"The government are the proprietors of the fishery, I believe; but
whether they farm it out yearly, or not, I can not tell; but this I
know, that as the pearl oysters are taken, they are landed unopened and
packed upon the beach in squares of a certain dimension. When the
fishing is over for the season, these square lots of pearl oysters are
put up to auction, and sold to the highest bidder, of course 'contents
unknown;' so that it becomes a species of lottery; the purchaser may not
find a single pearl in his lot, or he may find two or three, which will
realize twenty times the price which he has paid for his lot."

"It is, then, a lottery from beginning to end; the poor divers' lottery
is shark or no shark; the purchasers', pearls or no pearls. But Mr.
Fairburn is coming up the ladder, and I am anxious to know what was the
fate of Mokanna."

Mr. Fairburn, who had come on deck on purpose to continue the narrative,
took his seat by his two fellow passengers and went on as follows:--

"I stated that Mokanna had been forwarded to the Cape. You must have
perceived that his only crime was that of fighting for his native land
against civilized invaders; but this was a deep crime in the eyes of the
colonial government; he was immediately thrown into the common gaol, and
finally was condemned to be imprisoned for life on Robben Island, a
place appropriated for the detention of convicted felons and other
malefactors, who there work in irons at the slate-quarries."

"May I ask, where is Robben Island?"

"It is an island a few miles from the mainland, close to Table Bay, upon