the year. When anchored on the beds they cast out their dredges of triangular shape, somewhat resembling a bell cut through the centre, with an eye at the tapered end for the handle; the frame was made of iron, and over it was loosely spread a strong net fastened to a scraper at the bottom. When filled, the dredge was hauled into the boat and discharged. The shells were taken to the beach, and placed in pits and casks until the mollusc died, and then the search for pearls began. This was carried on by the natives. In the summer the water receded and the shells were gathered by hands or toes in the shallow water.
Numbers of Malays were now being engaged. In the off season the vessels proceeded to the islands to recruit. The industry rapidly became the most remunerative in Western Australia, and the returns for 1873 were valued at about £35,000. Mr. Broadburst is said in one month to have obtained 100 ozs. of pearls, valued at £2,500; the value of these for the year was set down at £6,000, but the estimates are unreliable, for the compilers of the Blue Book, in all their figures of export, reckoned on what they considered the average price of any article during the year. The banks in Sharks Bay in 1874 were said to be almost worked out, and an exodus of pearlers took place to other parts of the coast. Chinamen were declared to be doing a thriving trade in the bay. Dropping a little Joss into a live oyster, which they placed in the water in a net made for the purpose, the Celestials watched and waited until the joss was covered with mother-o'-pearl. These excellent imitations sometimes brought good prices; the same process was occasionally followed to produce additional brilliancy and lustre in defective pearls. At Roebourne about 500 Malay and native divers were employed during 1874, and the take was declared to be between 260 and 270 tons, valued at £45,000. In shallow water the Australian natives were more successful than the Malays, but the latter were the most expert in the deeper banks. So pleased were the pearlers that they now purchased larger decked boats with which to pursue the quest in the deep water channels. The total
