this diminished valuation in payment of their wages, it will easily be seen that the man who landed with nothing but his own hands and head to trust to had, if he was honest and sober, a better chance of getting on, during that period of utter depression, than the originally wealthy settler, whose capital had been sunk in flocks and herds for which he could find no sale, and which he was obliged to part with by degrees to those who watched and tended them, since he had no money with which to pay their wages.
Thus, during the long period of utter stagnation which fell upon this unfortunate colony after its ill-managed foundation, many of the servants had become flock-owners and cattle-breeders, while most of their former masters had been ruined. The servants were therefore in a position to share in the advantages of the artificial life which was breathed into Swan River by the introduction of convicts in 1850, when a sheep, which but a short time before had been worth only eighteenpence, rose suddenly in price to a guinea, and every other description of farm produce acquired a fictitious value. There were then but a few of the original settlers left to share this harvest; many of them had quitted Western Australia disappointed and half-ruined men, others had died of broken hearts, and some few, yet more unfortunate, had become useless drunkards through sorrow and despair.
Of the sad history of these early years an account will be found towards the end of these pages, but it was necessary to refer to them here in order that the reader might be able to understand the history of Khourabene's old master. He was amongst the individuals who profited
