itions of the water and weather
were favorable for finding pearl oysters, to go and dive for those
lottery-ticket-like bivalves.

To tell the truth I did not blame the men so very much for turning
pirates, after I came really to understand the conditions connected
with the pearl fisheries.

The pearl oysters live at the bottom of such deep water, and are so
hard to get, that I have often seen a man come up from his search for
them with blood running from his ears and nose, the result of staying
down so long. Of course such things as divers' suits, and air pumps,
were unknown there. The men stripped their slim, brown bodies naked,
and went over the side of the boat with no apparatus except their
two hands and a sharp knife to use against the sharks. Sometimes the
men never came back, and then we knew the knife had not been quick
enough. Poljensio had a row of scars on one leg, where a shark had
bitten him, years before, which made the leg look as if it had been
between the bars of a giant's broiling iron.

Then, after the forces of nature had been overcome, as if they alone
were not bad enough, the representatives of the government, the
"Gobernadorcillo," had to be reckoned with; and he was worse than
all the rest.

The pearl fisheries of Palawan were the property of the Sultan
of Sulu. At least up to that time that monarch had been able to
maintain an ownership in them which allowed him to claim all of the
pearls above a certain size. All that the divers got for their risk
and labor were the small pearls and the shells. Fortunately for them
most of the shells had a market value for cutting into cameos, and for
inlay work, and the Chinese dealers who came to Palawan bought them,
as well as the pearls.

It was the business of the "Gobernadorcillo" to watch the divers, and
take from them all the pearls large enough to become the perquisite
of the Sultan. The men were allowed to go out to the water over the
oyster beds only on certain days, and then the Sultan's representative
went with them, and sat in his boat to keep watch that no shells were
opened there. After the boats had returned to the land every oyster
shell was opened under his watchful eye, and every large pearl was
claimed. Of course it was only rarely that an oyster held a pearl,
more rarely still that the gem was a large one. When they did find a
big one it always made me feel sorry to see the poor fellow, who had
worked so hard for it, have to give th