Successful Exploration | Page 9

is a blue shirt, a pair of duck trousers, a straw hat or
wide-awake, and what they call a jumper here. It is a kind of outside
shirt, made of plaid, or anything you please, reaching just below the
hips, and fastened round the waist with a belt. It would be a very nice
dress for Charley. [Footnote: His youngest brother, at home.] I should
wear it myself if I were in England. It ought to be made with a
good-sized collar, and open at the breast, like a waistcoat, only to
button at the neck, if required. We brought out the wrong sort of straw
hat, as they are only fit for summer, but we sold all but two. One I
made six shillings of, but the cabbage-tree hat is worth a pound. No one
should bring out more than he can carry on his back, except it be to sell.
Boots and shoes are at a great price, but they should be thick and strong.
Wages are very high for butchers, carpenters, and bakers. A butcher's
boy can get 3 pounds a week, with board and lodging. Bullock-drivers
get the same. Innkeepers are making fortunes. I know a public-house,
not larger than the Two Mile Oak, [Footnote: A small public-house
between Totnes and Newton.] that cleared 500 pounds in three months,
so it was reported. Sydney, I hear, is as cheap to live in as London. As
to the diggings, I cannot say much about them. I have seen many who
have made money there, and many who have lost it again. It is
generally spent as fast as it is got. I hope we shall send you some
specimens of gold dust soon. Please to give my love to my mother and
all at home.
From your affectionate and dutiful son,
W.J. WILLS.
. . .
His subsequent letters were of the same kind, descriptive of his
management in his shepherd's life in the bush. He tells how he
converted legs of mutton into excellent hams by pickling and smoking
them; and how he also obtained preserves of melons, by sowing seeds
which produced abundantly. The flies and ants were their greatest
torment, particularly the former. The heat was not great, as there was a
constant breeze from one quarter or another. Deniliquin is in between

35 and 36 degrees south latitude. The trees are almost exclusively gum
trees, but they differ in appearance and leaves, according to age and
locality. This gives the appearance of variety, when, in fact, there is
none. The wood is hard and splits easily. The bark is tough and thick,
and can be converted into canoes by closing the ends of a piece taken
from half the circumference of a tree, and tying a cord round the centre
to keep it from spreading. The colour is of a beautiful red. A moisture
sometimes exudes from the leaves in such abundance as to convey the
idea of an animal having been slain under the branches. It has the smell
of carraways and is agreeably sweet. "How it would delight Bessy and
Hannah," (his young sisters, then quite children), he says, "to go into
the woods, picking up comfits under the trees!"
He then speaks of the blacks in that district; of their habits and ideas;
but expresses a low opinion of their intellectual powers, and thinks
little can be done with them. In May, he wrote to his mother and myself
conjointly, fearing his former communications might not have reached
us, and briefly recapitulating their purport. I afterwards heard at
Deniliquin that he had successfully performed a surgical operation. A
shearer had run the point of his shears into the neck of a sheep, and
opened the carotid artery. My son having a small pocket case of
instruments, secured the vessel and saved the animal. I remember when
it was considered a triumph in practice to effect this on a human subject.
The letter I am now alluding to concludes by hoping that we were all as
comfortable at home as he and his brother were in the bush. He never
tired of expatiating on the beauties of Australia and its climate. His
next, in August, gave a more extended account of local peculiarities
and features. Deniliquin is at this time (1862) a place of considerable
importance, with a thriving population. The island on which my sons
shepherded their rams is formed by two branches of the Edward River,
which is itself a branch of the Murray.
CHAPTER 3
.
I arrive in Australia. Join my two Sons at their Sheep-station. Return to
Melbourne and Remove to Ballaarat. Visit to Mr. Skene. My son
studies Surveying. His rapid proficiency. Appointed to take charge of a
Party. Letters on various Subjects to his Mother