Past & Present, and Men of the Times: With Portrait of the Author and Other Illustrations |
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Adelaide afterwards arrived Arthur Orton asked Australia Baird Ballarat bank Batman boat Boyd brought bushrangers CALIFORNIA/SANTA CRUZ called Captain Barry cargo cattle chief mate colonists colony creek crew Cromwell crowd CRUZ The University diggers diggings Dunedin England flour gave gentlemen gold goldfields Government Governor hand harbour horses Indian John Batman Jones King Country land leave lecture letter look Lord Rivers Maori mate Melbourne miles miners months morning mules natives night nugget old friend once Otago party passengers Port Essington Port Phillip purchased Queenstown returned Robert Stout rode schooner sent settled settlers Shasta sheep ship shore Sir George Grey Smith sold soon South Wales station steamer Swan River Sydney Terry thought told took town trade trip UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA/SANTA vessel voyage wanted Wellington whaling wife WILLIAM JACKSON BARRY Winton Zealand
Popular passages
Page 115 - ... diggers prepare their evening meals. Everything is hushed for a time, except that a dull murmur rises from the little crowds chatting over their pannikins of tea. But, as the darkness draws closer around, the noises begin to assume a merrier tone, and, mingling pleasantly in the evening air, there rise the loud notes of a sailor's song, the merry jingle of a French political chant, or the rich strains of a German chorus. In some tents the miners sit round boxes or stools, while, by the light...
Page 114 - ... and here and there a little church rose among the long line of tents which occupied the slopes above the creek. " Below, on the flats, the scene was a busy one. Thousands upon thousands of holes covered the earth, where men emerged and disappeared like ants, each bearing a bag of sand which he either threw on a wheelbarrow or slung over his shoulder, and then carried forward, running nimbly along the thin paths among a multitude of holes, till he reached the little creek where he delivered the...
Page 32 - I lent a hand to build—a wattle-and-daub building as it was then called—rapidly growing in prosperity. At the end of 1838; John Batman had fixed his residence not far from the place now occupied by the Government Railway Station. Here he was seized by a violent cold, and, after being carefully nursed by one of his daughters, died without seeing more than the beginning of that settlement he had laboured so hard to found. Mr. Faukner lived at Emerald Hill, and saw the village, whose first house...
Page 3 - I believe — has remarked that " the life of any man, if written truly, would be interesting." I think so too ; every man has a story of his own, and something has happened to him that never happened to anybody else. This being so, and my record true, it may be interesting to people one hundred years hence to see what sort of folks we were at this date, how we lived, how we employed ourselves, and so on. On perusing the pages of my work, you may compare me to Charles Dickens's "Micawber...
Page 50 - Lofty range had been obliged, by the steepness of the road, to fasten a log at the back of his waggon, in order to steady the load and prevent its descending quickly. As the log dragged roughly behind on the road it tore gieat furrows in the soil, and in one of these the carrier noticed a stone which glanced and glittered like a metal. On looking around more closely he saw there were large quantities of the same substance lying near the surface of the earth in all directions. Having taken some specimens...
Page 117 - ... Scobie's head was split open with a spade. Whose hand it was that aimed the blow no one could tell ; but the diggers universally believed that Bentley was himself the murderer. He was therefore arrested and tried, but acquitted by Mr. Dewes, the magistrate, who was said by the diggers to be secretly his partner in business. A great crowd assembled round the hotel, and a digger, named Kennedy, addressed the multitude, in vigorous Scottish accents, pointing out the spot where their companion's...
Page 91 - ... On mentioning this to Mr. Turner, he offered to drive me there. We started with a pairhorse trap; I saw the little one and her guardian, and having completed my business, bid them adieu, and returned to the hotel and Mr. Turner. When I got there, I found a woman, a very good-looking person too, had followed me ; she appeared to be slightly under the influence of something stronger than tea. She bailed me up, and asked me if I was going to keep my promise and marry her?
Page 52 - ... who selected the northern half, called by the natives Burra-Burra. To the southern part the " nobs " gave the name of " Princess Royal." The companies soon became operations, but though the districts appeared on the surface to be of almost equal richness, yet, on being laid open, the Princess Royal ground was soon found to be in reality only poor, while the Burra-Burra mines provided fortunes for each of the fortunate "snobs.
Page 28 - Getting out their boat, they entered upon the stream which they saw before them; but, unfortunately, they turned up the wrong arm, and, after rowing many miles, were forced to turn back, the water all the way being salt and unfit for drinking. For this reason they called this stream the Saltwater ; but next morning they started again and tried the other branch.
Page 121 - Captain Wise, of the Fortieth Regiment, who received his death wound in the conflict. When the news of the struggle, and of its issue, was brought to Melbourne, the sympathies of the people were powerfully roused in favour of the diggers. A meeting, attended by about 5000 persons, was held near the Prince's Bridge, and a motion proposed by Mr. David Blair, in favour of the diggers, was carried almost unanimously. Similar meetings were held at Geelong and Sandhurst, so that there could be no doubt...