The Eureka Stockade | Page 5

I had set apart a few coppers for the poor at my landing. I had
no opportunity for them. "We shall do well in this land;" was my motto.
Who is going to be the first beggar? Not I! My care for the poor would
have less disappointed me, if I had prepared myself against falling in
the unsparing clutches of a shoal of land-sharks, who swarmed at that
time the Yarra Yarra wharfs. Five pounds for landing my luggage, was
the A, followed by the old colonial C, preceded by the double D.
Rapacity in Australia is the alpha and omega. Yet there were no poor! a
grand reflection for the serious. Adam Smith, settled the question of
"the wealth of nations." The source of pauperism will be settled in
Victoria by any quill-driver, who has the pluck to write the history of
public-houses in the towns, and sly-grog sellers on the gold-fields.
Let us start for Ballaarat, Christmas, December 1852.--'Vide'--'tempore
suo'-- 'Julii Caesaris junioris. De Campis Aureis, Australia Felix
Commentaria.'
For the purpose, it is now sufficient to say that I had joined a party;
fixed our tent on the Canadian Flat; went up to the Camp to get our
gold licence; for one pound ten shilling sterling a head we were duly
licensed for one month to dig, search for, and remove gold, etc.--We
wanted to drink a glass of porter to our future success, but there was no
Bath Hotel at the time.--Proceeded to inspect the famous Golden Point
(a sketch of which I had seen in London in the 'Illustrated News'). The

holes all around, three feet in diameter, and five to eight feet in depth,
had been abandoned! we jumped into one, and one of my mates gave
me the first lesson in "fossiking,"--In less than five minutes I pounced
on a little pouch-- the yellow boy was all there,--my eyes were
sparkling,--I felt a sensation identical to a first declaration of love in
by-gone times.--"Great works," at last was my bursting exclamation. In
old Europe I had to take off my hat half a dozen times, and walk from
east to west before I could earn one pound in the capacity of sworn
interpreter, and translator of languages in the city of London. Here, I
had earned double the amount in a few minutes, without crouching or
crawling to Jew or Christian. Had my good angel prevailed on me to
stick to that blessed Golden Point, I should have now to relate a very
different story: the gold fever, however, got the best of my usual
judgment, and I dreamt of, and pretended nothing else, than a hole
choked with gold, sunk with my darling pick, and on virgin ground.--I
started the hill right-hand side, ascending Canadian Gully, and safe as
the Bank of England I pounced on gold--seventeen and a half ounces,
depth ten feet.

Chapter III
.

Jupiter Tonans.
One fine morning (Epiphany week), I was hard at work (excuse old
chum, if I said hard: though my hand had been scores of times
compelled in London to drop the quill through sheer fatigue, yet I never
before handled a pick and shovel), I hear a rattling noise among the
brush. My faithful dog, Bonaparte, would not keep under my control.
"What's up?" "Your licence, mate." was the peremptory question from
a six-foot fellow in blue shirt, thick boots, the face of a ruffian armed
with a carbine and fixed bayonet. The old "all right" being exchanged, I
lost sight of that specimen of colonial brutedom and his similars, called,
as I then learned, "traps" and "troopers." I left off work, and was unable
to do a stroke more that day.
"I came, then, 16,000 miles in vain to get away from the law of the
sword!" was my sad reflection. My sorrow was not mitigated by my

mates and neighbours informing me, that Australia was a penal
settlement. Inveterate murderers, audacious burglars, bloodthirsty
bushrangers, were the ruling triumvirate, the scour of old Europe,
called Vandemonians, in this bullock-drivers' land. Of course I felt
tamed, and felt less angry, at the following search for licence. At the
latter end of the month, one hundred and seventy seven pounds troy, in
two superb masses of gold, were discovered at the depth of sixty feet,
on the hill opposite where I was working. The talk was soon Vulcanish
through the land. Canadian Gully was as rich in lumps as other
gold-fields are in dust. Diggers, whom the gold fever had rendered
stark blind, so as to desert Ballaarat for Mount Alexander and Bendigo,
now returned as ravens to the old spot; and towards the end of February,
'53, Canadian Gully was in its full glory.

Chapter IV
.

Incipit Lamentatio.
The