Pearling Life at the Present Day. 175 



inserted in the latest Admiralty charts, under the 

 name of " Haynes' Shoal." Another but less im- 

 portant reef was discovered the same week, to the 

 southward of the North Luconia Shoals. 



At Sooloo, the seven Sooloo men were gladly 

 welcomed by their friends as returning heroes ; and 

 after relating all the experiences of the late voyage, 

 crowds of divers came forward eager to join. Fifty 

 three men were engaged, including three of the 

 old hands, and the ship sailed for Macassar and 

 Australia. 



It was interesting to observe the demeanour 

 of these new men. They were proceeding to un- 

 known lands, under the control of a white man, 

 for the first time in their lives ; the ship was equally 

 strange to them, and a superstitious feeling of 

 approaching awe was aroused. In the Straits of 

 Macassar, at night, the ship passed slowly close to 

 a great mass of floating wood, probably some tree 

 brought down by a river in Borneo. This tree had 

 been taken possession of by sea-birds for a roosting- 

 place, and being suddenly alarmed by the close 

 approach of the ship, the birds took flight, flapping 

 their wings, and running along the surface of the 

 water, making considerable noise before they were 

 fairly on the wing. The sleeping Sooloo men were 

 aroused just in time to distinguish the black mass 



