Includes indexes. Map on p. (iii) Errata details: p. ix. The colonisation and settlement of North West australia 1861-1914 focuses on black-white relationships, and the changing attitudes and moralities of white australians when they too became indigenous. The end of transportation and the advertisement of cheap rich country brought new players into the field, and as pearl fishing increased the lust for pearls opened up the lucrative and illicit slave trade. How the British Government, the various governors, the legislature and the public dealt with this knowledge and the corruption and violence it entailed opens a new chapter of Australian history.