A Ladys Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53 | Page 8

so woe-begone as before. "Well?" exclaimed we all in chorus, as
we surrounded them, too impatient to interrogate at greater length.
Thank Heavens! they had been successful! The house-keeper of a
surgeon, who with his wife had just gone up to Forest Creek, would
receive us to board and lodge for thirty shillings a week each; but as the
accommodation was of the indifferent order, it was not as yet UNE
AFFAIRE ARRANGEE. On farther inquiry, we found the indifferent
accommodation consisted in their being but one small sleeping-room
for the gentlemen, and myself to share the bed and apartment of the
temporary mistress. This was vastly superior to gipsying in the dirty
streets, so we lost no time in securing our new berths, and ere very long,
with appetites undiminished by these petty anxieties, we did ample
justice to the dinner which our really kind hostess quickly placed
before us.
The first night on shore after so long a voyage could scarcely seem
otherwise than strange, one missed the eternal rocking at which so
many grumble on board ship. Dogs (Melbourne is full of them) kept up
an incessant barking; revolvers were cracking in all directions until
daybreak, giving one a pleasant idea of the state of society; and last, not
least, of these annoyances was one unmentionable to ears polite, which
would alone have sufficed to drive sleep away from poor wearied me.
How I envied my companion, as accustomed to these disagreeables, she
slept soundly by my side; but morning at length dawned, and I fell into
a refreshing slumber.
The next few days were busy ones for all, though rather dismal to me,
as I was confined almost entirely within doors, owing to the awful state
of the streets; for in the colonies, at this season of the year, one may go
out prepared for fine weather, with blue sky above, and dry under foot,
and in less than an hour, should a COLONIAL shower come on, be
unable to cross some of the streets without a plank being placed from
the middle of the road to the pathway, or the alternative of walking in
water up to the knees.
This may seem a doleful and overdrawn picture of my first colonial

experience, but we had arrived at a time when the colony presented its
worst aspect to a stranger. The rainy season had been unusually
protracted this year, in fact it was not yet considered entirely over, and
the gold mines had completely upset everything and everybody, and
put a stop to all improvements about the town or elsewhere.
Our party, on returning to the ship the day after our arrival, witnessed
the French-leave-taking of all her crew, who during the absence of the
captain, jumped overboard, and were quickly picked up and landed by
the various boats about. This desertion of the ships by the sailors is an
every-day occurrence; the diggings themselves, or the large amount
they could obtain for the run home from another master, offer too many
temptations. Consequently, our passengers had the amusement of
hauling up from the hold their different goods and chattels; and so great
was the confusion, that fully a week elapsed before they were all got to
shore. Meanwhile we were getting initiated into colonial prices--money
did indeed take to itself wings and fly away. Fire-arms were at a
premium; one instance will suffice--my brother sold a six-barrelled
revolver for which he had given sixty shillings at Baker's, in Fleet
Street, for sixteen pounds, and the parting with it at that price was
looked upon as a great favour. Imagine boots, and they very
second-rate ones, at four pounds a pair. One of our between-deck
passengers who had speculated with a small capital of forty pounds in
boots and cutlery, told me afterwards that he had disposed of them the
same evening he had landed, at a net profit of ninety pounds--no
trifling addition to a poor man's purse. Labour was at a very high price,
carpenters, boot and shoemakers, tailors, wheelwrights, joiners, smiths,
glaziers, and, in fact, all useful trades, were earning from twenty to
thirty shillings a day--the very men working on the roads could get
eleven shillings PER DIEM, and, many a gentleman in this disarranged
state of affairs, was glad to fling old habits aside and turn his hand to
whatever came readiest. I knew one in particular, whose brother is at
this moment serving as colonel in the army in India, a man more fitted
for a gay London life than a residence in the colonies. The diggings
were too dirty and uncivilized for his taste, his capital was quickly
dwindling away beneath the expenses of the comfortable life he led at
one of the best hotels in town, so he turned