Kopcke lit a cigarette, and, as we prepared to separate, said sententiously: “Mon vieux, I know women and I know the Kanaka, and I do not think Taaroa drowned the American for love. She didn’t know about the sea-grass being there.”
Llewellyn did not answer. He only said, vexedly, “Well, for heaven’s sake, let’s get a few drinks before we go to sleep!”
I left them to go to Nohea’s shack. On my mat I pitied Llewellyn. He had a real or fancied contrition for his small part in the tragedy of Rapa Nui. But my last thought was of the violet eyes of Miss Dorey. Those months to England must have been over-long.
CHAPTER XI
Pearl hunting in the lagoon—Previous methods wasteful—Mapuhi shows me the wonders of the lagoon—Marvelous stories of sharks—Woman who lost her arm—Shark of Samoa—Deacon who rode a shark a half hour—Eels are terrible menace.
THE lagoon of Takaroa was to be the scene of intense activity and of incredible romance for the period of the open season for hunting the pearl-oyster. Eighty years or more of this fishing had been a profitable industry in Takaroa, especially for the whites who owned or commanded the vessels trading here. A handful of nails would at one time buy the services of a Paumotuan diver for a day. Trifles, cheap muskets, axes, and hammers, were exchanged for shells and pearls, often five dollars for five hundred dollars’ worth. The Paumotuan was robbed unconscionably by cheating him of his rights under contracts, by intimidation, assault, and murder, by getting him drunk, and the usual villainous methods of unregulated trade all over the world. The Sons of Belial were hereabouts. They had to haul down the black flag under compulsion, but they sighed for the good old days, and did not constitute themselves honest guardians for the natives even now.
The piratical traders of the early decades sailed from atoll to atoll, bartering for pearls and shells, or engaging the Paumotuans to dive for them, either by the month or season, at a wage or for a division of the gains. For their part, the traders supplied firearms, salt meat, and biscuit or flour, though rum or other alcoholic drink was their principal merchandise. The average native would continue to sell his soul for the godlike exaltation of the hours of drunkenness, and forget the hell of the aftermath. He did sell his body, for often the diver found himself in debt to the traders at the end of the year. If so, he was lost, for he remained the virtual slave of the creditor, who gave him still enough rum to make him quiescent, and to continue in debt till he died from the accidents of his vocation, or from excesses.
The lagoons were emptied of their shells in improvident manner, shells of any size being taken, and no provision made for the future nor for the growth and propagation of the oysters. The industry was the usual fiercely competitive struggle that marks a new way of becoming rich quickly. The disorder and wasteful methods of the early days of gold digging in California, and later in Alaska, matched the reckless roguery and foolish mishandling of these rich pearl-fisheries before the French Government tardily ended the reign of lawlessness and prodigality. Gambling became a fever, and the white man knew the cards better than the brown. Driven by desire for rum and for more money to hazard, the Paumotuan risked terrible depths and killed himself, or ruined his health by too many descents in a day. Atoll and sea must soon have been deprived of people and oysters.
Thirty years ago, the secretary of the Collège de France, summoned to Tahiti to find a remedy, reported that, if laws were not made and enforced against the conditions he found, the industry would speedily pass. Schooners of many nationalities frequented the atolls. Pearls were not rare, and magnificent shells were found in many of the eighty lagoons. Their size surpassed all found now. The continuous search had impoverished the beds, which were the result of centuries, and had robbed them of shells of age and more perfect growth, as war took the strongest and bravest men of a nation, and left the race to be perpetuated by cowards, weaklings, and the rich or politic who evaded the front of battle.