| Ready to go Down. |
Meanwhile the lugger drifts erratically over the surface of the ocean. An evil-eyed Malay may be asleep by the tiller, and the white commander will likewise be serenely indifferent to his surroundings, unless the thought strikes him that the quality of the last case of whisky he had was not in accordance with the labels on the bottles or the price he paid, in which event he will probably be making things lively among the crew, and the profits of the trip will increase in proportion. Every fifteen minutes or so the diver comes up for a "blow." If the shells are plentiful he may send them up in a net between times; but, as a rule, there are a few yards separating the shells of any size, and it is not often that he cannot bring them all aloft with him. A "blow" to this individual means being suspended over the gunwale with his helmet unscrewed for such time as the lugger may take to sail to the next known patch, after which he is allowed to drop again.
When a full cargo of shell has been obtained, the lugger's course is shaped towards Broome, where the molluscs are opened in sheds erected for the purpose. In the cases of the pearlers who possess several luggers a schooner is sent round periodically to collect the shell from the smaller craft, thus saving the latter a journey which they are ill able to accomplish, owing to their peculiar design and extremely small freeboard. The process of opening is sometimes carried on while the schooner sails for Broome; but, as most of the pearler kings make their homes on board these vessels now, and do not care to suffer the attending unpleasantness, the system is fast dying out, and the schooner, in turn, discharges at the Broome opening-sheds.
The methods of opening are many. In the early days the shells were torn apart with a knife or any other convenient weapon, and if no pearls rewarded a brief search, the carcass of the oyster was scooped out and left to rot on the sand until a merciful monsoon tide caused its removal. Lately, however, the pearlers have copied the plan of the Chinese beachcombers of the Archipelago, and a simpler system could not well be devised. The shells are laid on a slightly-inclined bench, at the lowest edge of which is a carefully-constructed ledge containing some water in the angle formed. After two days in this position the oyster "gapes" and "spits out" the pearl—if any—which, of course, rolls down the bench until it is caught in the angle, from where it is gathered by the attendant Japanese or coolies. The number of pearls obtained in this way is about 30 per cent. greater than was formerly the case by the forcible method, and it is therefore evident that the hasty pearlers must have lost a considerable amount through their carelessness and the incompleteness of their method of extraction. As said before, the pearls do not now form the chief part of the business; nevertheless there are usually a fair number in the shells discharged from one schooner. When the pearls have been collected the molluscs are cleaned out from the shells and either buried or otherwise destroyed, their late casings being stored to await shipment. The chief opening establishments are owned by a London syndicate of jewellers, who employ in their service as many aborigines, coolies, and Japanese as may care to offer themselves. This syndicate is always willing to purchase "on chance" any shipment of shell that may come into port, and have a large fleet of their own luggers constantly on the waters during the season. As might be expected, this organised company is not liked by the independent pearlers, who—rightly or not—imagine that a monopoly of the trade is the real object in view. To such an extent is this rivalry carried that, notwithstanding the fact that Messrs. S. & Co. have special facilities for shipping, and will pay full Singapore prices for all shells sold to them, the pearlers, unless temporarily financially embarrassed, will have nothing to do with them, and prefer to pay the expense of shipping their own shell to Singapore by some of the Holt Line of steamers, which call regularly in at Broome for that purpose while en route from Fremantle to the great Oriental metropolis.
During the monsoon season the pearling fleet shelters in Roebuck Bay, on the shores of which Broome stands, and then that wicked and evil-smelling township wakens up from its sleep. Its drinking saloons are crowded with black, yellow, and white humanity; the joss-houses are filled with maddened nondescripts; and the far-seeing abilities and correct judgment of the man who designed the prison to hold the entire population becomes apparent. Unfortunately there are some renegade whites who run gambling-hells; but, in justice to Britons at large, it should be stated that these men are mostly mongrel foreigners. The master pearlers, as a rule, do not frequent these places, preferring the narrower but healthier confines of their own vessels to that of the filthy, mosquito-infested town; but if any do go ashore, they all meet in a saloon owned by a gentleman with a very Highland name and dusky countenance, or in the cable-house, where fortunes may be gambled away in a night. These men are indifferent to this matter. Money, to most of them, has no attractions, and if they were denied the excitement of being alternately worth a fair fortune and without a sixpence in their possession they would probably die of ennui. But some of the pearlers—indeed, the majority—are made of sterner stuff; they still retain memories of lands where green vegetation and flowing streams of crystal water take the place of hideous mangrove swamps and parching deserts, and their efforts are all made in the hope that some day the results will enable them to return to those lands. These men only come into Broome when in need of stores, and, after landing their crews, spend the "off" season in some of the numerous bays and inlets farther north, occasionally finding rich patches in those sheltered sounds capable of being worked at all seasons.
It matters little on this coast what the original temperament of any person may have been, the influence of his surroundings soon has its effect upon him and makes him like his fellows. With the pearlers this takes the form of a feeling of reckless indifference, and a stranger suddenly thrown among them sees much to interest and amuse him in the incongruities brought about by this state of affairs.
When I visited this quarter I was not aware that there was any special industry carried on; in fact, I did not even know that a township existed between Roebourne and Derby until one evening the ss. Nemesis sailed into Roebuck Bay, and the skipper calmly announced that I would require to go ashore and await the next steamer, as he was going no farther. I was booked to London, viâ Singapore, but I had expected to be dumped ashore somewhere, as the Nemesis was not the regular connecting steamer, and I had taken it chiefly with the desire to get away from plague-stricken Fremantle, to which city I had come round from Northern Queensland.
"All right, captain," I said; "but you might give me my bearings first."
"Go straight ahead from the jetty until you see the cable station, then starboard hard, and you are into Roderick's Hotel. Drinks don't cost more than a shilling there."