Botany Bay

Botany Bay True Tales of Early Australia
by John Lang

AUTHOR'S PREFACE
I. THE GHOST UPON THE RAIL.
II. THE MASTER AND HIS MAN.
III. GILES! AS I LIVE.
IV. TRACKS IN THE BUSH.
V. CAPTAIN KETCHCALFE.
VI. BARRINGTON.
VII THREE CELEBRITIES.
VIII. BARON WALD.
IX. SIR HENRY HAYES.
X. KATE CRAWFOD.
XI. ANNIE SAINT FELIX.
XII. A RAMBLE WITH THE BLACKS.
XIII. MUSIC A TERROR.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
THE greater number of these stories have already appeared in "Household Words." The remainder were contributed to the "Welcome Guest." It behoves me to inform the English reader that, although the entire contents of this volume are founded upon truth, the names, dates, and localities have been so altered that to all intents and purposes they form merely a work of fiction. My object in making such alterations was to spare the feelings of the surviving relations of the various persons alluded to in my narratives respectively.
To my readers in Australia (the land of my birth), I desire to say that I do not hold myself responsible for the sentiments of the various persons whom I have introduced as "characters;" and that when I have spoken of the colony as "Botany Bay," and the large land and stockholders of former times as the "lords" thereof, it was not my intention to be either sarcastic or insulting. An absence of nearly twenty years from the colony (partly in India and partly in Europe) has in no way lessened my regard for the land where the days of my boyhood were spent, and where I yet hope to end my life; and I would here desire to express that it afforded me great joy to find that the prophecy in which I indulged at the public meeting at the Sydney College, in 1842, when I inconsistently seconded Mr. W. C. Wentworth's resolution, that the Crown be petitioned to grant the colony a representative assembly, was not fulfilled, but falsified. I was then a very young (and perhaps a silly and selfish) man, when I propounded in public that the colony was not ripe for any government, save that of a purely Crown government; and the severe handling I received from the entire press of the colony was no doubt well merited; for assuredly I was not justified in agreeing to second so important a resolution, and then express such strong doubts as to the advisability of its being carried into effect. The unpopularity that I incurred during the few months that I remained in the colony after my speech at the Sydney College, was, I trust, regarded as a sufficient punishment for that "youthful indiscretion" on my part. JOHN LANG Botany Bay

I. THE GHOST UPON THE RAIL.
CHAPTER I.
IT was a winter's night--an Australian winter's night--in the middle of July, when two wealthy farmers in the district of Penrith, New South Wales, sat over the fire of a public house, which was about a mile distant from their homes. The name of the one was John Fisher, and of the other Edward Smith. Both of these farmers had been transported to the colony, had served their time, bought land, cultivated it, and prospered. Fisher had the reputation of being possessed of a considerable sum in ready money; and it was well known that he was the mortgagee of several houses in the town of Sydney, besides being the owner of a farm and three hundred acres, which was very productive, and on which he lived. Smith also was in good circumstances, arising out of his own exertions on his farm; but, unlike his neighbour, he had not put by much money.
"Why don't you go home, John, and see your friends and relations?" asked Smith; "you be now very warm in the pocket; and, mark my words, they would be very glad to see you."
"I don't know about that, friend," replied Fisher. "When I got into trouble it was the breaking of the heart of my old father and mother; and none of my brothers and sisters--in all, seven of 'em--have ever answered one of my letters."
"You did not tell 'em you were a rich man, did you?"
"No; but I don't think they would heed that much, lad; for though they are far from wealthy, as small farmers, they are well-to-do in the world, and in a very respectable position in the country. I have often thought that if I was to go back they would be sorry to see me, even if I carried with me ��100,000 earned by one who had been a convict."
"Bless your innocent heart! You don't know human natur' as I do. Money does a deal--depend on't. Besides, who is to know anything about you, except your own family? And they would never go and hint that you had been unfortunate. Why, how many years ago is it?"
"Let me see. I was then eighteen, and I am now