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The Adventures of a Surveyor in New Zealand and the Australian Gold Diggings

Chapter VIII

page 63

Chapter VIII.

Which is the villain? let me see his eyes;
That, when I note another man like him,
I may avoid him.—Shakespeare.

I stayed in town a few days, and then started for Ballarat, with two new “mates,” without a farthing in my pocket, and just provision enough to last me up. We every night rolled ourselves in our blankets, and slept under some tree or bush. On arriving at Ballarat we borrowed tools from some sailors, and found a quarter of an ounce the first day, down a thirty-five feet hole. Next day we got a little more: this gave us a bit of a start, so we must needs purchase a “billy” (a tin pot for boiling tea, coffee, meat, or anything you may have the luck to get), to make our tea in. These diggings were very dull, and one party of “knowing coves” were nicely taken in by three “new chums” who brought out from Birmingham a nugget of brass. They set to work and sank a deep hole, where they pretended to find the said nugget, which two of them carried between them, suspended to a pole, to the Commissioner’s camp, whilst the third walked beside them with a doublebarrelled gun. Large offers were directly made for the hole, which they sold for more than 300l., and then decamped.

We now struck off, by the cross-country road, to Mount Alexander. Fording the river Loddon, we came to a part of the country of a totally different character from that in which we had previously found gold.

Leaving one of our mates behind, we went on to Friar’s Creek, where we bought two licences, and pitched one of our blankets for a tent; but, finding little doing here, we moved on to Forest Creek. On the road I saw a notice nailed to a tree, telling me where to find my brother. I followed the directions and reached his tent, which he had purposely distinguished with two boughs. It was guarded, however, by a large dog, which showed unmistakable page 64 symptoms of animosity; so I waited near at hand till he came home from work.

He was working with three mates; and when their hole was worked out he got rid of his companions and joined us. We were now a party of four. Our first hole in Sailors’ Gully, where we “set in,” produced more than a pound of gold; but for the next two months we scarcely earned a living, so F… … r, my original mate, left us for the Ovens. We now bought a large tarpauling, and made a fine tent; so big, in fact, that the first windy day’s trial we expected to find it blown away when we came home from work, and our dogs, looking ridiculously foolish, tethered to the naked posts.

Being summer, the flies were very troublesome. As many as can crowd into the corners of your eyes settle there, and continue biting till they are so sore that you can scarcely see. In a moment one will deposit a maggot inside the eyelid, which causes it to swell till it is almost as large as your fist: this is called the “blight,” and so injurious to the sight is it, that I am still suffering from its effects. I knew a man who lost all his eyelashes, and several who have lost their sight altogether, from this cause.

As we could do nothing here, we made up our minds to change our grounds for “luck,” and I went up to the Bendigo alone to “prospect” as it is called. On the way, the first night I walked till some time after dark, and then turned out of the road about a hundred yards (to camp), to avoid bushrangers or being trampled over by horsemen passing in the night. Rolling myself up in my blanket, I lay down in a low scrub: at dawn I was startled by the report of a double-gun, apparently near me: the first bullet entered the ground close to my head; jumping on my feet, a second tore up the earth a few yards off. I now found that my custom of camping after dark was a dangerous one. I had taken up my quarters, unknowingly, close to another party, who were discharging their fire-arms in the morning. I certainly could not reasonably blame them, although I did so in the heat of the moment.

I then cooked my breakfast and started. Arriving on page 65 the diggings, I found they were extended three miles nearer to town. Many people were suffering from dysentery, and water was scarce. All who could afford to do it were piling up their washing stuff, with the view of washing it out when the rainy season should set in; but there was evidently more gold being found here than in Forest Creek. The escort, too, was bringing down a greater quantity.

I hardly knew the Bendigo again, it was so much cut up. There was a rush to the “back creek,” so I went to see how it turned out; a few holes, and but few, did pretty well. One poor fellow rashly drove his hole all round, without employing supports, and the ground fell in and smothered him. There are a good many Chinese working along this creek. An unlucky store, which stood on the scene of the rush, was surrounded in four days with over a hundred holes twenty-five feet deep.

It is no uncommon thing to see a whole flat turned up in a single day. Some “coon” starts it by finding gold, or, at any rate, saying so, when the news spreads like wildfire. Next morning, at earliest dawn, hundreds are there with picks and shovels, marking out their claims. The knowing ones let a few near them bottom their holes before they commence; if these turn out well, then they go down with their own I have seen two hundred holes sunk in a day, from five to seven feet deep, one of which I sank myself, and not any of them turned out worth working.

There are also some of the “rowdy mob” here, who walk about the diggings with a pick and shovel on their shoulders, pretending to be prospecting. When they see a “new chum” doing well, and by himself, they walk up to him and say, “Come out of that hole, or I’ll drive the —-- pick through your head.” If the “new chum” is frightened, he gets out of his hole and runs off for the commissioner; upon which the other immediately takes his place, fills a sack with the best washing-stuff he can find, and decamps; and when the owner returns he finds he has been robbed.

One of these worthies on an occasion filled a gold-bag with shot and sent it down by the Escort Company; he page 66 then sold their receipt for a good round sum and decamped. Since then the company have opened and examined all the bags; but previously they used only to weigh and seal them up without opening.

On another occasion two brothers went to work in a hole which a couple of Irishmen had left, who however came sneaking round it every day to see how the new tenants were getting on. After a few days’ work they came across a rich pocket of gold; and when the Irishmen learned this, they immediately claimed the hole. Now, by law, if you are away from your hole twenty-four hours you cannot reclaim it; and the brothers naturally refused to give it up. The former owners went away threatening, and their successors loaded their guns up to the muzzle with small pieces of broken bottles, in expectation of an attack. The Paddies soon returned, with nine companions, all armed with shillelahs, and advanced on the brothers, when the latter raised their pieces and fired, killing one and wounding all the rest, who quickly beat a retreat.

I now returned to Forest Creek to report progress, satisfied that there was water enough here for several weeks, and we must trust to Providence for a further supply. Four men who were working in Sailors’ Gully, near us, agreed to accompany us to the Bendigo. They had a dray, which was a convenience to us, as they carried our tools and tent up, which we should otherwise have been obliged to dispose of.

A person of the name of R . . s, evidently a gentleman, also wished to go with us, to which we agreed, as the Bendigo diggings are suitable for persons working singly, being generally very shallow sinking. Such persons are humorously called “hatters.” They live alone, in a tent often not more than six feet long, three feet high, and three feet wide, and in many cases do better than parties of three or four. This Mr. R . . s told us that he had been educated for a Roman Catholic priest, but, falling in love with a young lady who had only her hand and heart to give him, he resolved to marry her. His aunt, who had brought him up, hearing of it, cast him off, and he went out to Australia to seek page 67 his fortune, accompanied by a younger brother, who however would not work with him at the diggings. He said he thought he should die here; but we tried to cheer him a little. He had no money, and we were nearly in the same state ourselves. He was attacked with diarrhœa on the night of our araival, and could not go to work for several days. We were not alarmed for him at first, but on the fourth day of his illness thought it necessary to call in a doctor, who immediately directed us not to sleep in the same tent with him any more. He did not know what the complaint was, but thought it a low kind of typhus fever; and prescribed brandy as the only thing likely to be of service: the pulse was scarcely perceptible, and the doctor held cut no hope of recovery. Our poor friend ate a mere nothing, perhaps a spoonful of arrowroot; and when we pressed him to take that, he said we were trying to murder him. About eleven o’clock we lay down in a tent close beside him, thinking he would want nothing till daylight, and no harm could possibly come to him. However, weak as he was, he got up in the night and walked to a tent in the neighbourhood, whose occupants he awoke by calling out “Fred! Fred!” the name of his brother. They thought, from his strange manner, that he was intoxicated, and gave him a pair of trousers, which he got on somehow or other, and walked down into the gully amongst the holes. At daylight we were astounded at finding him gone, as he was so weak that he could not sit up without support. We all started off in different directions, and at last found him sitting on the edge of a deep hole and shaking like an aspen, with his faithful little dog keeping watch beside him. We led him up to the tent, and did everything in our power for him. This was the first time for two days he had spoken coherently, and one of our mates went down on horseback to Forest Creek to fetch his brother.

At night the doctor came again, and said he would not live two hours: we watched beside him till about eleven, when he breathed his last, uttering the name of his brother. This was Friday night. His dog still kept watch beside him, and growled at us every time we went page 68 near the tent. On the following evening the brother arrived: he had not been properly prepared for the sad event, and on learning it he was so much overcome as to be unable to speak for a considerable time. Although our poor friend had only been dead about twenty hours, the flies had eaten holes in his face, and the heat of the climate was hastening decomposition.

On the morrow, being Sunday, we sewed him up in his winding-sheet, cut some sheets of bark and made a rude coffin, dug a grave, and followed him to his last home. We were obliged to tie up his dog to prevent him from following. Next day we put up some neat railings round the grave.

This event made us all miserable, so we changed our quarters, and went up to Napoleon Gully, so called from having been discovered by a Frenchman. Here we worked for two months, but did very little good. This was the most pleasant part of the country we had been in, offering plenty of opportunities for sport when we had time. On Sydney Flat, which was close to us, kangaroos came and fed in the early morning. On the Sundays we went out hunting wild dogs, &c., besides making immense slaughter amongst the opossums, pigeons, parrots, and quails, which formed our Sunday’s dinner.

Whilst we were here another murder occurred. A few tents from us dwelt a poor fellow who had been working with two mates for some time, when, having met with a turn of luck, he made up his mind to turn “hatter.” As the tent was his own, his mates left him, and next morning, being Sunday, they came over to breakfast with him and see how he liked being alone; but on drawing aside the door of the tent they were horrified at finding him dead, with a deep gash in his throat.

On the previous night the gold had been shared: his portion was of course gone, that being the object of the villain who had murdered him. It was observed that a man who had been selling grog on the sly had decamped during the night, and, suspicion instantly falling on him, he was searched for but never found.

A few days after this occurrence I met my former page 69 mate, W . . t, whom I had not seen since the first time I was on the diggings. He had been up to the Ovens diggings; but fortune had not favoured him, and he was pretty nearly hard up. He offered me a splendid pair of pistols in part payment for some money I had previously lent him, which in his present circumstances I would not accept, though, had he been better off, I should have taken them. He was then working as slaughterman to a butcher, which was an art he excelled in, having practised cutting up in an American whaler for ten years. He was a “down-easter,” and guessed a good deal and calculated still more.

Some bushrangers, observing his sanguinary genius, kindly offered to supply him with arms and ammunition, a horse and money, provided he would join them. This was certainly a strong temptation to a hard-up sailor, especially as they represented to him the jolly life they led; but he was wise enough to refuse. I was also asked to join in “sticking up” the escort, but of course declined.

Napoleon Gully swarms with snakes of every description, from the beautiful carpet-snake to the whip-snake and death-adder; whilst guanos, lizards, centipedes, and tarantulas abound.

The water is very bad here. Sometimes after washing dirt in a small stagnant water-hole we had to wait till twelve o’clock at night, when it settled a little, and then with a pannikin skim the water, which, though still muddy, was the best we could procure; at other times we had to fetch it a distance of three miles. So eager are the diggers after gold that every drop of water they can find is used for washing the dirt, which soon converts it into slush; and this they are obliged to drink.

Not liking to work for nothing, and seeing little prospect of doing any good without capital, I made up my mind to go to New Zealand; but circumstances afterwards induced me to change my plan and return to England. I found Melbourne in about the same state as when I was there before, only rather more crowded. Immigration was still going on at a fearful rate, and old gentlemen in spectacles, and other new arrivals, page 70 were seen sitting on their carpet-bags breaking stones on the road to the diggings, at twelve shillings and sixpence per day. Although working for government, they had not very hard taskmasters, and were not over-worked. I and two companions had an oyster-supper, eating a dozen each, for which we paid one pound sixteen shillings.

As the barque Emigrant stood first on the departure list, I took my passage in her. On the voyage we suffered a good deal from cold and hunger. The victualling was badly managed. We took thirty sheep on board; but, their hay falling short, seventeen were killed in one day, and much of the meat got putrid before we could eat it. We went down as low as 62° south latitude. Here we sailed between a lot of icebergs, and felt the cold very much after leaving a warm country like Australia.

Whilst hereabouts one of the cabins in the between-decks caught fire. This is an event that shews what kind of stuff a man is made of. It was some tune before we found out where the fire came from; when, however, its locality was discovered, some made themselves useful in fetching water, while others, totally helpless, sank down, sobbing violently.

In about 23° south latitude, when nearly out of provisions, we fortunately fell in with Her Majesty’s store-ship Tyne. From her we got three days’ allowance, which lasted us into Rio Janeiro, where we narrowly escaped being wrecked. Here we recruited ourselves with five days on shore. We went to the English consul, and laid a complaint before him. He said he could do nothing, but would see the ship properly stored before she went to sea again.

The Bombay was lying in this port, repairing damages which she had sustained in fouling an iceberg off Cape Horn about a month before. Since she had been here she had lost thirty passengers by yellow fever, which was still raging in the lower parts of the town and aboard the shipping.

We arrived at Rio de Janeiro on St. John’s eve, a great fěte-day with the Catholics. The town is situated on one side of a large bay, nearly surrounded with. lofty hills: page 71 directly opposite is Prah Grande, between which and Rio de Janeiro steamers ply all day long. As soon as it was dark fireworks shot up from all parts of the town, from the hills on both sides, and from the fort, which had a very pretty appearance from our anchorage.

We left here all well, with the exception of three who were suffering from dysentery, and two with yellow jaundice. We again fell short of food and firing, and had to beg provisions of three other vessels; however, we arrived safely in England in September, 1853, after a tedious voyage of nineteen weeks; and shortly afterwards I addressed the following communication to “The Times” newspaper, in the hope of calling attention to the state of society at the diggings, and to the necessity of further government supervision.

Reminiscences of a Gold-Digger.

Sir,

—I find that the gold mania, though partially subsided, has not by any means worn off; allow me, therefore, through the medium of your widely- circulating journal, to offer a few remarks to the public, which I feel bound to do as a returned digger. I think I can make myself better understood by drawing a parallel case.

Imagine a man tenderly nurtured, by birth and education a gentleman; unexpected events have reduced his fortune, and he is left to struggle with the world in poverty. He hears of the gold-fields, and thinks by a few years’ hard toil to put his family for ever above want. If married, he leaves his wife at home, and takes a passage to Melbourne. There he chooses a mate—he cannot work alone; perhaps this mate is a convict or a sailor, or perhaps a government emigrant: in either case he cannot converse with, cannot enter into his refined feelings; every sentence he utters is accompanied by an oath.

They go to the diggings; he must work hard, he must do as much work as the man who has been used to hard page 72 labour from infancy, or his mate will grumble; may be, with all his working, he cannot save enough to pay for his next gold-licence; the last has run out, and he is working in suspense without one; and if he is taken by the “traps,” he will be sent to prison handcuffed to a common felon.

He returns from his work dispirited and miserable, eats his supper, and rolls himself in his blanket on the ground, very likely with the rain pouring through on him for a whole night. He ponders on his melancholy situation; thoughts of home crowd into his head. His wife! He has not heard from her; she may be sick, or in poverty; she may be dead. Who knows? He despairs. People are being murdered around him, deaths are occurring, and dysentery has claimed many victims; he has watched them to their graves—nay, there is one close to his very tent. It is his turn now; a low fever is on him; he can eat nothing, his face is deathly white, and he gets paler every day. There is no one to attend on him; his mate thinks he is doing more than most people would if he simply makes him a pannikin of tea on returning from work. He is now reduced to a skeleton; but, hark! there are persons talking outside his tent; they are coldly calculating his chances of recovery—his own mate is one—and he hears them; delirium succeeds, the fever has reached its height. It is night; his lips are parched, but no kind hand is there to give him water; he lies on his back, his tongue swollen and lolling out of his mouth; his breath smells fearfully, his pulse scarcely beats at all.

At this crisis, perhaps, his mate will fetch a so-called doctor, one who has been unable to pass his examination at home, from incapacity; he feels his pulse, says it is so low that nothing but brandy can save him; he gives him brandy, adulterated with vitriol or brimstone. During the night, with the strength of delirium, he gets up and wanders out of his tent; the excitement wears off, and he sinks down on the wet ground, far from his camp. Unable to return, he lies there till morning, exposed to the dew of night and cold raw air, when he is discovered and led tottering back to his tent. His reason has returned; page 73 he knows he is about to die; but how prepared for death? He still hears the oaths and blasphemies of his companions; no man of God is there to lead him to repentance, no ministering angel to comfort him in his dying moments. But, hush! he tries to sit up, and half utters the name of wife; but the death-rattle meets it in his throat. One convulsive struggle and all is over; his spirit has passed into a better land, while none but a convict was present to catch his dying words.

Next day his mate buries him; perhaps not more than a foot of earth covers his corpse. Here he lies—no stone to mark his grave. His wife is a widow, but she never hears what has become of him.

I have known several cases of this kind, and also cases of murder, where the various parties have not been known by any other than their Christian names; consequently their friends could never gain any intelligence of them. I think some of your clever correspondents might be able to suggest some means of obviating this. There is a registry in Melbourne, where, by paying a small sum, you can register your name, occupation, &c., and they will answer any inquiries on the payment of a similar small sum by the querist Now, I think a registry ought to be a government concern.

I remain, Sir, yours obediently,


John Rochfort.


1, Bellina Villas, Kentish Town,
Oct. 26.
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