The divers were paid a definite share of the catch, and kept in debt-bondage by means of advances and supplies. Little clothing was necessary, and the provisions consisted principally of corn, beans, and sun-dried beef. Luxuries were added in the form of tobacco, and of mescal distilled from the maguey plant, indulgence in these constituting the chief remuneration for the season’s labor. The finding of an unusually choice pearl brought to the lucky fisherman a gratuity of a few dollars, and shore leave for several days in which to spend it. Dressing in his best calico garments, he hastened to the nearest town to indulge in release from restraint, in drunkenness and debauchery—the highest dreams of happiness of a Yaqui Indian—thoughts of which served to bring him to the fishery each year from his home across the gulf. From the Spanish conquest until 1874, the Mexican pearl fishery was conducted exclusively by nude divers. The experiments with the diving-bell in 1825 had been without favorable result, and also an attempt by an American in 1854 to use a diving-suit with air-pump, etc., this failure being credited to imperfection of apparatus. In 1874, through the influence of European pearl merchants, two schooners, each of about 200 tons’ measurement, one from Australia and the other from England, visited the Mexican grounds, with a dozen boats fully equipped with scaphanders or diving armor, including helmets, rubber suits, pumps, etc. Owing to their working in deeper water than the nude divers were able to exploit, their success was remarkable, and they secured upward of a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of pearls and shells during the first season. The hitherto somnolent inhabitants of Lower California were amazed at seeing their resources thus easily removed, and were awakened to the opportunities afforded them to acquire the wealth which nature had scattered at their very doors. With this object-lesson before them, companies were formed for raising sufficient capital for the business, and the leading operators equipped their men with scaphanders, to the great annoyance of the would-be independent fishermen, who had not sufficient means to purchase the costly equipment. Many of these continued to employ nude divers, but after 1880 this method of fishery was subordinate to the use of diving apparatus. The change was accompanied by many accidents, and rarely did a month pass without the loss of a man, due in most cases to faulty apparatus or to inexperienced management.