Merlin*/ 
 
 Pat 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING 
 
LAND-TRAVEL 
 
 SEA-FARING 
 
 MORLEY ROBERTS 
 
 AUTHOR OF " THE WESTERN AVERNUS," ETC 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY A. D. McCORMICK 
 
 Xondon 
 LAWRENCE AND BULLEN 
 
 169 New Bond Street, W. 
 1891 
 
 cJ 
 
 L ftr-i* 
 
Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, 
 london and bungay, 
 
DUI02. 
 
 Rg 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 Much of the material in this book has been 
 
 previously published, and I have to thank the 
 
 Editors of the Cornhill, Murray's Magazine, and 
 
 'the Field, for their kind permission to reprint 
 
 what appeared in their pages. 
 
 Morley Roberts. 
 
 October 28M, 1891. 
 
 M322241 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A STEERAGE PASSAGE ! 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 IN MELBOURNE CITY 32 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE MURRAY 49 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AT DORA DORA 59 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THROUGH THE BULL PLAINS 85 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE GREAT HEAT 108 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CARABOBLA AND YARRA YARRA Il8 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A THREE MONTHS' RIDE . . . . 1 32 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BURRAWANG 154 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 TOWARDS THE WILLANDRA 1 67 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE LAND OF SHEEP l8l 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HUNGER AT BULLIGAL CREEKS 214 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IN THE FOC'SLE 230 
 
LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 
 
 T was on a miserably 
 dull and sunless day, 
 in that Liverpool 
 which never looks 
 to me more than 
 barely cheerful even 
 in fine weather, that 
 I went on board the 
 Seringapatam, lying 
 in the Albert 'Dock, 
 as a steerage passenger to Melbourne. It was my 
 first flight into the outer world of which I have 
 since then seen so much, and being not yet nineteen 
 and tolerably inexperienced, the contrast between 
 what I had known, and the first aspect of what I 
 2" b 
 
2 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 was to know too well, was very grievous to me. 
 In spite of the fearful joys of that freedom for 
 which I had longed, I was almost ready to return to 
 my North-country home, though I would have died 
 sooner than confess it even to myself. 
 
 The quarters to be occupied by the steerage 
 passengers, who numbered about twenty, were in 
 the 'tween-decks abaft the mainmast, and when I 
 saw that ''steerage" might be adequately para- 
 phrased only by " Black Hole," I was sorry that I 
 had saved a portion of my money by adopting the 
 cheapest method of crossing half the world. I had 
 never suspected that I was to lie cheek by jowl, four 
 in a bunk, with unclean Irish emigrants of un- 
 savoury aspect and odour, nor that the flourishing 
 list of provisions named on the Passage Ticket 
 meant uneatable food and semi-starvation for one 
 hundred and two days of an unlucky, remarkable, 
 and extremely slow voyage. 
 
 Of the twenty men, women, and children who 
 were to be my companions for that long time, the 
 men were either helplessly drunk, or halfway at 
 least to that seemingly desired end, some being 
 irritatingly hilarious, some viciously quarrelsome, 
 and others maudlin and tearful. The deck beneath 
 one's feet in the narrow dark steerage was filthy, and 
 an oil-lamp of vile smell, hung overhead on a wire 
 hook, added most unnecessarily to the sickening 
 odour of mixed humanity, while drops of condensed 
 foul breath dropped from the deck above upon the 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 3 
 
 unclean tables, encumbered with bundles of clothes 
 and bursting portmanteaus which had last rested in 
 mud and slush on the damp wharves. The women, 
 who were for the most part unmistakably Irish, sat 
 in this den of discomfort either weeping and dis- 
 consolate, or else quarrelling feebly with their 
 dirty brats of children, who wailed or screamed 
 for ever without cessation ; while some few ate 
 bread and strong cheese, which contended, not 
 wholly in vain, with rival smells, and drank stale 
 beer out of long-necked spirit-bottles. It was 
 among such surroundings, with such companions, 
 that I was to pass nearly four months of my life, 
 and though I have suffered, toiled and starved in 
 many parts of the world since then, nothing that 
 I have seen or gone through can ever efface the 
 effect that the 'tween-decks of the Seringapatam 
 had upon me, when I crawled doubtfully down 
 the companion-ladder to survey my temporary 
 home. 
 
 Next to us of the steerage, and only divided from 
 it by a few rough boards and a doorway without a 
 door, was the second-class berth, in which I could 
 see three or four young men, more of my own class, 
 sitting in melancholy mood, as though they con- 
 sidered their lot little better than our own, in spite 
 of the higher fare they had paid. As it was among 
 these men that I usually lived, in spite of my being 
 a steerage passenger, I will devote a few words to 
 their description, histories, and character, which will 
 
 B 2 
 
4 LAND -TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 show that I had certainly come to a bright school 
 to learn rascality. 
 
 The first in my mind is a man named Broome, 
 whom I got to know extremely well before I 
 reached Australia, and with whom I lived for 
 many months in that country. He was about 
 twenty-seven, tall and very thin, but with broad 
 shoulders as square as the angle between a cow's 
 tail and her straight spine ; his eyes were a 
 beautiful bright blue, and on his pale cheeks blazed 
 two spots of hectic colour. He looked as if he were 
 dying, but he was, as a matter of fact, just recover- 
 ing from a long and severe illness. Whether he 
 had been sent on this voyage for the sake of his 
 health, or, as he said, because he had made his 
 native town too hot to hold him, I cannot say ; but 
 if his appearance suggested the one, his uncommon 
 recklessness, which, apparent at first, increased 
 immensely as he improved in health, made the 
 other at least as likely. But Broome was a 
 gentleman by manners and education, and as 
 such, stood a head and shoulders above his berth- 
 mates. 
 
 Next to him I remember an unmistakable English 
 cad, just one remove from an 'Arry, who always said 
 he was Mr. Jackson, if asked his name. He had 
 small nondescript-coloured eyes, no complexion, 
 large hands and feet, a vile London accent, and to 
 add to those original sins, he wore serge clothes of 
 the colour affected by low Italians round Saffron 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 5 
 
 Hill. I could pardon the effrontery with which he 
 told us that he was obliged to leave England be- 
 cause he had embezzled money from his employer 
 in order to take a trip to France, but I could never 
 forgive the hue of his garments. 
 
 A tall, fine-looking man of about thirty, named 
 Cotton, was with us, because he had, in his capacity 
 as agent for a Manchester house, ordered a quantity 
 of linen goods which he had sold for his own benefit. 
 It was due to the exertions of his family that he had 
 only been punished by exile, and not imprisonment. 
 
 There was also a consumptive pawnbroker's 
 assistant, named Beaumont, and Harry Salton, a 
 Yorkshireman, and a fine healthy specimen of a 
 country-bred Englishman. Beaumont was con- 
 sidered a criminal, and humorously called a 
 " fence," on account of his trade ; but Salton had 
 done nothing disgraceful, as far as could be learnt, 
 which was a sort of distinction in the second cabin, 
 where the only other man I have not named, 
 Harrison, was sent out of the country because, 
 having persistently refused to earn a living for 
 himself, he had managed to exist in a more dis- 
 graceful manner. If I never quite succeeded in 
 fitting myself for companionship on equal terms 
 with such as my new acquaintances, it is probably 
 owing to a natural obstinacy which inclines me to go 
 my own way towards good or towards evil ; but if I 
 had showed a little more plasticity and pliability of 
 character, I might have graduated as a first-class 
 
6 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 scoundrel in the shortest time on record, considering 
 the able coaches around me on all sides. 
 
 Our ship was still lying in the dock, where she 
 was to remain till early morning.) while I was in the 
 company of these young men, and when I got sick 
 both of them and the tainted atmosphere, I went 
 ashore to prowl round curiously in the lowest parts 
 of Back Goree, where the worst slums of Liverpool 
 are situated. The villainous faces of crimps and 
 loafers passed me as I hurried on, taking instinctive 
 care not to loiter or look about too much. Since 
 that day I have rambled in the evilest parts of 
 many great cities, and have rarely been molested so 
 long as I put on the air of having business in that 
 quarter, and looked as if I were going somewhere 
 in particular. Yet I wonder I did not fall a victim 
 to my rashness and undimmed natural verdure, 
 when I ventured, having much money on me, into 
 dens and drinking places that I should now never 
 think of entering unless in company with a police- 
 man or detective. But I was drawn on and 
 fascinated by the rampant disorder that I saw 
 round me. I passed down back alleys and courts, 
 and dimly-lighted slums, and standing in foul 
 doorways to let some hideous nocturnal procession 
 pass, I heard fouler language, and saw things and 
 faces that made my flesh crawl with horror. I 
 heard fights and oaths, and dreadful yells, and 
 sometimes the sound of broken glass and crockery 
 as a jug came through a dirt-grimed window and 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 7 
 
 struck the opposing obscene wall. When at last I 
 went on board ship, it was with a feeling of relief 
 and escape, and as I stumbled down the awkward 
 ladder into the reeking atmosphere of the 'tween- 
 decks, I was thankful even for that refuge from the 
 human animals beyond the high dock walls. Yes, 
 even though my three bunk companions were half 
 intoxicated and loathsome. By the dawn of day we 
 were at sea, behind a tug that steamed against half 
 a gale from the south-west. 
 
 Of our whole crew, only the captain, the two 
 mates and four apprentices were English, and the 
 remainder a queer motley conglomeration of 
 Hindoos, Malays, and Kroomen from Africa, who 
 outnumbered the white men, even when all the 
 passengers were counted in. For the Seringapatam 
 w T as a large full-rigged ship of more than 1,600 tons 
 register, and carried forty-five Lascars, where some 
 eighteen Englishmen would have been deemed 
 amply sufficient. We had all types of countenances 
 on board, from the finely-cut faces of some higher- 
 caste Hindoos to those possessed by poor inferior 
 fellows with whom they would not eat ; to the 
 semi- Papuan physiognomy of the Malays, and the 
 negrine character of the big-limbed Krooman. The 
 serang, or bo'son, of this various-coloured Calashee 
 crowd was a Malay of a short stout figure, with a 
 scant bristly brush of a moustache, and twinkling 
 black eyes, who soon got to know me so well, that 
 I often heard him demanding " Where Robert, 
 
8 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 where Robert ? " if he wanted me to help him in 
 deciphering the tallies of the sails in the sail locker, 
 when his want of knowledge of writing and the 
 impatience of the others left him helpless and 
 bewildered among a pile of pieces of wood which he 
 was to attach to the sails they named. The chief 
 steward was a Hindoo, with the most delicate clearly- 
 cut features I ever saw on a man, while his com- 
 plexion was comparatively light. Although very 
 small-boned and slender, he was strangely powerful 
 for his build, and could do tricks of strength with 
 his lady-like wrist and fingers which puzzled even 
 the biggest among us, and I dare say even the Kroo- 
 man, Tom, who was a negro Hercules, might have 
 found him no mean opponent. 
 
 I had plenty of opportunity for observation, for I 
 was not, indeed I never have been, sea-sick in the 
 least ; so while most of my new acquaintances were 
 groaning over their misdeeds in the truest re- 
 pentance they were ever likely to feel, I was able to 
 keep the decks with Broome, who, having been a 
 sailor for some years, was unaffected by the heavy 
 sea into which we dived close-hauled. For a 
 fortnight we had one breeze after another, and 
 •'breeze" in the sailor's sense of the word means 
 something extremely like a storm, for leaving 
 England in the last week in September, we got all 
 the cream of the equinoctial gales, enjoying at last 
 in the Bay of Biscay a real "snorter" for three 
 days, during which we were hove to under the 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 9 
 
 lower maintopsail. It was the first storm I had 
 ever seen at sea, and I so thoroughly delighted in 
 it, that no sooner did I get drenched through on 
 deck, than I went below to change my clothes only 
 in order that I might come up to be again soused 
 in the lee scuppers. The Seringapatam was a very 
 " wet ship," that is, she was very much inclined to 
 ship heavy seas, so when she rolled to windward 
 every now and again, one came on board and filled 
 tne main deck, while the water poured over the 
 fok'sle head like a cataract ; and if it took away the 
 scuttle there, as it sometimes did, the water rushed 
 through the men's quarters like a mill stream. But 
 my chief interest was naturally in the unfortunate 
 steerage, and not there. 
 
 When this gale had been blowing tremendously 
 hard for twenty-four hours, it blew much harder for 
 another twenty-four, and finally exhausted its 
 energy in a terrific burst, which did not then in the 
 least alarm me, as I was almost ignorant that it 
 really was a "living gale." But if I thought little 
 of it, the Irish men and women did not, and believed 
 their last hour was come, as they sat or kneeled, 
 praying, howling, screaming and wailing loud or low 
 in the intervals of sea-sickness, while the water 
 washed about on the dirty decks, and the chests, 
 breaking their lashings, threatened to brain those 
 who attempted to control their career. The 
 hatch above was kept closed, and by night and day 
 the oil-lamp swung to and fro, or round and round, 
 
io LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 dimly illuminating our den, the atmosphere of which 
 became closer and fouler yet than it was at the best 
 of times, while each roll or heavy pitch of the 
 labouring vessel was greeted with heartrending 
 howls of anguish, or groans of despair. The only 
 time I saw these folks take the least interest in what 
 any one else did or said was when I incurred the 
 wrath of two of the women. As I was coming 
 down below, and was just about to shut the door of 
 the booby-hatch, the vessel gave a very heavy lee 
 roll ; the lashings of the ladder parted, leaving 
 me swinging in the air, until a sea came over 
 the weather rail, and rushing down to leeward, 
 shut the door on the finger-nails of my right hand. 
 I let go, and on reaching the deck I swore, very 
 naturally as I think under the circumstances, con- 
 sidering that I was also wetted to the skin by the 
 water which came in on top of me ; but my excited 
 language roused the fiercest wrath of these two 
 devout Catholics, who screamed with horror at me 
 and vowed I should sink the ship. In calm weather 
 they did not mind far worse language in the least, 
 and their husbands and brothers swore on in 
 sunshine unreproved ; but now I had to retreat from 
 them into the second cabin and wait until they 
 calmed down, which they did not wholly do until it 
 was evident that the vessel was not sinking, and 
 that the gale was blowing itself out. 
 
 I was soon on very bad terms with some of the 
 men in the steerage, whose ways were naturally 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. ir 
 
 very displeasing to me, for my ideas of refinement 
 had not been acquired in a mud cabin along with a 
 pig. I dare say I was a little bumptious too, which 
 perhaps irritated them, but at any rate I was almost 
 always on the verge of a row with one or the other 
 of them. Hence I was naturally driven into the 
 second cabin, where men were whose notions of 
 cleanliness were more on a par with my own, or into 
 
 the company of the Lascars, who were always civil 
 and kind to me. I have sat for many hours in their 
 quarters, which did not smell as bad as my own, 
 even if there were some strange odours with which 
 I was unacquainted, talking and making signs to a 
 Malay or Hindoo, even making friends of one of 
 the big Kroomen, who, though possessed of the 
 finest physique on board, was lower in intelligence 
 than the lowest of the others. A few of them 
 
12 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 understood some English, and I gradually picked 
 up a little Hindostanee and a few Malay phrases ; 
 but my chief Oriental chum was a bright-eyed, 
 lithe-limbed lad from the French Indian Settlement, 
 who always went by the name of Pondicherry. He 
 could talk a sort of French very fluently, and as I 
 had some knowledge of that language, he would 
 interpret for or to me. I think I have been in few 
 stranger places than that fok'sle at night with the 
 dim light vaguely illuminating the swarthy faces 
 and the flashing eyes of that mixed Oriental crew, 
 as they sat round me smoking and talking gar- 
 rulously in a strange Babel of tongues and dialects, 
 w T hile my own figure and comparatively fair com- 
 plexion added, I dare say, to the interest of the 
 scene in a way I could not then comprehend, but 
 which now requires little imagination to conceive. 
 
 Pondicherry never got to understand how it was 
 I knew French, and often tried to make me explain ; 
 but my attempts simply added to his bewilderment. 
 My own impression is that he thought French was 
 a language only spoken at his native place, for he 
 was always trying to inveigle me into an acknow- 
 ledgment that I had been there, and when I denied 
 it, he shook his head mysteriously. 
 
 These men often offered me something to eat, 
 which, when it was not shark ten days old, I was 
 often glad enough to accept, for the steerage fare 
 was as insufficient in quantity as it was vile in 
 quality ; indeed, if it had not been occasionally 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 13 
 
 supplemented by the good-will of the Hindoo 
 cooks, or men, and a fair supply of hard biscuit, 
 which was the only thing I found always eatable, 
 I might have gone as hungry on board ship as I 
 have since been on the tramp in Australia or 
 America. 
 
 We had been forty-seven days out from Liver- 
 pool when we at last drifted over the line, for after 
 the final gale in the Bay of Biscay, we had 
 experienced nothing but light or contrary winds, 
 and the north-east trades were just at that season 
 conspicuous by their absence. Or if they blew, it 
 was only faintly. But when we caught the south 
 east trades, they, as if to make up for the short- 
 comings of the northern winds, blew almost 
 tempestuously, and we ran through their latitudes 
 under shortened canvas. When we commenced to 
 run our easting down and get to the southward of 
 the Cape, we began to have a lively time. It is only 
 a popular superstition that Cape Horn is the most 
 tempestuous place in the world, for although it 
 knows how to blow there and to blow tremendously 
 hard, the sea, even when it runs high, is always 
 comparatively regular. The Cape of Good Hope, or 
 ''the Cape" par excellence, has, however, a broken 
 choppy sea, owing to the various currents meeting 
 there, and the variability of the winds, which makes 
 it a far more dangerous place than its more feared 
 and colder brother promontory at the south of 
 America. Yet the cold to the southward cf the 
 
J4 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 Cape was severe enough as we rounded it, and some 
 of the Lascars, who feel such weather extremely, 
 hid themselves and refused to go aloft. They 
 were like the sergeant of the Black West Indian 
 Regiment who remarked to his officer that " it was 
 too cold for brave to-day," and some of those who 
 were smart and active when it was warm, were the 
 worse skulkers when the weather changed for the 
 worse. For though they clothed themselves with 
 every garment they possessed, until there was a 
 small quantity of Lascar to a large quantity of 
 clothing, they still shivered in a most extraordinary 
 manner. I remember it had been blowing hard all 
 one day from the south-west in heavy squalls, with 
 some sleet mingled with cold rain, and on going on 
 deck late in the evening I saw Mahomet, a rather 
 good-looking Hindoo, who had once offered me 
 some ancient shark which fairly took my breath 
 away, standing under the break of the poop looking 
 so cold and miserable that I thought, in spite of his 
 unaccustomed bulk, he was insufficiently clothed. 
 I asked him if it was so, and I found he had on two 
 coats, two waistcoats, and seven shirts, while over all 
 he wore his oilskins. 
 
 My friend Tom, the big Krooman, turned sulky 
 and refused to do any work, although exercise would 
 have kept him from being blue with cold. The 
 mate, Mr. Mackintosh, a regular old sea-dog, who 
 had been seventeen years before the mast before he 
 tnought of getting a second officer's certificate, had 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 
 
 J5 
 
 the man handcuffed and brought aft on the poop. 
 And poor Tom's endurance, if foolish, was really 
 splendid. He lay on the wheel-gratings without 
 shelter, and with no more clothing than shirt and 
 trousers, for four whole days, during which it some- 
 times snowed and oftener rained ; nor would the 
 officers allow him more covering lest he might elect 
 
 / / 
 
 to stay there if he were made too comfortable. He 
 had nothing given him to eat but biscuits, and he 
 drank only water ; but still he would not return to 
 work. On the third day the captain, who was by 
 no means a brutal man, offered to release him if he 
 would only condescend to go into the sail locker and 
 make sinnet (a kind of plait made of rope yarns). I 
 
16 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 was standing near, pitying the poor devil, and hoped 
 he would take the offer. But no ; Tom shook his 
 head, he would do nothing. At last, in the evening 
 of the fourth day he caved in, for the night looked 
 as if it would be bitterly cold, and he was assisted 
 forward to his bunk, where some hot coffee was 
 given him. It had been pitiful to see that huge 
 black Hercules, lying there curled up in an animal- 
 like bunch, with bis skin turned a sort of dull blue, 
 shivering violently, but as firm and obstinate as 
 adamant in making a martyr of himself, although it 
 was difficult to see what other course could be 
 taken with him, considering that if he had beaten 
 the officers, the others, who were only too ready to 
 skulk, would have imitated his example. Yet I 
 used to wonder what thoughts were passing through 
 his thick skull when I was on the poop at night and 
 saw him there, for when I said to him quietly, 
 " Tom, go to work and don't be a fool," he only 
 looked at me dully, shrugged his tremendous 
 shoulders, and shivered until I gave him a piece of 
 tobacco. But he bore no malice to the officers for 
 what they had done, and when the weather became 
 warmer he was as fine and willing a worker as any 
 on the ship. 
 
 The Lascars behaved very differently from Tom, 
 and not having the courage to absolutely refuse to 
 do anything, they tried malingering or shamming. 
 Sometimes they deceived the captain ; but more 
 often the sight of the dreadful dose of castor-oil. 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 17 
 
 which was his universal remedy in suspected cases, 
 restored them to sudden health and vigour. It was 
 only the very determined ones who had the courage 
 to swallow the nauseous dose, even although they 
 were ensured a few idle hours by taking it. 
 
 Few incidents of importance occurred from the 
 time we were w r ell to the eastward of the Cape, until 
 we were south of Cape Leeuwin, the most westerly 
 point of the great Australian Bight, beyond a few 
 rows among us in the steerage, which was 
 becoming, for unspeakable reasons, almost unin- 
 habitable by a person of any cleanliness, and the 
 broaching of the cargo by the second-class 
 passengers, who, by drawing some nails with great 
 skill, managed to steal several cases of the finest 
 Irish whiskey. 
 
 Strange as it may seem from what occurred off 
 the Leeuwin, our captain was a total abstainer. 
 But to make up for this sobriety, his wife, a fine 
 handsome woman she was, invariably took too 
 much to drink when it blew heavily, and increased 
 her doses in proportion to the violence of the storm. 
 Thus she was, as we often remarked, a registering 
 barometer, that did not foretell heavy weather, but 
 only recorded it, and her being moderately excited 
 with liquor indicated that it was blowing a stiff 
 breeze, while her wild appearance and staggering 
 gait were sufficient, without any other evidence of 
 the senses, to show that we were under storm 
 canvas. But never until the gale off the Leeuwin 
 
 c 
 
18 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 did she entirely lose control over herself and finally 
 become insensible, which shows that the weather 
 there surpassed in violence anything we had 
 experienced in the Bay or off the Cape of Good 
 Hope. And indeed this was so. 
 
 It had been Mr. Mackintosh's middle watch 
 
 that night, and not liking the look of the weather, 
 
 he took in some of the lighter canvas just before he 
 
 went below at four o'clock. The second mate, Mr. 
 
 Ladd, although the weather grew worse yet, did 
 
 not shorten sail further, and when the captain came 
 
 on deck he ordered those sails to be set which 
 
 Mackintosh had stowed four hours previously. 
 
 The second officer stared a little when he received 
 
 his superior's orders, but of course said nothing, 
 
 although the wind was now coming in heavy puffs 
 
 from the west, and the sea was rising rapidly. By 
 
 this time, from my own experience and from the 
 
 face of Ladd, I could see we were probably in for 
 
 a heavy gale, and boy-like, I was pleased at the 
 
 prospect. For within certain limits a storm at sea 
 
 always exhilarates me in a most marked degree, and 
 
 I am never so merry as when it blows hard. This, 
 
 too, promised to be a sight worth seeing, for there 
 
 was no sign of rain, and the sky was not quite 
 
 overclouded until noon, by which time the wind was 
 
 reaching its maximum. During the first few hours 
 
 the sun shone brightly through the drifting clouds ; 
 
 the waves rose higher and higher, yet in great blue 
 
 masses tipped with foam that suddenly dropped, as 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 19 
 
 if their foundations had been instantly rent away, to 
 leave great hollows and swirls coloured light blue 
 and green where the foam-bubbles and driven air 
 mingled with the purer blue ; while down the 
 leeward side of the vast valleys ran thin ribands of 
 white, and to windward the gale drew, as it were, a 
 brush across the lifted wall, marking it with bands, 
 notching it here and there, and at the summit 
 turning it to pure white and foam-smoke, that 
 streamed out on the level wind. 
 
 At eight o'clock Mr. Mackintosh came on deck 
 again, and as he stood near me I could see he was 
 angry at the conduct of the captain. I suppose 
 Ladd told him what had happened, for he only 
 greeted his superior officer with a rather surly 
 " good morning," and made no remark to him. 
 With the skipper on deck taking an interest in 
 matters, it was no part of his duty to shorten sail, 
 and within a quarter of an hour it was beyond any 
 one's power to again furl the sails he had taken in 
 at first, for the skysail and three royals suddenly 
 disappeared, leaving only a few fragments attached 
 to the yards. Every one who was on deck 
 expected to hear the order to shorten sail, but our 
 unmoved skipper hardly took notice of what was 
 happening, and walked up and down the poop, 
 smoking his pipe in the most undisturbed manner. 
 I am almost afraid that sailors will not believe that 
 any one in command of a big vessel could act as he 
 did, but I am ready to vouch for the truth of every 
 
2 o LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 word I set down here, and can even bring 
 corroborative evidence. For not one sail did the 
 captain order to be stowed save the mainsail, which 
 was driving her almost under the water. That was 
 taken in with infinite labour at ten o'clock, but 
 though the force of the wind momentarily increased 
 until it blew a hurricane, he never even tried to 
 reef the topsails before they went. Before that, the 
 three topgallant sails vanished one by one, and then 
 two of the three upper topsails were blown out of 
 their bolt-ropes with a report like thunder, and 
 inside of half an hour the mizen and main lower 
 topsails followed suit. Then the crojack sheets 
 parted, and the crojack flogging the yard in ribbons. 
 The only sail we saved in fair condition was the 
 upper main topsail, and that the two mates, the 
 Serang, two quarter-masters, Broome, Salton and 
 myself took in. For by this time I was quite 
 accustomed to go aloft, and we volunteered because 
 most of the Lascars and Malays were fairly 
 frightened and would not leave the deck. They 
 stowed themselves away in every hole and corner 
 they could find, and out of forty-five there were only 
 three in the topsail yard with us. 
 
 I have said it was blowing a hurricane, and I 
 mean what I say. Since then I have seen it blow 
 hard, and I had known some bad weather, as I 
 have said, in the Bay and off the Cape ; but this 
 fairly came out ahead of anything I have ever 
 known for violence, though it scarcely rained during 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 21 
 
 the whole thirty-six hours it lasted, and still 
 remained warm. The torn and driven sea, under 
 the rainless canopy of low drifting clouds, was 
 cruel and ghastly to look at, and the waves were as 
 big as the rollers off the Horn. When I went up 
 aloft I had nothing on but an old cap, a cotton 
 shirt and a pair of old trousers ; but when I came 
 down I was minus the shirt, for it had been ripped 
 into pieces which struck me about the face, until I 
 had assisted the wind with my hands and got rid of 
 it, and my cap, which blew off and went so far that 
 I did not see it drop. We were up aloft for two 
 hours, and though the sea ran heavier and heavier, 
 and the rolling and pitching of the vessel increased 
 more and more, I dare to say that I still found it 
 very interesting. As we tugged at the bellying sail 
 that stretched out in front of us as stiff as a board, I 
 found time at intervals to cast a look down upon the 
 raging gulf below, and the narrow wet deck which 
 was sometimes beneath us and then suddenly to our 
 right or left. As we pitched, the water came in 
 over the bows and poured in a white and green 
 cataract over the fok'sle head ; as we rolled, it came 
 in great masses over the rail, until it filled up the 
 main deck and escaped through the stove-in main deck 
 ports and scupper holes. Sometimes the following 
 sea even overtook and pooped us, that is, came in 
 over the stern, and poured down on the main deck. 
 It was fortunate for us that we did not injure or 
 lose our rudder, for if we had come broadside on to 
 
22 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 the wind, it would have been good-bye for all of us. 
 When we had the topsail stowed in some sort of a 
 fashion we went down and got some whiskey, for, 
 strange to say, our -teetotal captain let us have as 
 much as we wanted. And some of us appeared to 
 want a great deal, for about three o'clock, 
 Mackintosh, Ladd, Salton and Broome were all 
 very drunk indeed. It may appear invidious of me 
 to claim the distinction of being the only tolerably 
 sober man among those who did any work, but as a 
 matter of fact this was so, for even the apprentices 
 were " half-seas over." 
 
 Shortly after four o'clock I quitted the deck for 
 a little while to put on another coat, and came up 
 again in less than five minutes to see Mr. Ladd 
 sitting in the main hatch, smothered in blood. I 
 ran to him in great alarm and asked what the 
 matter was. He emitted a tremendous volley of 
 oaths, and ended by roaring, " Mutiny ! mutiny ! " 
 I left him and went forward. Just by the cook's 
 galley I met Mr. Mackintosh, in a worse plight, if 
 possible, than the second officer, for the blood was 
 streaming from a cut in his head, one eye was quite 
 closed up, and the rest of his face was hardly to be 
 distinguished. He too was swearing, and, holding 
 on to the deckhouse, he likewise roared " Mutiny ! " 
 I caught his arm, guided him to the main hatch, 
 where a sea presently washed over them, and ran to 
 meet Salton and Broome, who were coming forward, 
 telling them what I had gathered vaguely, that the 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 25 
 
 mates had gone into the fok'sle to turn the men out 
 to work and had got severely thrashed for their 
 pains. We all looked at each other and at the 
 Lascars, who were standing in a crowd at the port 
 door of the fok'sle armed with handspikes and 
 belaying-pins, and without further enquiry Broome 
 rushed into the cook's galley on one side, seized a 
 long carving-knife, and emerged from the other 
 uttering a howl like a fiend's. Salton produced a 
 sixshooter, and I, not to be behind-hand, grabbed 
 an iron belaying-pin. I had no distinct notion of 
 what we were to do, but I followed Broome, who 
 sprang into the fok'sle at a bound. There were 
 some forty men inside, and we were three ; but I 
 verily believe Broome would have charged an army 
 at that moment, and our audacity carried the day. 
 To say the Lascars ran like sheep would be to put 
 it mildly ; for they yelled with terror, and fled like 
 smoke before the wind. In half a minute they were 
 crowded on the deck outside. Broome was threat- 
 ening to have the life of any one who murmured, 
 and Salton made first one and then the other cower 
 and shrink by pointing his sixshooter at him. I 
 came near getting my skull cracked, and was hit 
 slightly on the shoulder. But when I was in the 
 open again I recovered some slight degree of 
 common sense, and rushed off for the captain. 
 Surely the man was the strangest mixture of 
 courage and cowardice I ever saw, for though he 
 was white and almost trembling, he came forward 
 
26 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 without a weapon. We were both knocked down 
 by a sea close to the main hatch, where the mates 
 were still sitting, but when we picked ourselves up, 
 we went towards the crew. The captain ordered 
 them into the fok'sle again, and they went like 
 lambs, for Salton joined in with his weapon. Then 
 he commanded Broome to put down his knife. No, 
 he would do nothing of the sort, but danced a kind 
 of wild war-dance on the forehatch, vowing he would 
 have blood for blood, while his cheeks blazed with 
 two red spots and his bright eyes glared most 
 wonderfully. Then the skipper told Salton to take 
 the knife away. Harry suggested he should do it 
 himself. Meanwhile I was edging up to Broome 
 and put in a word, for I had a great deal of 
 influence over him when he was mad like that, as I 
 afterwards proved often and often in Melbourne. 
 But he would not listen, and still flourished the 
 knife. Now I don't know whether it was brave of 
 me or only foolhardy, but I got behind him, put my 
 arm round his neck and pulled him over backwards. 
 The knife flew out of his grasp and was picked up, 
 and when Broome was picked up too, he showed no 
 irritation at the way I had served him. Then the 
 captain commanded. Salton to give up his weapon, 
 which he promptly and most decidedly declined 
 doing. As no one would volunteer to face the 
 battery, the captain adopted another course, and 
 told Salton to see that every one went below. He 
 was very proud of his deputed authority, and I, 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 27 
 
 having no wish to be pent up in the foul 'tween- 
 decks until it pleased me to go there, had to jump up 
 aloft to get out of his way. Then the captain and I 
 escorted the mates to their respective bunks, and all 
 was quiet except the gale, which was now at its 
 height. I stood under the break of the poop and 
 watched it for some time. It was now past five 
 o'clock. 
 
 The sea was a wonderful sight, and the ship, as it 
 drove through the waves with most of its sails torn 
 in fragments, which whipped and knotted them- 
 selves into ropes on the yards, seemed like a flying 
 creature tormented by strong invisible hands. The 
 decks of the Seringapatam were continually full of 
 water, and the main deck ports having been wrenched 
 and beaten out, it was hazardous in the extreme to 
 venture forward. Yet at such a time the captain's 
 wife and the young girl passenger came out of the 
 saloon on to the main deck. 
 
 Mrs. was as pale as death ; the girl was 
 
 flushed fiery red ; both were most disgracefully 
 intoxicated and could scarcely stand. I was really 
 shocked beyond measure and ashamed ; but being 
 the only person then on the main deck, I did not 
 think it right to allow them to stay in a place where 
 even a sober man was in danger ; so I opened the 
 saloon door and pushed the girl in first, and after 
 her the captain's wife, who fell down, and for a 
 moment prevented me shutting the door. Just at 
 that moment a heavy sea came on board and poured 
 
28 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 into the open saloon, thoroughly drenching the two 
 women. I rolled the eldest in unceremoniously, and 
 jamming the door to, left them struggling to rise. 
 
 I have got so far in the narrative, and in spite of 
 what I said some pages back about my fearing lest 
 some should disbelieve me, I have now to relate 
 something still more incredible even to myself as I 
 recall it, than any thing that I have yet written. 
 Perhaps it is not quite impossible that a captain 
 should obstinately stand to lose almost a whole suit 
 of sails, although it is foolish enough, but that the 
 same man should go below, when both his officers 
 were drunk and incapable, and leave his ship to the 
 care of the carpenter, who was not a sailor, seems 
 like a fable. And yet it is just this that our skipper 
 did. He ordered " Chips " to stay on deck from 
 eight to twelve, and call him at midnight, and then 
 coolly went below and turned in. At midnight the 
 man duly summoned the captain, who did not turn 
 out, and without waiting to be relieved, went to his 
 bunk. Thus from twelve till two there was nobody 
 on deck but the men at the wheel, for the Lascar 
 whose look-out it was remained in the fok'sle, taking 
 advantage of there being no officer of the watch. 
 And we nearly paid a dreadful penalty for the 
 criminal negligence our commander displayed. At 
 three bells, or half-past one, the helmsmen were so 
 near losing control over the vessel, that she almost 
 came broadside on to the waves, and shipped a 
 tremendous sea on the starboard side, as if the 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 29 
 
 whole ocean were coming on board. I heard a 
 terrific shock over my head, and then the rush and 
 roar of the water as it washed over the rail, and 
 poured down through every crack in the hatch into 
 the 'tween-decks. It was some ten minutes before 
 she cleared herself sufficiently of the sea for us to get 
 on deck, and then we could see what had happened. 
 The after boat on the starboard side, which had 
 been lifted some ten feet above our heads by 
 " skids " or " strongbacks," was lying on the deck 
 in fragments, and the skids were smashed and 
 splintered as well. Some well lashed 400-gallon. 
 tanks had disappeared overboard and with them the 
 harness casks where the salt meat was kept ; a kind 
 of bridge, running from the poop towards the main- 
 mast, which carried a large standard compass, had 
 gone too, together with its valuable burden, and 
 some of the iron stanchions, which were beaten and 
 twisted out of all shape. The brass rail on the 
 starboard side of the poop was gone, and the box 
 where the signalling flags were kept. It was only 
 the task of a moment to take this in with the eye, 
 for there were loud bellows for help from the mate's 
 berth. It seems that the wreck of the boat had 
 been launched against his windows, staving them in, 
 and admitting sufficient water to fill the berth up 
 above the level of the highest bunk. The cold bath 
 had roused him from his drunken slumbers, and he, 
 fearing to be drowned like a rat in his hole, was im- 
 ploring aid from all and sundry to help him to open 
 
30 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 his door, which was jammed hard by the great 
 weight of water inside. It took three of us to 
 release him, and then we went into the saloon, 
 which was fairly afloat, for one of the doors had 
 been burst open by the same sea. It was a 
 melancholy sight and not a little disgusting, for the 
 captain's wife was sitting in pronounced deshabille, 
 in a foot of water, vowing she should be drowned, 
 and imploring us to dive in, so to speak, and bring 
 her to dry land. As for the captain, he was now 
 on deck. 
 
 In the early morning, when I went up, although it 
 was still blowing fairly hard, it was no longer a 
 tempest, and the sea was rapidly subsiding. But 
 the vessel looked a wreck, even if she had lost no 
 spars, with the torn sails, the flying gear, the broken 
 skids, and stove-in ports, while the second mate 
 looked worse yet, being ornamented with two black 
 eyes and innumerable scars. He grinned at me in 
 a somewhat shamefaced manner, but said little. 
 When Mr. Mackintosh came on deck I could have 
 roared with laughter to see the two together eying 
 each other as if to say, " He's rather worse than I 
 am myself," and as if calculating how much 
 difference in value there might be between two 
 badly swelled lips and a nose apparently knocked 
 on one side. But the Lascars, the very men who 
 had beaten these two for trying to get them to work 
 the day before, were now as obsequious as slaves, 
 and hurried to do the bidding of their officers, 
 
A STEERAGE PASSAGE. 31 
 
 without a smile on their faces, although I dare say 
 they chuckled inwardly at the aspect of their 
 superiors. I never knew if the captain reprimanded 
 them, but I think not, as he was to blame for 
 allowing every one to drink as much as he pleased, 
 nor was his own conduct extremely praiseworthy, 
 as any one, I think, will allow. 
 
 From that time forward, until we reached 
 Melbourne, a fortnight later, everything went 
 smoothly. There were no more rows and no more 
 
 drinking matches. Mrs. came on deck as 
 
 calmly as ever ; the young passenger behaved as 
 usual, the captain was as silent and quiet as before. 
 And as for us, we prayed for land, without knowing 
 what we were to suffer when we got there. For 
 myself, I confess to feeling a strange chilliness about 
 the heart when we anchored in Hobson's Bay and 
 saw before us the distant city of Melbourne in the 
 dust- coloured land which was to be our new home, 
 and as I paced the decks of the Seringapatam for 
 the last time, I was almost sorry to think that the 
 assurance of daily victuals and nightly lodging, 
 though both were vile, had come to an end, and 
 that I was to shift for myself, like a young bear 
 with all my troubles before me. And certainly there 
 were many to come. 
 
CHAPTER II, 
 
 IN MELBOURNE CITY. 
 
 I was just nineteen when I landed in Melbourne, 
 and my stock in trade to succeed in life there was 
 twenty-five pounds, a pair of hands, a good consti- 
 tution and a general greenness which my ex- 
 periences on board the Seringapatam had done but 
 little to mitigate. And of course I had a batch, of 
 letters of introduction which did me one service at 
 least, by ridding me of the illusion that the average 
 man will go an inch out of his way to help a 
 stranger. The only service rendered me was by a 
 bookseller in a large way of business. He recom- 
 mended me to lodge at the house of one of his 
 clerks who lived at Emerald Hill, a suburb of 
 Melbourne, thus killing two birds with one stone. 
 
 Most of my chums on board the vessel disap- 
 peared from my view at once. Roland and the 
 
IN MELBOURNE CITY. 33 
 
 Yorkshireman went off to Geelong, where an English 
 cricketing eleven was then playing one of the games 
 in the first series of Inter-Colonial cricket matches. 
 Cotton came ashore with ten pounds and spent it in 
 two days on champagne and wild debauchery, starting 
 on the third clay to beg. Meeting me in Eliza- 
 beth Street he solicited a loan of a few shillings, 
 being already on the downward path as far as his 
 carefully tended personal appearance went. I gave 
 him half-a-crown and some virtuous advice which he 
 swallowed for the sake of the piece of silver. I did 
 not see him for a week, and then he was glad to be 
 lectured by a boy of nineteen for the sake of the 
 sixpence which meant a " nobbier" of spirits. In 
 the meantime I spent three days at Ballarat, as I 
 hoped to obtain some work there from a man to 
 whom I had a letter which promised more than the 
 perfunctory business epistles I had brought from 
 Manchester. But times in that bright, wide- 
 streeted city of alluvial mines were not so brilliant 
 as the sunshine : resembling rather the sombre 
 foliage of the Australian forests I first marked on 
 my hundred-mile railroad journey thither. I was 
 kindly treated, but returned on the fourth day to 
 my Emerald Hill home. 
 
 For some ten days I amused myself plodding 
 about the city which untravelled colonials deem the 
 finest in the world ; I went down to Sandridge, 
 visiting the Seringapatam to chat with the officers 
 and the Malay bo'son ; in the evenings I went to an 
 
 D 
 
34 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 occasional theatre, or spent an hour in the library in 
 Swanston Street ; the only thing I did not do was to 
 look for work. And the necessity for that came 
 earlier than it otherwise would have done when I 
 met Roland and found him as he said " on his beam 
 ends," without any money. He asked for some 
 promptly, and got it from me without any re- 
 luctance. His appearance, his charm of manner, 
 his real beauty, his experience of life, had a curious 
 glamour for me. Even though I could not but be 
 aware that his vivid imagination played tricks with 
 the truth, it was with difficulty I refrained from 
 believing his wildest and most improbable stories. 
 He had that natural gift of convincing, which is the 
 real charm of fiction : he believed himself. Our 
 friendship increased with his necessity ; finally I left 
 my suburban lodging, and came to live with him in 
 Queen Street, where I henceforth paid the bills. 
 And though I had been almost penurious in my 
 own expenses, my twenty-five pounds had by this 
 dwindled to about five. When that was gone the 
 necessity for work stared us in the face. But for 
 labour of any kind Roland had an unconquerable 
 aversion. He declared that he knew what it was, 
 and infinitely preferred to defer the evil day by 
 pawning everything he and I possessed. I for my 
 part having never done any hard work was not so 
 keenly set against it as I am now, and daily 
 implored him to try it again. 
 
 One day when this pawnbroking business of ours 
 
IN MELBOURNE CITY. 35 
 
 had almost run out, when even our empty port- 
 manteaus were got rid of as useless incumbrances to 
 our small bedroom, Roland and I met a friend of 
 his from Leeds. Regardless of bystanders they 
 danced a wild dance of greeting on the pavement, 
 and then subsided into an animated series of 
 questions. Tom had been in the colonies for four 
 years, and after working up country on the 
 Murrumbidgee, had come down to town with a 
 cheque and some notion of returning home to 
 become respectable. But Melbourne had been too 
 much for him, and now he was working in the 
 goods sheds of the Government Railway in Spencer 
 Street, making six shillings a day for eight hours' 
 work. It was there and then decided that we 
 should also apply for work at the same place. Tom 
 said that the timekeeper who hired the men each 
 day was an Englishman, and very good to country- 
 men of his who were " dead broke," as he himself 
 had been in the same condition. I found out 
 afterwards that this railway was a kind of refuge 
 for the destitute. Very many young Englishmen 
 of good education worked there for a time. 
 
 That night I met a man who had been, like 
 myself, an Owens College student in Manchester. 
 He knew several friends of mine intimately, and 
 though I had never met him in England his name 
 and doings were quite familiar to me. He was a 
 man of brains, but as I saw him seated on a table in 
 a most disreputable drinking place, he looked very 
 
 D 2 
 
36 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 far on the road to rain. He had been through a 
 course of terrible debauchery at home, and showed 
 no signs of reformation now. A great reader, he 
 had an almost unexampled acquaintance with all 
 that is vile in literature from Aretino upwards and 
 downwards, and his conversation was full of 
 reflected lights from this foul stream. He was 
 going, so he said, to Tasmania as classical master 
 in one of the best schools there. As I knew that 
 he was not a very good classical scholar I looked 
 somewhat surprised. He smiled as he noticed it, 
 and instantly produced from bulging side pockets 
 Roman after Roman in Giles's word-for-word 
 translations. He told me with a chuckle that he 
 believed he had a corner in this particular article, 
 for he had bought every second-hand copy in the 
 market. It seemed hardly likely that he would 
 make his mark as a master. I never heard how he 
 succeeded or what became of him after we parted 
 that night. The next day I had plenty of other 
 things to think of, for I did some hard work for 
 the first time. 
 
 Roland, Tom, and I went down in the morning 
 to the goods sheds, and took our places in a long 
 double line of men waiting to be hired. The job 
 was essentially day work ; employment one day by 
 no means implied employment on that following. 
 So Roland and I would have stood almost as good 
 a chance as Tom even if I had not had the enter- 
 prise to speak to the timekeeper beforehand. So 
 
IN MELBOURNE CITY. 57 
 
 fortunately we were all three taken on and were 
 made sure of at least six shillings if we could stand 
 eight hours' work. As the timekeeper beckoned 
 to me and I walked out of the long ranks of some 
 three hundred men, something of the same curious 
 feeling came over me that I had felt when I first 
 saw the brown and barren land about Cape Otway 
 from the deck of the Seringapatam. I was going to 
 
 learn something new, and nervously doubted my 
 strength and even my courage. 
 
 I was parted from Tom and Roland. They 
 worked inside the shed. I was put outside on a 
 platform where iron rods, machinery, bridge 
 materials, tin plates, pig iron and fencing wire, were 
 loaded for the upper country. We worked in gangs 
 of four, two standing inside the truck to stow what 
 the other two handed them. To my delight I 
 
38 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 found I was almost as strong as any of my new 
 mates, and saw that with a little experience and 
 harder hands I should do very well. Fortunately 
 the work I had done on board the vessel had 
 toughened me in some measure, so no one com- 
 plained that I did not do my fair share of the job. 
 Though by night I was of course very stiff and 
 tired, I was curiously pleased with the know- 
 ledge that I really could earn my living with my 
 hands. I had some of the conceit taken out of me 
 next day when I found a difficulty in getting out 
 of bed. Roland, who had come home grunting 
 dolorously, was only too happy to persuade me that 
 neither of us could work that day, and a watch, the 
 last pawnable thing I had hung on to, enabled us 
 to take a few days' more holiday. I admit I was 
 nothing loth; but when it became urgent to work 
 again I had to explain to the timekeeper that the 
 first hard labour in my life had incapacitated 
 me for awhile. Henceforward for three months 
 I worked as regularly as possible ; the only days 
 I missed were those on which I was not hired. 
 
 During this period I handled all kinds of heavy 
 merchandise, from pig iron to wheat, from 
 thrashing machines to salt. Sometimes I worked 
 in the sheds where beer and spirits were shipped, 
 and saw the curious tricks men will use to get 
 liquor without paying for it. Sometimes my mates 
 purposely slung a cask of bottles of beer badly in 
 order that it might slip and get stove in. Then 
 
IN MELBOURNE CITY. 
 
 39 
 
 they hid some of the bottles in piles of straw. 
 Setting others to watch the man in charge they 
 sometimes deliberately knocked the head out. I 
 have often seen men lift up a small case of whisky 
 and drop it on the stone floor. 
 One of the bottles was sure to 
 break, and then the escaping 
 spirit was drunk as it trickled 
 from the corner of the case held 
 above the mouth. If any one 
 got drunk he was discharged, 
 but this seldom happened to 
 the worst thieves, as they were 
 experienced drinkers. As I drank 
 very little at any time I never 
 got into trouble, and liked work- 
 ing there, as the lifting was not 
 so heavy as in the grain shed. 
 
 My companions were an odd mixture. Of course, 
 they were mostly ordinary working men ; but at 
 times I got in a gang with educated young men, the 
 ne'er-do-wells of very respectable families. Two 
 sons of a consul-general often piled wheat with me ; 
 sometimes Tom was in my gang ; and then I might 
 get put with ruffians of the lowest order. Yet there 
 was rarely any trouble, and in this my first 
 experience I found it as easy to get on with such as 
 I have done since. But some of the " gentlemen" 
 had a bad time of it until they learnt only modesty 
 could compensate for want of knack or strength or 
 
40 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 knowledge, and that respect among a crowd of 
 democratic workers can only be earned. 
 
 During these months I was very fairly happy, 
 and though I found continuous hard work by no 
 means delightful, the pleasure of being idle in the 
 evening was the more acute. It was only when I 
 unloaded firewood and had to spend all my leisure 
 time in the surgical extraction of splinters that I was 
 really miserable. I cared nothing for the burning 
 heat of that late summer, and worked even better 
 in it than those who were more accustomed to the 
 climate. Even a bitter black sandstorm, which 
 drove us from work and sent me for shelter into a 
 great tube that now makes part of the Echuca and 
 Deniliquin bridge, was a new experience, and on 
 account of its strangeness pleasant. As I grew 
 hardened and knew my strength better I shirked no 
 heavy lifting and was more than an average worker 
 among the hundreds there. I began to get 
 courageous, the town palled on me, the mystery of 
 the up-country life enticed me. I began to plan 
 leaving Melbourne. 
 
 For our pleasures, the pleasures which pleased 
 Roland and Tom, irked me. An odd night in a 
 hot theatre, packed in the sweltering pit, watching a 
 third-rate English travelling company ; evenings 
 spent in Hosie's Bar in Big Bourke Street, even 
 our Sunday's run down to Sandridge and the walk 
 on the pier, lined on both sides by Australian 
 clippers belonging to Money, Wigram, to Green 
 
IN MELBOURNE CITY. 41 
 
 and the other colonial traders, grew tiring, especially 
 after my brother Cecil's ship, the Soukar, went off 
 to England. He was then an apprentice, and as 
 both he and I had to work we saw little of each 
 other. When he was gone I determined to try the 
 bush. But I found much difficulty with my two 
 mates. Tom had been in the bush and did not like 
 it ; and as for Roland, his reasons for being 
 contented where he was appealed very forcibly even 
 to me, when I could stand outside and view matters 
 on first principles. 
 
 I have said he did not like work ; he owned it 
 very frankly. And having had a slight accident to 
 his foot during his second week's w T ork in the sheds, 
 he stayed at home, ostensibly to cure it, but in 
 reality to carefully prevent its getting well. And 
 during the time of his protracted convalescence I 
 supported him. It was odd that he was always 
 worse in the morning, when Tom and I went to 
 work, but it was even odder that he should be well 
 enough in the evening to go in for any amusement 
 we could afford. In the course of very numerous 
 professions, he had once been for a while a medical 
 student. He pointed out to me as a curious 
 pathological fact the morning and evening states of 
 his injured foot, and complained when I was 
 sceptical. This foot was his chief argument for 
 staying in Melbourne ; it was one of my chief 
 reasons for getting away. Perhaps the country 
 might do him good. For I had begun by now to 
 
42 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 lose some of the vivid greenness which charac- 
 terized me on our first acquaintance. He taught as 
 much as any one man might. So with some 
 restrained irony, I lamented his sad case, and then 
 without any irony at all, announced my intention of 
 going up country — with him if he liked, but if not 
 without him. I carried my point, and then Tom 
 was ready to come too. I settled on Albury in New 
 South Wales as our objective point, and pointed out 
 to them that the Border City must after all be a 
 very important place, and no bad substitute even 
 for Melbourne. And having with some difficulty 
 convinced them, if not myself, I set about saving as 
 much as possible, in order to pay our fares to 
 Wodonga, on the Murray opposite Albury, which 
 was then as far as the railway went. And then 
 what ought to have been a great aid to us became 
 a hindrance. Tom's relatives in England were so 
 ill-advised as to send him twenty pounds. 
 
 Until that twenty pounds was spent he would 
 not budge. He ordered new clothes, refused to do 
 any more work, went in for all kinds of amusement, 
 as if he had received hundreds. Roland indeed 
 magnified it into such, and procured for us all an 
 amount of respect I had not calculated upon. He 
 went round to all our haunts, proclaiming that each 
 of us had received much money from England. I 
 was tackled on all hands for loans, and though I 
 was still at work in the sheds I had some difficulty 
 in convincing our needy friends that my people had 
 
. IN MELBOURNE CITY. 43 
 
 not sent me an unlimited amount of cash. One 
 evening as Roland and I were sitting on our 
 doorstep to enjoy the little air there was, Cotton 
 came down the street, and recognizing us, sat down 
 on the edge of the pavement. He had been the 
 great swell of the Seringapatam, but now he was 
 absolutely in rags. His toes protruded through his 
 boots ; his coat was buttoned and pinned up to his 
 unshorn throat, to hide the absence of a shirt ; his 
 hat was ventilated in a manner never contemplated 
 by its manufacturer, and yet in all this desecration 
 of what might have been a fine man, there was a 
 curious reckless bonhomie and merriness rarely 
 seen in a confirmed drinker. He related his 
 adventures without shame. He had begged of such 
 an one ; had procured money from a second, to take 
 his clothes out of pawn ; had victimized a third, and 
 wound up by declaring that he knew every chari- 
 tably disposed person of any eminence in the whole 
 city. I gave him sixpence, and he went away very 
 contentedly. When Tom came in I told him of 
 this, and prophesied the like state for him if he did 
 not mend his ways. But that twenty pounds had 
 to be spent, and spent it was, with nothing to show 
 for it but a new suit of clothes. What we could 
 not show were things that yet left their mark — 
 curious experiences on the shady side of life in 
 Melbourne, which my quasi-classical friend of 
 pornographic literature might have delighted in. 
 For the inherent vices of the older civilization 
 
44 LANDrTRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 flourish and abound in the southern hemisphere. I 
 was glad when by work, and the final selling of 
 everything unneedful, I was able, with some as- 
 sistance from our repentant friend Tom, to take 
 three tickets to Wodonga, from the very station in 
 which I once, as an odd job, cleaned carriages. It 
 was about four in the afternoon when we started. 
 We ran out of Melbourne into the bush. 
 
 At the best of times, even in the bright and 
 glorious sunshine of its unclouded spring or summer 
 noons, the Australian forest is melancholy with its 
 sombre metallic green and scanty brown herbage 
 under the lofty straggling trees. But now, under 
 the circumstances, seeing that we were venturing 
 into the unknown with so little money to spare, the 
 scene was extremely fearful and dolorous to Roland, 
 who reproachfully pointed out the barren look of 
 the land. He sat in his corner prophesying dire 
 events of starvation, of hardly-sought hard work, of 
 thirst and death in days to come. He was a little 
 maudlin. Gradually however by a process of 
 continual imbibition from a concealed bottle, pre- 
 sented to him on his departure by a girl who served 
 behind the bar in a little Melbourne hotel, he grew 
 jocose and merry, persisted in throwing his coppers 
 out of the carriage window for luck, took to singing 
 sea shanties, and ended by bravely defying fate, 
 accusing me of lack of enterprise in not having left 
 town before. It was a relief when he fell asleep 
 and remained silent, save for an occasional gurgle 
 
IN MELBOURNE CITY. 47 
 
 until we ran into Wodonga at two o'clock in the 
 morning. We took our bags in silence, and, cold, 
 nervous and ill at ease, alighted in the dark ter- 
 minus, knowing not whither to go. Among the 
 three we possessed no more than twenty-two 
 shillings and sixpence. We stood in the moon- 
 light outside the station, as they turned out the 
 lamps, in some dismay at the sombre solitude that 
 surrounded us. Roland's courage had evaporated ; 
 he said bitterly " Is this your city ? ; ' There was not 
 a house in sight. I myself was somewhat dis- 
 couraged, until a friendly porter assured us that we 
 could get rooms for the night at one " Baggy 's," 
 and volunteered to show us the way. We 
 shouldered our baggage — a seaman's bag, an old 
 portmanteau, and a large bundle — and followed him 
 into the forest. 
 
 Even at this hour scarcely a scene in all my 
 wanderings remains so vividly impressed on my 
 memory. The sky was all but a cloudless void of a 
 curiously transparent yet sombre turquoise. In its 
 midst, not close against the sky background as in 
 our home atmosphere, but detached and free in the 
 immeasurable obscure of the heavens, shone a 
 brilliant moon casting light of inconceivable 
 intensity and shadows of almost startling blackness. 
 The day before a sharp and sudden rain-storm had 
 washed the solitary forest paths to white gravel that 
 still held pools of gleaming water. The gigantic 
 gum trees of the riverside stood up solidly defined 
 
48 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 against the heavens, but were not more material as 
 it seemed than their distinct and apparently ob- 
 structive shadows. The atmosphere was sharp and 
 chill, although there was not a breath of air to stir 
 the lightest leaf or move what faint white threads 
 of cloud mingled with a nebulous mist of stars. 
 There was entire and absolute silence, for the river, 
 though so close at hand, moved with the idle onward 
 motion of a stream in a continent of plains. And it 
 was long past midnight ; the Australian world was 
 all asleep. This was the bush as I first saw it ; 
 and as an anti-climax we came to Baggy's. 
 
 Poor Baggy was a man of Falstaffian dimensions, 
 who afterwards came to an untimely end by falling 
 out of a buggy on his head. Having stayed up on 
 the chance of travellers coming in the last train, he 
 made a hospitable supper for us at very reasonable 
 prices. It was three o'clock ere we left the kitchen 
 and marched some twenty yards through the moon- 
 light to reach the house in which the bedrooms 
 were. Tired as I was I did not remain awake to 
 listen to Roland again reproaching me for bringing 
 him to a wilderness, but fell fast asleep in the very 
 middle of his doleful jeremiad. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE BANKS OF THE MURRAY. 
 
 | p the morning we were alt three 
 ^ in better spirits than we had 
 been : a good rest in com- 
 fortable beds did its work 
 even on Roland, who seemed 
 the day before to think that 
 he had for ever bidden sheets farewell. The 
 day was brilliant, the season of the year late 
 summer, and the first rains had freshened the dusty 
 trees ; when I went out I saw a bright green 
 parrot flash past me, and going a little further 
 I came to the river which here ran in a deep 
 channel. By the time breakfast was over and our 
 modest reckoning with our heavy host settled, we 
 
 E 
 
5o LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 were eager to get to the border city of which we had 
 heard such flourishing accounts. I for my own part 
 only looked on it as a halting place until I could get 
 some work in the bush. I was eager to learn all 
 about horses and bullocks and sheep ; I wanted to 
 learn riding and the management of stock ; the 
 enticements of the shadowy and mysterious were 
 upon me. But the others loved the flesh-pots of 
 Egypt, and prayed for acceptable work in a 
 luxurious town, such as I still hopefully painted 
 Albury. Had I known as much as I do now of 
 the methods adopted in new countries for booming 
 new " cities" I might have discounted my own 
 expectations. The imagination of a journalist 
 owning town lots in a fresh location is poetic, he is 
 truly a maker. And the omnibus, a very civilized 
 omnibus, came from Albury to pick up any 
 passengers who might come by the morning train 
 from the south. We clambered on top, and in a 
 few minutes rattled across the long wooden structure 
 bridging the Murray. We were in New South Wales. 
 Though Albury has since grown to very respect- 
 able dimensions, it was then a straggling town with 
 wide streets whose houses were placed at far 
 intervals save in the business portion of the main 
 thoroughfare. There were no bustling throngs in 
 the thoroughfares ; what people we saw seemed 
 more interested in us than we expected ; it was 
 a bad sign that we attracted attention. Strangers in 
 a money-making place receive little notice. For a 
 
ON THE BANKS OF THE MURRAY. 51 
 
 few moments I repented my rashness in leaving 
 Melbourne where a living at any rate was fairly 
 certain. Hoping that this might not be the main 
 city, that we were perhaps in a suburb, I inquired 
 from the driver if this was the town. " And a very 
 fine town too," was his answer. I avoided Roland's 
 eye. We stopped at an hotel, and being treasurer 
 I hired rooms as cheaply as possible, much to 
 Roland's disgust, for though we now had no more 
 than seventeen shillings and sixpence he wanted to 
 act as a man of unbounded resources. After seeing 
 our modest baggage, which alone would have marked 
 us as sufficiently poor, placed in our rooms, we went 
 out to view the town and discuss our prospects. 
 As we went down the main street the little boys 
 made audible and contemptuous remarks on us as 
 "new chums " ; one loafer at a corner told another that 
 we were evidently run-away apprentices from some 
 English ship. We climbed a low hill at the east end 
 of the town, and sitting on the grass, contemplated 
 Albury at our ease. I received a quantity of abuse 
 from my two mates with desperate equanimity. 
 But all the time of this dual tirade I could not help 
 thinking that Albury was at least beautifully situated 
 on the broad flat bounded by rising hills, and in 
 the distance the Murray was silver bright. 
 
 Our prospects in this town were certainly not 
 over encouraging. None of us had a trade ; it is 
 true we were able to work as labourers, but of 
 these the home supply was quite equal to the 
 
 E 2 
 
52 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 demand. I had no thought of trying to secure a 
 situation as a clerk ; I had no hope of obtaining 
 such a post, and moreover cared little for that kind 
 of work. I had come up country to go into the 
 bush, and did not want to drive a pen. 1 would 
 rather tackle a team of bullocks. But I knew no 
 way of getting such a job or anything similar to it, 
 and I had not yet learned to put my blankets on my 
 back and plunge into the unknown. Tom did all he 
 could to discourage me from taking such a step. 
 He enlarged on hunger and thirst, and told dire 
 stories of men lost in the bush and never found, of 
 the discovery of unknown dead men and sun-dried 
 skeletons. At last I was as ready as either of them 
 to rest awhile in town and learn something of the 
 country before I ignorantly tried it. And though 
 the obtaining of work seemed impossible, luck 
 came to us very curiously. 
 
 A certain high dignitary of the English church, 
 whom Roland once met in his father's house, had 
 come to Albury the day before our arrival. We 
 heard cf this at the hotel dinner table. Without 
 knowing whether he was still in town or not, 
 Roland, who was in desperation, went off to the 
 vicarage. Although he failed to see the greater 
 man, for the good reason that he had returned to 
 Melbourne, he so impressed the churchman whom 
 he did see by his good looks, his plausible tongue, 
 and his adventurous story, that he was forthwith 
 invited to take up his quarters in the vicar's house. 
 
ON THE BANKS OF THE MURRAY. 53 
 
 He returned chuckling with joy, and jubilantly 
 promised to help me in some way through his new 
 friend. Two days afterwards I was installed as 
 clerk in the office of a prominent stock and station 
 agent, whom I have every reason to remember 
 kindly on account of his amiability. As for Tom, 
 nothing could be found to suit him, so he marched 
 off up country with his blankets on his back, and a 
 sovereign in his pocket. We heard from him in a 
 fortnight. He had tramped through Wagga Wagga 
 to Narrandera on the Murrumbidgee, and there 
 found work. I have never seen him since. 
 
 For three months I lived a curious kind of triple 
 life. Being rather poorly paid, I lodged in a house 
 frequented by labouring men, workers of all descrip- 
 tions, harness makers, bricklayers, plasterers, car- 
 penters. Sometimes I shared my double-bedded 
 room with one of these. One night my com- 
 panion was a giant of a man who had done three 
 years for cattle stealing. It was said that he was 
 not the really guilty man, but had preferred to 
 suffer rather than betray others. As I found him 
 very kind and amiable, I do not care two straws if 
 he did steal the cattle. It is an odd thing that 
 there seems to be no particular aversion in the bush 
 for such thieves, although in America every one is 
 down on that particular form of crime, while man 
 slaying is esteemed a comparatively venial offence, 
 if indeed it is not looked on as a virtue. 
 
 I got on very well with these men. On one 
 
54 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 occasion I was even chosen to act as timekeeper in 
 a fight between two plasterers, who had had a 
 preliminary rough and tumble in our eating room. 
 The affair was settled on Sunday afternoon in the 
 bush about half a mile away. In the evening I 
 dined at the house of one of the town's bank 
 managers. For though I was very poor and lived 
 in such a place, it did not prevent my being to 
 some extent in society, as far as there is any in a 
 bush town. This bank manager's wife was a very 
 well-read woman, and lent me a great number of 
 books. Curiously enough she was a confirmed 
 agnostic, though her husband was orthodox and a 
 churchwarden. 
 
 My work in the office was light enough, and 
 through meeting men who came in to buy and sell 
 sheep, cattle, and horses, I began to get a little 
 second-hand knowledge of bush life. I always kept 
 in view the desirability of getting away from an 
 indoor employment, for all that I heard made me 
 more anxious than ever to know the really charac- 
 teristic life of Australia. The walks I sometimes 
 took by myself on Sunday into the bush tickled my 
 imagination. Everything was so strange and new 
 to me : the nature I had known in England was 
 transformed into something utterly unknown. 
 
 Not very far from the town, on the side of a low 
 hill bordering on the Murray, was a small clearing, 
 or rather a naturally open space, where the wood- 
 cutter had never worked. It was on the way to or 
 
ON THE BANKS OF THE MURRAY. 55 
 
 from nowhere, and by reason of a guardian ring of 
 thick undergrowth, was unfrequented even by sheep 
 or wandering cattle. There I, who had stumbled 
 accidentally upon this happy spot, used to sit on a 
 stone in the shadow of a box tree, and there the 
 numberless bright birds of the sombre bush came to 
 chatter and mock at me, all the time shrilling ear- 
 piercing question or comment, from tree to tree. 
 
 It was my first acquaintance with vivid colour in 
 wild birds. The first time I made my way thither I 
 was startled by the hues and unexpected brilliance 
 of the parrots and parroquets. I could not at once 
 divest myself of the thought that some aviary of pre- 
 cious coloured and rare birds had been mischievously 
 opened, to the unutterable grief and loss of some 
 wealthy and indefatigable collector, and that these, 
 the escaped denizens of his cages, had been brought 
 together from all tropical climes about the equator. 
 Their quick and tremendous shoots of flight, their 
 sharp and various cries and human whistlings, their 
 hurrying now here and now there, favoured my 
 fantastic thought, for it seemed that they were in a 
 high state of political excitement, as if something 
 were to be done, and that quickly, in the new 
 Republic of the Birds. 
 
 In the middle of my clearing was a small dead 
 tree, in height about twenty feet, which had been 
 gradually divested of both leaves and bark until it 
 shone white against the dull metallic greens of the 
 live forest. This tree was a convenient and 
 
56 
 
 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 conspicuous perch, and was seldom left untenanted, 
 though not often occupied by more than one species 
 
 at a time. The birds who 
 particularly affected it were the 
 small bright green parroquets, 
 who often fly in flocks of many 
 hundreds. It was at first strange 
 and startling to almost feel them 
 flash past me within a yard's 
 distance, screaming the while 
 in deafening chorus, to see 
 them go in a solid body at a 
 terrible speed towards this tree 
 as though they meant to break 
 it in fragments, and then to 
 watch them shoot up and settle 
 turning the gaunt white limbs 
 vivid gigantic coral. Then as 
 though in admiration of their own closed-and.shining 
 ranks they kept quiet for a few moments, until 
 another impulse sent them screaming' into the bush 
 like a thick flight of shot. And perpetually green 
 changed to red, and red to mingled scarlets and 
 greens all day long, so that this kaleidoscopic dead 
 tree seemed something magical — a very chameleon 
 among its living relations, that do not alter their 
 colour till death robs them of their verdure once for 
 all. I do not think it any wonder that I ldnged, for 
 a time at least, to live in the real bush, at home 
 with nature. 
 
 in sudden silence 
 to a branched 
 
ON THE BANKS OF THE MURRAY. 57 
 
 In truth the nomadic instinct was always strong 
 in me, and even from my early childhood had been 
 fostered by the exigences of my father's profession, 
 which compelled him to change his place of 
 residence at frequent intervals. It was difficult for 
 me to be content for long in one spot. With the open 
 prospect of long Australian distances I got uneasy. 
 In a wild country we revere ; the earlier knowledge 
 and inherited experience of the race prick us on. 
 The feeling is more or less universal ; it is usually 
 conquered by circumstances, by a lack of courage, 
 or by that greedy knowledge of the purely 
 advantageous in a conventional society which 
 makes men successful and detestable at once. And 
 I had no particular desire to be successful, but 
 would rather follow my instincts. 
 
 One day as I was working, or pretending to work, 
 in the office, the owner of a sheep station on the 
 Upper Murray, some forty miles or so above Albury, 
 came in to interview my "boss.'' In the course of 
 conversation he said he wanted a boundary rider. 
 Now a boundary rider is a man whose main duty it 
 is to ride round the fences and see that they are in 
 proper condition. If he finds them broken down by 
 a horse, or a bullock, or if some heavy " old man " 
 kangaroo has jumped short and smashed them, he 
 repairs the gap. It was just such work as appealed 
 to my imagination. " Would I do?" I asked 
 suddenly. It appeared on questioning that I would 
 not, as I owned that I had not been on a horse 
 
58 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 since I was a child. But when Mr. T returned 
 
 to town a fortnight after he offered to give me a job 
 at Dora Dora, if I liked to learn and do what I 
 could, taking the small wages of ten shillings a week. 
 As I could not believe I was worth more in my 
 then state of bush ignorance I accepted his offer, 
 and made arrangements to leave Albury at once. 
 Roland lamented my departure, but as he was about 
 to get a situation in one of the banks he was in very 
 good feather, and showed no desire to accompany 
 me in search of further adventures. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AT DORA DORA. 
 
 5| I was not able to leave Albury until 
 my employer found some one to con- 
 tinue my services as clerk, I was 
 
 obliged to remain a few days after Mr. T 
 
 returned to the station. Station in Australia is 
 the universal equivalent for farm or ranch. When 
 I was released I went up with a Mr. Mitchell to 
 a house about ten miles from Dora Dora, and 
 
 stayed there all night. In the morning Mr. T 
 
 rode over, bringing a led horse for me. It was 
 my first essay on horseback since the age of about 
 nine, when I rode my father's horse bareback, 
 and I had some slight doubts as to how I should 
 come out of the experiment. It was rather rough 
 
60 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 on a new beginner that our road should be no road 
 at all, and that the barely perceptible bridle path 
 should lead at once to a complication of hills thick 
 with brush and timber, tee-tree scrub and wattles. 
 My stirrup leathers were too long, but as my new 
 boss seemed in a hurry, I had no desire to make 
 him pull up for me to shorten them, and if I let him 
 get ahead it seemed anything but likely that I should 
 find him again. Our road lay between two moun- 
 tains, not of any great altitude certainly, but they 
 were very steep, so steep in fact that the way was 
 usually called the Tunnel ; the heavy foliage made 
 it sombre, though the sun shone brightly overhead. 
 Still we went up and up. Now and again a few 
 half-wild sheep scattered at our approach. If I had 
 not been so terribly busy in keeping on I dare say I 
 might have seen a kangaroo, for on this station they 
 were always plentiful. But with preserving a 
 balance and avoiding the sharp stubs of broken 
 wattle branches, I had quite enough to do. When 
 we crossed the ridge or divide, there was rather an 
 increase of speed than otherwise. Skin began to 
 come off the inside of my knees ; I was already stiff. 
 I cursed horseback exercise, and thought I had 
 come to a very rough school. And then we sud- 
 denly burst out of the thicker scrub ; we were at the 
 foot of the hills. Across the flat lay my future 
 home. 
 
 The station of Dora Dora has about eighteen 
 miles of river frontage, and runs back from the 
 
AT DORA DORA. 61 
 
 Murray some two or three miles. It was originally 
 ranged over by cattle, but when wool rose greatly 
 in price, as it did some years before I saw the place, 
 the cattle were replaced by sheep. It was an 
 unfortunate change, for "fluke" was deadly in the 
 mountains. This fluke is a species of hydatid, and 
 destroys the liver ; the animals affected by it grow 
 thin, pine away and die. Salt seems the only thing 
 to prevent, or at least alleviate it, and prolong life. 
 As I found out afterwards part of my work was to 
 help to pack salt up into the mountains — for there are 
 no natural salt or alkali licks there as in Western 
 America. The sheep on the great north-west 
 plains of New South Wales, whither I afterwards 
 went, live greatly on a plant called the salt bush, 
 and are always healthy. 
 
 The home station was close to the Murray, which 
 here, at this season, was shallow and in parts 
 fordable. It was but a stone's throw across, but 
 still it ran very rapidly. The head of the navigable 
 waters is Albury, whither steamers can come. The 
 situation was very picturesque. Our garden — for 
 the station had one producing fruit and vegetables 
 — sloped rapidly to the river. Beyond that was 
 a flat of many hundred acres, belonging to Tholo- 
 golong Station, covered with dead and desolate 
 gum trees which had been killed by ring-barking 
 in order to allow better grass to grow. Beyond 
 that again rose hills covered as on our side with 
 wattles and the stringy bark which is so greatly 
 
62 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 used for roofing in the bush. So much I could 
 note as we rode across the home flat. I was 
 intensely glad to alight. My first lesson in horse- 
 manship was assuredly a rough one ; but on the 
 whole, considering the country we had ridden over, 
 I was not displeased with myself. 
 
 The position I occupied on this station was rather 
 an anomalous one. I was not a regular hand — 
 neither a rouse-about who is expected to do every- 
 thing he is told, nor a boundary rider who considers 
 it time to take his cheque if he has to handle 
 anything but horses or a tomahawk when mending 
 a brush fence. As I lived in the house, not at the 
 men's hut, I was something like what is known in 
 the bush as a " colonial experiencer," although I 
 was paid, and such usually pay to be allowed to 
 learn something, or nothing, about stock and the 
 management of it. These are frequently young 
 gentlemen whose friends can do nothing with them 
 in England, and consequently pay some sheep or 
 cattle owner to take charge of them and teach them 
 the business, either as a preliminary to washing their 
 hands of them completely, or to setting them up 
 with sufficient capital to engage in pastoral pursuits 
 for themselves. As a rule such an one does nothing 
 but loaf about on horseback. I on the contrary, 
 though I did live in the house, was expected to earn 
 my money first and learn what I could afterwards. 
 
 For one thing, to my horror, I had to learn 
 something about butchering. Two days after my 
 
AT DORA DORA. 
 
 63 
 
 arrival Mr. T took me down to yard, caught a 
 
 sheep, killed it, bade me watch him skin it, and 
 
 when it was done told me he expected that I now 
 
 knew how it was managed. The whole unsavoury 
 
 business took him some ten minutes. Three or 
 
 four days later I received orders to kill another. I 
 
 bribed Jack, the boundary rider, to do the actual 
 
 murder, for a plug of tobacco. He regarded me 
 
 somewhatcontemp- ■ : 
 
 tuously, telling me 
 
 I should soon get 
 
 over my delicacy, 
 
 and then rode away. 
 
 I began with the 
 
 knife to operate on 
 
 the dead sheep. In 
 
 about half an hour 
 
 I was covered with 
 
 blood, but the skin 
 
 was pretty nearly 
 
 where it was when 
 
 I began. I lighted 
 
 my pipe, took a rest and a smoke. Then I 
 
 began again. I could not remember a single 
 
 thing. One might as well have asked a first 
 
 year's medical student to tie the subclavian artery. 
 
 I got the wretched carcase into such a state that I 
 
 actually felt remorseful. And then when the 
 
 ghastly operation had lasted almost two hours Mr. 
 
 T rode up. He looked over the fence calmly and 
 
64 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 asked what I had there. I replied that it was a 
 sheep. He asked if a dog had been worrying it. 
 Not that I knew of, was my reply ; and then, sparing 
 me further satire, he tied his horse up, took off his 
 coat, and showed me where I had gone wrong. I 
 never did so badly again, and long afterwards found 
 that lesson useful. 
 
 My progress in horsemanship was not marked by 
 anything so ludicrous ; for one thing I found that 
 I took to it quite naturally, that I was built more or 
 less well for it. Certainly a few tumbles in jumping 
 big logs and brush fences made me less conceited 
 when I began to fancy that I knew as much about 
 riding as Jack the boundary rider. Jack was 
 always anxious to get me on a buck-jumper, and 
 greatly lamented that there was no horse in the 
 station who bucked satisfactorily, even after being 
 turned out for a long rest. But what with running 
 up the horses to the stockyard every morning, with 
 going after our old bull when in spite of a log to his 
 leg he • managed to get into a small cultivation 
 paddock, and with a little odd boundary work, I 
 began to ride fairly well even before the winter or 
 rainy season was over and the mustering of the 
 sheep for marking began. But one day I had an 
 experience which might well last a man the rest of 
 his life. It was not through my bad horsemanship, 
 but my ignorance of the country, for early one 
 morning as I was going full gallop after a horse in 
 thick scrub, I rode into a wire fence. This, as I 
 
AT DORA DORA. 65 
 
 found out afterwards, had been put up in a most 
 unlikely place to find such a thing, and yet was 
 necessary. It ran in a curve close to the river, 
 where there was a ford. When the water was low 
 the horses constantly went across to the other side, 
 but of this I, as a comparatively new comer, had 
 never heard. The horse and I fell together on the 
 other side of it, for the top wire broke, and the others 
 knocked my mount's legs from underneath him. 
 Fortunately the ground on the falling side was soft, 
 otherwise my leg would have been broken. As it 
 was I escaped with some very bad bruises, and the 
 horse with far fewer cuts than might have been 
 expected. Though after these experiences I 
 began to think I could ride, every now and 
 again something happened that showed me I was 
 still a new chum. For of driving bullocks I 
 
 knew nothing, but Mr. T put me in the way of 
 
 learning. 
 
 That day's adventures were sufficiently comical 
 and irritating. I am no very great believer in the 
 sagacity of animals, nor do I think that the four 
 beasts I went to work with were any cleverer than 
 the usual run of bullocks, but, nevertheless, the 
 quickness with which they discovered that my 
 knowledge of driving such an outlandish team was 
 practically nil really amazed me. My "boss," a 
 man of a somewhat taciturn if satirical turn of mind, 
 who always took my knowledge and ability for 
 granted until he discovered by the results that he 
 
 F 
 
66 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 had overestimated my powers, told me curtly one 
 morning to yoke the bullocks up and haul in some 
 firewood. And with this he rode away, leaving me 
 in about as puzzled a state of mind as I should have 
 put him in had I been in a position to order him, 
 under divers pains and penalties, to translate a 
 portion of Macaulay into immaculate Ciceronian 
 Latin. However, I had my orders, and I meant 
 doing something to show that I had at least 
 attempted what seemed like the impossible. When 
 the four bullocks, who indeed were very worthy and 
 quiet animals, were safely in the yard, I commanded 
 them in such gruff tones and with such oaths as 1 
 had heard used in like cases to arrange themselves 
 and deceived by my delusive show of experience 
 and authority, the two leaders, Spot and Baldy, 
 placed themselves meekly in the required juxta- 
 position. But by the time I had fixed the yoke on 
 the neck of Spot, the off-side bullock, both had 
 discovered by the awkwardness of my movements 
 that I was a most fraudulent novice, and as such to 
 be treated with contempt. In spite of all I could 
 do — and that was little enough — they decided on 
 separating at once, and the yoke was left hanging 
 on Spot's neck as. he eyed me with mild contempt, 
 while Baldy, the unencumbered one, who was of a 
 more lively turn of mind, galloped gaily round the 
 yard. I seized the whip, but instead of the heavy 
 report which comes from it in a practised hand, my 
 loudest cracks were manifestly feeble. It took me 
 
AT DORA DORA. 67 
 
 quite half an hour's exercise to reduce Baldy to a 
 more subdued turn of mind, but at last I yoked 
 them together securely. As I was eying them 
 with a gentle sense of triumph, born of difficulties 
 subdued and a new feeling of power and accom- 
 plishment, they turned their heads together with a 
 quick movement, made a sort of duck, and faced 
 right round with the yoke upside down. They had 
 " turned the yoke," a very common and provoking 
 trick among working bullocks, and one which some- 
 times can only be prevented by tying their tails 
 together. It was a heart-breaking task to have to 
 remove the yoke and replace it, for Baldy was so 
 elated at my inability to flog him in a convincing 
 manner that he was worse to handle the second 
 time than the first. But at last I got the whole four 
 yoked up, and even succeeded in attaching them to 
 the waggon inside of half an hour, and we started 
 off. Presently we came to a gate, which I opened 
 for my slow-moving team to pass through without 
 any particular misgivings. But, unhappily, the road 
 turned short to the left, and as I failed to keep the 
 "polers" well to the right, the wheel caught the 
 gate-post, and in spite of my frantic objurgations, 
 which probably they took for an exhortation to pull, 
 they bent their necks to the yoke and ripped the 
 post fairly out of the ground. With it about a rod 
 of fencing came to grief. I looked at it woefully 
 enough and set to work at repairs, the team having 
 come to a standstill in the meantime. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 When I had made things look a little less forlorn, 
 I started again, wondering very much what was 
 going to happen at the next gate, which was about 
 a quarter of a mile away. On reaching it I halted, 
 made all sorts of very careful calculations about the 
 width of the way in and the distance between the 
 posts, and then — pulled up the one on the off-side, or 
 right hand ! I confess to feeling very bad about it. 
 My boss might not think so much about one gate, 
 but to destroy two looked far too much as if I made 
 a rule of it, and that I knew would not be passed by 
 in silence. As I stared at the devastation I had 
 caused, my four bullocks, whom I now began to hate 
 with a pious and fervent hatred, went boring along 
 with their heads down, as if nothing out of the way 
 had occurred, and I had to run after them, using all 
 sorts of strong language to induce them to stop. By 
 the time I had propped up this second gate it was 
 nearly noon, and noon was my dinner-time. But I 
 determined to bring back some wood if it took me 
 all day, and although my appetite was good, I staved 
 off the pangs of hunger with a pipe, and made a 
 third start for the woods. Up to that time I had at 
 any rate had a clear road save for the two gates, but 
 when I got among the timber I found my real 
 difficulties had commenced, for though I succeeded 
 in uprooting two or three stringy-bark saplings, 
 and in snapping a young wattle-tree off at the stump, 
 I presently found four bullocks totally insufficient 
 power for me to make my way forward with the 
 
AT DORA DORA. 69 
 
 same disregard for obstacles I had hitherto dis- 
 played. In fact I got the waggon jammed between 
 two large box-trees of about three feet in diameter, 
 and they obstinately refused to be pulled up by the 
 roots or to break short off to please me or any one 
 else. I tried to back the bullocks, but they scorned 
 me utterly, in spite of the Australian language I 
 used. I might be as gruff as I liked, but I could 
 not crack the whip, and their hides seemed as tough 
 as the general situation. However, at last I suc- 
 ceeded in irritating them, which was something at 
 any rate, and just as I had made up my mind to do 
 what I should have done at first — that is, take them 
 out of the waggon and pull it out backwards — they 
 turned short to the right and broke the pole. On 
 finding themselves free they started for home, but 
 before they had gone ten yards hitched themselves 
 to a large sapling by the chain, and got so tangled 
 up that I could hardly tell which was which. And 
 just then I spied my taciturn boss riding up. He 
 would undoubtedly have been justified if he had 
 exhibited some anger, but he only surveyed the 
 scene with a subtle smile that made me far more 
 uncomfortable than the expected volley of oaths, 
 which I should have doubtless returned, but that 
 smile was a weapon I could not match in my 
 armoury of defence. Said he presently, " Do you 
 know anything about bullocks ? " " Yes, sir," I 
 answered meekly. He stared at my presumption. 
 "Pray, when did you learn it?" he inquired. 
 
yo LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 " This morning, sir," I replied more meekly than 
 ever, and I really think I had him there. At any 
 rate, he got off his horse, took the whip, disen- 
 tangled the team, and dislodged the waggon without 
 further words. We went home to dinner in silence, 
 and I spent the afternoon at gate-repairing. That 
 was my first experience in bullock-driving, but it was 
 by no means the last, and though I never was very 
 good at it, yet I managed as a general thing to get 
 through eleven gates out of twelve without any very 
 humiliating disaster. 
 
 The nomenclature of bullocks is sometimes very 
 curious, and not infrequently brings into prominence 
 the peculiar characters of their owners. One old 
 fellow I heard of possessed four, which he named, 
 with a lingering memory of ancient days when 
 lucifers were not, " Flint," " Steel/' " Tinderbox," 
 and " Strike-a-light." It was once my lot to work 
 for a squatter who rejoiced in a very odd name, and 
 though upon the whole I retain very pleasant 
 recollections of him, he managed in some way to 
 excite the enmity of a neighbouring " cockatoo," as 
 the smaller landowners are called, and by way of 
 subtle revenge and irritation this man named one of 
 his bullocks after the object of his aversion. It was 
 done with the sole object of bullying and abusing it 
 when the squatter rode by, and the poor animal, 
 who certainly was not particularly objectionable, 
 came in for a quantity of blows and dishonouring 
 epithets, which he had not fairly earned, by serving 
 
AT DORA DORA. 71 
 
 as a whipping-block or scapegoat for the real or 
 imaginary crimes of his human namesake. 
 
 Far more pleasing to me than bullock-driving, as 
 implying less manual labour, was mustering the 
 sheep in the higher ranges when lamb marking 
 came due. We were always on horseback early 
 and away from the homestead before the heat 
 began. Riding through the river flats we passed 
 the mightier gum trees, red and blue, and on the 
 first slopes of the hills the golden wattle, with its 
 brilliant masses of pure yellow, sent a heavy odour 
 that rose and faded away and swelled again on the 
 wind like some strange musical instrument whose 
 notes appealed to another sense than that of hearing. 
 Then came the rougher paths, narrow and thick set 
 with scrub and the entanglements of brush, until we 
 burst through them at last, and came out on opener 
 greyer plateaus w T here a few T lofty white gums 
 shone like lighthouses. They gleam with a mealy 
 substance that comes off like dry flour, and some- 
 times their old bark, stripping itself from the tree, 
 hangs over in long fine curves, reaching even to the 
 ground. For the Australian trees clean themselves 
 yearly, casting off their outer integuments like the 
 snakes which are so plentiful in their country. 
 
 When we were on the plateau the company usually 
 separated after appointing a meeting place on some 
 lower flat, and the sheep hunting began. In this 
 mountainous land they grow very wild ; numbers 
 often escape the yearly shearing ; in every clip are 
 
72 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 some long fleeces which have grown more than their 
 customary period. So good dogs are above all es- 
 sential to anything like a clean muster. We had 
 all Qualities with us. 
 
 So far as I am acquainted with both countries I 
 should say that one essential difference in the 
 handling rf)f sheep in Australia and in North 
 America is that of the use of the dog. The sheep 
 dogs in the West are of the poorest quality ; at 
 any rate' I never saw either in Texas or California 
 one that an Australian shepherd would dignify with 
 the name of dog at all. There the men working 
 with sheep delight in having well-bred animals, and 
 devote immense care and patience to their education. 
 Their dogs are always collies — called by the way in 
 the bush coolies — they come very often from good 
 imported strains, and are frequently exceedingly 
 handsome and clever. The price of a good one 
 runs that of a horse very close. Indeed I have 
 seen many very fair horses sold for hvG pounds, but 
 never a sheep-dog of any reputation. I have heard 
 fifteen pounds asked for a thoroughly trained slut 
 on Dora Dora, and refused. There is no doubt 
 that such prices rule owing to the fact that the 
 distemper is very virulent in the colonies, often 
 destroying half a promising litter. Yet when I was 
 there hydrophobia was quite unknown, and most 
 carefully guarded against at the ports. 
 
 The training of the puppies commences as soon as 
 they are able to walk. In the bush, being of course 
 
AT DORA DORA. 73 
 
 on a sheep station, they usually see some of their 
 future charges every day, and as soon as they are 
 able to run well and bear the fatigue they go out 
 with the older dogs. The first day I went muster- 
 ing on Dora Dora I rode with a man named 
 Stewart, the owner of the valuable slut I spoke of 
 above. Flo came with us of course, and with her 
 was a young dog puppy of hers. I could not help 
 thinking that as far as knowledge of sheep went I 
 occupied much the same relation to Stewart as the 
 .puppy did to his mother, and just as he willingly 
 told me all he knew, and checked me when I was 
 about to do wrong, so the experienced slut treated 
 her son. She took care that he never headed the 
 sheep off, and encouraged him with a glad bark 
 when he did right. Busy as she was at times she 
 never took her eyes, or at least one of them, off him, 
 and evidently would have felt disgraced if her 
 master had had any just cause to rate him. But 
 when we had managed to get about a thousand or 
 twelve hundred together, and had them headed 
 down a gully towards the appointed rendezvous, 
 well under command, she suddenly disappeared. I 
 asked Stewart where she had gone, and he 
 answered that he did not know but that she would 
 probably turn up directly. About half an hour 
 afterwards, just as we were debouching on to the 
 little flat, where some other sheep already were, 
 we saw a small mob of about two hundred and fifty 
 apparently coming of their own accord to join ours. 
 
74 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 But behind them was Flo. She had noticed them 
 in the distance when bringing the others part of 
 the way down, but evidently distrusting her son's 
 capabilities of managing the larger number until 
 they were well in hand and near their destination, 
 she had waited her time to go after them. She 
 was always ready to take charge of any number for 
 hours together, and we could be quite sure that none 
 would stray while she was round. There was no 
 other dog on the station who knew the country as 
 she did ; though it was a mass of hills she seemed 
 acquainted with every gulch about it. 
 
 When as far as could be seen we had cleared the 
 disturbed quiet of the hills and massed the sheep 
 together, we took them to the station and put them 
 in the yards. In the morning all hands were down 
 there early. Stewart, and the boss and another man 
 stood against a dividing fence, and the younger hands, 
 of whom I was of course one, caught and held the 
 wretched little lambs for the surgical operation. 
 The ear-mark that differentiated them legally from 
 the property of the neighbouring squatters was 
 made quickly and skilfully, and by each man's feet 
 grew up a pile of dissevered tails. Let loose again 
 the hurt and astonished, animal ran bleating to its 
 mother, who seemed so glad to have it back at any 
 price that she could not trouble over an injury 
 which in her own case had been long ago forgotten. 
 And I jumped here and there all day long in a 
 yard which grew hotter and hotter, and dustier and 
 
AT DORA DORA. 75 
 
 dustier still, till half blinded with sweat, and 
 smarting with the yolk from the wool, I was glad 
 for the sun to sink behind the hills. That at any 
 rate hinted at the end, if it did not yet come, for 
 though the Australian station working day is from 
 sunrise to sundown, in the hills one cannot quite 
 know when the due work is done as one may upon 
 the long and level plains. 
 
 When all the marking was over there was a 
 comparative rest. Shearing did not come yet 
 awhile and I was freer to attend to the fences, some 
 of which were put under my charge when Jack 
 went. For, like many bush workers, he had made 
 quite enough money for a spree, and was ready for 
 it. Yet Jack only went down to town to " blue his 
 cheque " at reasonable intervals. We had a quaint, 
 worn down, half-worn-out old man on the station 
 whom we considered a German. As he never said 
 so and was known as Tom, and moreover spoke 
 without any particular accent, I do not know what 
 reason there was for thinking him a Teuton. But 
 his sprees came off regularly about once every three 
 weeks. He was absent for about five or six days 
 over at a grog-shanty not far from Mr. Mitchell's, 
 on the other side of the Tunnel, and then would 
 turn up again and go to work. One day I was 
 helping him at some work — if I remember rightly 
 w r e were together remedying the effects on gates 
 and fences of my first lesson in bullock-driving. 
 Suddenly, thinking of England, I said half to 
 
76 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 myself, " Eheu fugaces" and then this blear-eyed 
 old nondescript added quietly, M Postume, Poshinze." 
 I started and stared at him. He looked up in a 
 queer melancholy way and said, "Why not?" It 
 turned out that he knew far more of the classics 
 than I could dare boast of; his knowledge of 
 French and German seemed good ; and even then, 
 after many years of never seeing a mathematical 
 book, he could talk Binomial Theorem, the Theory 
 of Projectiles, and Geometry until I felt like asking 
 him to give me a few lessons. But his history I 
 never learnt, nor did I ask what I knew must be 
 melancholy. Yet it was doubtless a human 
 document. 
 
 Perhaps indeed I had little time to earn his 
 confidence, for save when upon the back ranges 
 riding round the fences with the sign of my work, 
 a sharp tomahawk, slung to the dees of my saddle, 
 I had little leisure. But I loved to be on the hills 
 early in the morning after being roused at dawn by 
 the laughing-jackass birds, who sat on the trees by the 
 river, uttering their weird cacophony of human and 
 asinine voices in satiric juxtaposition as though they 
 mocked mankind in general. Riding up the creeks 
 often a dense flock of white cockatoos flew overhead 
 uttering the most ear-piercing screams. They 
 followed me at times for half a mile until I wished for 
 a gun to give the survivors some reason to deafen 
 me with reproaches. Getting clear of them at last 
 I often came to places which, save for a hint of a 
 
AT DORA DORA. 79 
 
 track, seemed as primitive as if a wandering white 
 man had never set his foot in this undiscovered 
 country. Sometimes when in no hurry I tied my 
 horse to the fence or a sapling, and going but a few 
 hundred yards into the bush on a voyage of ex- 
 ploration, I came occasionally upon the ancient 
 camping grounds of the grey kangaroo. It re- 
 quired a certain lightness of foot and deftness of 
 tread to make one's way under the trees and 
 through the scrub, without alarming them by the 
 snapping of a dry twig or some unwonted rustle ; 
 but once, at least, I succeeded in watching for some 
 minutes a dozen or more as they grazed or took 
 their siesta in a small natural clearing in the utmost 
 security of imagined loneliness. At such times 
 there is a certain parodied humanity about them 
 which those who only alarm or hunt them can 
 never hope to see, for some of the larger ones 
 standing up in the brush seemed like sentinels, while 
 others lying at full length on their sides suggested 
 a bivouac, or rather a peaceful picnic party. The 
 scene was idyllic : these seemed like satyrs, those 
 half-hidden like hamadryads, as the sunlight 
 piercing through the trees into their shadowy camp 
 touched them with light and dark, that made them 
 obscure of form and outline. Perhaps if I had been 
 older and more thoughtful I might have retreated 
 in such guarded silence as I came, leaving them 
 undisturbed in their haunts of ancient peace for 
 very love of their sweet and natural simplicity ; but 
 
80 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 I was not so kind, and one shout was like a bomb- 
 shell dropped into a party of soldiers. At a leap 
 the young ones, the little joeys, were in their 
 mothers' pouches, those lying down rose on the 
 instant and each made a plunging jump into the 
 nearest cover. A repeated " crash, crash," at 
 regular intervals told of their hurried retreat in the 
 opposite direction. They never made a mistake as 
 to the location whence the sound that alarmed them 
 issued. Then I returned to my horse, to find him 
 with pricked up ears, wondering what had happened 
 to make me yell in that way. And I went on 
 homeward, every now and again cutting down a 
 sapling or two to put on a low place in the fence. 
 Or if I felt very lazy I promised myself to do it the 
 next time I came that way, and returned home at a 
 slow pace through the heavy silence of the forest, 
 which was only occasionally broken by kangaroos 
 or the startled trot of some wild horse — a ' brumby ' 
 who had escaped the rope and branding iron. The 
 true wild horse that has been foaled by a wild 
 mother is rare in this comparatively settled part of 
 the bush, but once they ranged on the plains of 
 New South Wales in thousands. It was a speculation 
 to catch them and a business to shoot them. The 
 method of destroying them by the rifle was 
 ingenious. Long after leaving Dora Dora I met 
 a man who for a time earned his living by killing 
 warrigals. For, independent of the value of the 
 hide, they are a great nuisance to squatters. The 
 
AT DORA DORA. 81 
 
 stallions came to the station at night, took away all 
 the mares, and scared the geldings to death. 
 These would be found in the morning trembling 
 with terror in the stockyard. Any mare that was 
 hobbled and could not go fast the stallion often 
 bit and kicked, not understanding the nature of the 
 impediment which prevented her galloping. So it 
 was necessary to catch or kill these horses. 
 
 To do this successfully the hunter found out some 
 favourite feeding ground, and, on getting within easy 
 range under good cover, he aimed at one of the mares. 
 At the sound of the shot the rest fled, the stallion 
 bringing up the rear. But in a moment he would 
 notice that one was missing. Increasing his pace 
 he shot ahead of his harem, rounded them up and 
 drove them back to the dead mare. Her he bit to 
 rouse her from her untimely sleep. Finding this 
 fail he often wheeled round and kicked her. Then 
 another mare fell to the hunter's rifle. This flight 
 and return sometimes occurred again and again, and 
 each time a good marksman brought down one of 
 the mob. If he had killed the stallion at first he 
 would have secured but one, for the mares without 
 his obstinacy could escape. Nowadays however the 
 wild horse is getting scarce even in the northern 
 plains. 
 
 Yet I ran a " brumby " in on Dora Dora after a 
 long and exciting chase. Occasionally I had to go 
 to one of the riverside paddocks which was about 
 three miles round, and a perfect nightmare to a 
 
 G 
 
82 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 horseman if there were any necessity for speed. 
 The ground in no place was level, and through it 
 rocks cropped up in every direction, here and 
 there were small deceitful swamps as well as cup- 
 like hollows masked by brush and scrub, while every 
 now and again in a gallop one was confronted by a 
 regular abattis of fallen interlocked timber, whose 
 broken jagged branches protruded, threatening to 
 stake the horse or impale the rider. One day on 
 going to run up three horses feeding in this paddock 
 I found a stranger. He was too wild for me to get 
 near enough to see whether he was branded with 
 some squatter's mark, but from the long main and 
 lengthy tail falling away from its rump in the grace- 
 ful curve characteristic of a warrigal, I judged that no 
 man had ever had his hands upon it. I should have 
 left this horse alone had it not been that its presence 
 and example made the others as wild to approach as 
 if they too had never been broken. The stranger 
 attempted to leave the paddock at the place he had 
 entered it. But he was fairly pounded as the take 
 off was everywhere up hill, and the brush fence was 
 very high. I started the chase. My objective was 
 a little stockyard in an angle of the fence. Three 
 times we went round the paddock at a breakneck 
 pace. Once my horse stumbled and fell, but 1 
 lighted clear of him on soft ground without losing 
 the reins. At last I ran close up to the four and 
 began to think I was getting command of them, 
 when suddenly the leader doubled to the left round 
 
AT DORA DORA. 83 
 
 some thick scrub. Now it is the nature of a stock- 
 horse to endeavour above all things to prevent what 
 he is chasing from getting away by any such man- 
 oeuvre, and the one I rode cut instantly to the left 
 also, increasing his pace as he did so. He picked 
 his own place in the scrub, leaving me to take care 
 of myself, which I did by dropping my face to his 
 withers, putting my arms before my head at the 
 same time. This is always the best way to charge 
 thick scrub. In this position we burst through the 
 bushes like a tornado, scattering the broken branches 
 and leaves in all directions, and then just in front of 
 us was a regular stockade of fallen timber. I had 
 no time to think ; before the dust was out of my eyes 
 the danger was past, but I had just one sickening 
 moment as my horse rose in the air. He jumped 
 right through the branches of a fallen tree as I 
 dropped to escape a sharp spear-like stub. Next 
 day I went to look at the place, and found that 
 there was absolutely no other way out of the 
 .impasse. The judgment of the experienced animal 
 I rode was good : hesitation would have been fatal. 
 Even a stock horse, accustomed as he is to stopping 
 suddenly, could hardly have pulled up ; and mine was 
 in such a state of excitement which would have 
 made him prefer killing himself to letting the other 
 go. And on the next round the warrigal's wind 
 and courage failed him. I drove him into the 
 stockyard at last. 
 
 Soon afterwards I left Dora Dora after some 
 
 G 2 
 
S4 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 little trouble with my " boss," in which I was to 
 blame. The same morning I had a fight in the 
 garden with another young fellow working there, in 
 which he showed a curious philosophy. After the 
 exchange of a few blows we locked, and he came 
 down undermost. " Don't let's make fools of our- 
 selves," said he, as he reached for his pipe. 1 let 
 him rise, remarking if that was the view he took of 
 the situation I was quite content. Evidently, as 
 they say in America, he was not a hog. He knew 
 when he had enough. That afternoon I packed up 
 my clothes in a rough kind of " swag," or bundle, 
 and " humped" it down to Albury, reaching there 
 on the following day. It was the first but not the 
 last time that I " humped my swag." For on Dora 
 Dora I was a kind of half-aristocrat, neither a do- 
 nothing, nor a regular hand. Henceforward I 
 threw gentility to the winds, came down to my 
 bearings, and started as one who had learnt some- 
 thing and thought himself worth at least the regula- 
 tion pound a week and his grub. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THROUGH THE BULL PLAINS. 
 
 On reaching Albury I put-up at the same hotel to 
 which Roland, Tom, and I had been taken when we 
 first crossed the Murray from the land of the Vic- 
 torian " gum-suckers" to that of the New South Wales 
 " cornstalks." As I had, besides the money I brought 
 down with me from Dora Dora, some twenty pounds 
 sent me from England, I was able to present a re- 
 spectable appearance in town. So I went across 
 and called at the vicarage, there learning that my 
 wild friend Roland Broome was engaged in the 
 peaceful pursuits of a bank clerk. I wondered how 
 long it would last, for I knew he was apt to break 
 out at times. Yet he had behaved himself as far as I 
 could learn with an almost exemplary sobriety ; that 
 is to say, with the exception of a little drinking bout 
 when on a visit to Corowa, some forty miles west of 
 
86 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA FARING. 
 
 Albury, none of the ladies in Albury had anything 
 against him. Indeed, with all the younger ones he 
 was more than a favourite. He was overjoyed to see 
 me, and I had much difficulty in preventing my re- 
 turn from being the occasion of the loss of his 
 precarious character. He described himself as the 
 happiest man in the universe, declared he was in 
 want of nothing, swore vigorously that New South 
 Wales people were the nicest in the world, that he 
 lamented not having known the country years before, 
 and finally thanked me, with a variety of new and old 
 expletives, for having been the occasion of his com- 
 ing to a land where his virtues were appreciated. He 
 certainly was a most fascinating and amusing man 
 even when we were in poverty, when we lived in a 
 low quarter of Melbourne and ate at a sixpenny 
 restaurant ; but now in prosperity, he bloomed and 
 blossomed into fun and amusing anecdotes, which 
 required all my knowledge of his fertile imagination to 
 reduce to some credibility. He gave one evening on 
 the verandah of the hotel a highly-coloured account of 
 our passage in the Seringapatam which was so 
 absolutely new to me that I remonstrated with 
 him in private. But as all the listeners laughed 
 till they cried he was perhaps justified. Certainly 
 he made an experience seem amusing to me which 
 was no joke even to remember. 
 
 I stayed in town about ten days. The summer 
 was now coming in fast, and if I delayed departing I 
 might lose all chance of work in the sheep-shearing 
 
THROUGH THE BULL PLAINS. 87 
 
 which was about to commence. So I made prepar- 
 ations to set out on my journey by buying a horse, 
 And though I flattered myself that I could now stick 
 on with a certain degree of confidence in myself, 
 I was most abominably swindled in my purchase, 
 I had paid so much attention to mere equitation, 
 that of the horse's anatomy I knew nothing. Sound- 
 ness was a desirable quality, that was certain, but 
 how to be even approximately sure that a horse was 
 not screwed in every leg, I knew not. So a certain 
 Englishman, who was probably not above taking a 
 commission, persuaded me to buy my horse from a 
 rascally Irishman who would have sworn his way 
 through all the stone walls in Galway if there were 
 the price of a creel of turf on the other side of 
 his perjuries. I parted with ^10 of good money and 
 got a very bad mare. It is true she was in fine con- 
 dition and shone like silk, but she was badly screwed 
 in the near foreleg, and likely to break down any 
 minute, as the hotel stableman told me with pity for 
 my English ignorance. But in the morning of the 
 next day I set out on my journey heading west down 
 the main river road towards Corowa. I reached 
 that town on the following day early in the afternoon, 
 and then rode into the bush, taking the north road 
 towards the Bull Plains. 
 
 In my time in Australia, some twelve years ago, 
 there' was little difficulty in a traveller getting 
 sufficient to eat without paying for it, if he could 
 manage to keep off main roads or very frequented 
 
88 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 tracks. Numbers of men in the bush never do any- 
 work at all but travel the year round, taking care 
 to come to a station at "sundown," when there is 
 no chance of their perfunctory application for work 
 being entertained till the morning. After two 
 meals and a good rest it is easy to be dissatisfied 
 if any job is proposed, and the " sundowner " or 
 tramp makes his way to another station. The usual 
 formula is to ride up, and say to any one handy, 
 " Can I see the boss ?" The " boss " comes out. 
 " Any chance of a job, sir ? " Probably the answer 
 is in the negative. Then, " I suppose I can stay 
 here to-night ? " This is, or was, rarely refused, and 
 if the manager or owner is a good fellow he does 
 not mind the traveller's horse going in the horse- 
 paddock, provided of course that there is a fair 
 quantity of grass, otherwise he has to hobble him 
 and let him pick what he can where he can find it. 
 
 About noon on the day I left Corowa I came to 
 a small station in a little plain surrounded more or 
 less by pine scrub. As it was obviously dinner 
 time by my sensations I rode up, and alighting, 
 went to the biggest house or hut to find some half- 
 dozen men eating, their sleeves turned up and their 
 hats on their heads. When I asked for the boss 
 no one would own to being the individual. " In 
 fact," said the cook, " we're all bosses just now, the 
 old man has gone into town." He invited me in, 
 and I sat down with them to a tin dish of mutton, 
 and a bucket of tea from which I scooped my 
 
THROUGH THE BULL PLAINS. 91 
 
 pannikin-full as if to the manner born. After dinner 
 I set out again. The sun was very powerful, and 
 the hotter it grew the worse became the day pest of 
 Australia, the common fly. They swarm every- 
 where in the warm weather, get into one's eyes, ears, 
 and mouth, and worry the horse to death. Of mos- 
 quitoes I had as yet had no very painful experience. 
 In this heat I travelled only slowly : for one 
 thing I feared to fatigue the mare, though she 
 showed no signs of giving way. I had continually 
 to unhook my canvas water-bag from the saddle and 
 take a drink, and was glad on passing another house 
 to get it refilled. This water-bag should always 
 be a traveller's companion. It may save him much 
 suffering, save him even from death, if he gets 
 " bushed," losing his way in a comparatively track- 
 less country. If it be made of sufficiently porous 
 canvas to allow the water to moisten the outside 
 its contents are always cool, for the evaporation is 
 rapid. A large one hanging under the verandah of a 
 house is very commonly seen in the bush ; and when 
 the heat is sufficient to make water kept in any 
 ordinary vessel quite tepid, a cool drink from a canvas 
 bag may well rank as a luxury. But presently the 
 sun began to decline. I had forgotten to ask at the 
 last house where the next one was, and I foresaw I 
 should probably have to camp out. When the sun 
 went down without any signs of a station near at 
 hand, I looked for a suitable place. Then I saw a 
 fourwheeled buggy coming towards me drawn by two 
 
9 2 
 
 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 horses which were evidently much fatigued. When 
 I reached it the driver pulled up, asking me how 
 far the next house was. " About seven miles," I 
 replied, and asked him a similar question. The 
 last place he had passed was also about seven miles 
 away. It was evidently a question of our picking a 
 camp. We settled to stay together. I was without 
 food, but he had enough for two. We hobbled 
 
 the horses and 
 turned them a- 
 drift, and I set to 
 work making a 
 fire, by no means 
 an easy thing to 
 do in a country 
 which was just 
 there almost with- 
 out wood. But 
 by careful search 
 I managed to col- 
 lect enough to 
 boil the " billy," 
 or tin pot, which is even more useful and more 
 universal than the water-bag. We ate a very 
 frugal meal, and after a couple of pipes over the 
 embers of the fire I paid him for his food by sharing 
 my blankets with him. As it threatened to be 
 rather cold, I only took off my boots. 
 
 I shall always remember that night, not because of 
 anything startling that occurred — there was indeed 
 
THROUGH THE BULL PLAINS. 93 
 
 no convulsion of nature, no storm, no eclipse, or 
 earthquake. But it was a new experience ; it was 
 the first time I ever camped out under the arch of 
 the skies, without even the shelter of a tent. Since 
 then I have watched, all alone, the sun set on a vast 
 and level plain on which I and my horse were the 
 only living things to be seen. I have camped in 
 the deserted beds of ancient rivers, in thick and 
 choking brush, on the solitary summits of mountains, 
 in dark canons, on sweet prairies, listening half the 
 night to the melancholy howling of coyotes and 
 wolves ; in dense forests among snow, and by waters 
 that ran from glaciers thousands of feet above my 
 couch ; and yet in all these places and the thousand 
 other that a wanderer for years sleeps in, I was 
 never so moved as when I lay down on the desolate 
 road which led northward to the unknown plains. 
 As we thought would be the case the night grew 
 chill, the southerly wind was searching after the hot 
 day, but I did not trouble about that. I had begun 
 a new life. Or was it indeed but an old one, one 
 that my far ancestors knew before they settled in 
 cities and devoted themselves to the rearing of an 
 unnatural civilization ? 
 
 In the morning after breakfast my companion 
 presented me with the remainder of his provisions, 
 and we parted, I northward, and he southward to 
 Corowa. I passed the station which he told me 
 was seven miles distance, and shortly afterwards 
 another. Having food, I satisfied my noon hunger 
 
94 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 with that, filled my water-bag, and went onward to 
 another sheep station. I began to come out upon 
 the more open country. The scrub grew scantier, the 
 trees fewer, from one thin belt of timber to the next 
 was farther still and still farther. And now let 
 me sketch you the sunlit plains of this Australian 
 Riverina. 
 
 The road before me was but an indicated half- 
 beaten track of brown earth ; it dwindled in far 
 perspective to a streak, and was lost in the haze that 
 lay upon the horizon. Above the low and level 
 skyline the heavens were faintly tinged with pale 
 purples which only gradually yielded to the intense 
 and perfect blue, and high overhead, so high as 
 nearly to touch the zenith, the sun at noon seemed 
 slow to move from the post where he held the 
 w rid at such an advantage. The grass which had 
 been green but a month ago was almost as sere and 
 sapless as sun-dried twigs, and in parts already dis- 
 covered the bare soil, for the white and dusty sheep 
 in the shadows were many for the pasture in which 
 they grazed. The trees under which they stood 
 panting, with the outsiders drooping their heads 
 lower and lower yet to catch the scanty shadow of 
 their companions, were boxes, whose dull, metallic, 
 blue-green leaves were powdered with faint fine dust, 
 lifted even by the lightest air, or raised high by the 
 tramping of the sheep as they moved from their 
 noonday camp. The other trees were but scrub 
 pines of a lighter green, too thickly set for anything 
 
THROUGH THE BULL PLAINS. 95 
 
 but a stray dingo to make his way through, and too 
 small to be of use to man, save perhaps to replace 
 the broken whip-handle of some wayfaring bullock- 
 driver. 
 
 It was a dry land that was for ever threatening 
 thirst, for it could boast of but little permanent water. 
 There were no perennial springs and creeks such as 
 gladdened the thick shadows and cool places of 
 the Murray Hills whence I had come, and the dug 
 tanks which contained the winter's water were some 
 of them already tainted by the odour of the yoke 
 and grease of the sheep that frequented them, which 
 even boiling and much tea could scarcely disguise or 
 palliate. I myself had a bitter enough experience of 
 drought before I came to the Big Billabong, for I 
 was for more than twenty hours without sufficient 
 water, after I had passed into that peculiarly charac- 
 teristic series of plains ringed with a dull line of box- 
 trees, where open succeeded open the livelong day 
 of travel with wearisome iteration. By noon I had 
 unconsciously almost drained my water-bag dry. It 
 was with a sudden start, as though I woke in terror, 
 that I found it nearly empty, and the anguish of 
 thirst grew with maddening rapidity when I no 
 longer dared to drink. My poor horse had been 
 threatening to fall lame, and I could not urge her 
 to a pace faster than a walk, and for ever as we 
 went over the scorching ground the musical murmur 
 of the little liquid still remaining in the bag grew 
 more enticing and more tormenting. Had I known 
 
96 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 the country, or been more fortunate, I should have 
 reached a station in the evening ; but I came at last 
 to two ways with such equal signs of travel, that 
 there was no choice between them but that of chance, 
 and of course I took the left and the wrong road. 
 It led me to no house or water, but to a pile of cut 
 wood only, and there I had to camp in the gathering 
 darkness in such thirst that I took no thought of the 
 food I carried with me. My horse was in such 
 straits that I was obliged to tether her, or in her 
 search for water I might never have seen her again. 
 The night passed in wakefulness and anguish of no 
 common order, for the thirst of even a few hours in 
 a hot sun and dry atmosphere is far more dreadful 
 and distressing than hunger, even when protracted 
 for days. 
 
 At the very earliest dawn I rose dry-mouthed, 
 saddled my horse, whose coat was already staring, 
 and retraced our steps to the parting of the roads. 
 By the time we reached it the level sun was flooding 
 the silent and solitary plain with floods of misty light, 
 tingeing the far belts of box with passing gold, and 
 giving out even at that early hour sufficient heat to 
 make me dread the time of noon. By eleven o'clock 
 I passed the final belt of trees, and saw, just saw, the 
 corrugated-iron roofs of the next station glittering in 
 the sun at the far verge of the longest plain I had 
 yet reached, one that was nearly fifteen miles across. 
 I took my bag from the saddle, drank a few drops 
 of water, and pouring the scant remainder into my 
 
THROUGH THE BULL PLAINS. 97 
 
 hollowed hand, gave it to my horse, and then com- 
 menced the last stage of my journey. I can well re- 
 member how maddening it was to see the place to 
 which I was journeying, and yet to know how far it 
 was away ; to know that there must be water there 
 in abundance, and yet to be almost choking for a 
 drink ; to feel the sun increasing every moment in 
 power, and to catch its reflected glare from the 
 ground beneath me. What water I had taken but 
 made me long for more, and indeed its effect was 
 scarcely momentary, for my tongue grew parched 
 and dry and stuck to my mouth, my lips cracked, and 
 perspiration wholly ceased, though I was in the full 
 rays of the sun. It took me three hours to cross that 
 long last plain, and they were almost three eternities 
 of torture, but when they were over the pleasure of 
 drinking and of seeing my horse drink was more 
 than I could have believed. * I had often read of 
 thirst, but now I can understand what it means, 
 while to most it is but an unknown horror which 
 they only as vaguely conceive as some mythologic 
 monster that concerns them not. 
 
 And the next day at about nine in the morning I 
 came to plentiful water — to the Big Billabong. And 
 beyond it lay a true plain, without a tree, without 
 a bit of scrub, a dull, long, dry, threatening level, 
 running bare to the very horizon. I who had but 
 just suffered from thirst pondered long as to 
 whether I should venture into such a country. I 
 knew that only a few miles beyond sight was the 
 
 H 
 
98 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 town of Urana. I had been told of it, but in my 
 heart I refused to believe that any human beings 
 could live there. It was like original exploration in 
 a thirst land, and though I had planned going 
 northward I could not bear to leave the cool and 
 plentiful water and the shadow of the gums. I was 
 fairly scared of that sun-burnt desert. That is why 
 I changed my course and went south-south-east 
 along the Billabong At any rate, food or none, 
 I should not die of thirst. In the evening I reached 
 Mahonga, owned by a man who is known all over 
 Australia as " Bobby Rand." A little dry stick of a 
 station-owner he was, but though he had no work for 
 me I was at liberty to stay that night if I liked. 
 On going to the kitchen I found a woman cooking 
 there, and I had a very good meal, the first satisfac- 
 tory one for several days. I was glad to hear that 
 there was some chance of my obtaining a job from a 
 man doing contract work for " Bobby," for my horse 
 began to show signs of unsoundness which required 
 no veterinary surgeon to recognize. In the morn- 
 ing, leaving her in the paddock, I put my blankets 
 on my back, and with a mightily confused map of 
 my seven-mile journey set out to find something to 
 do. And very naturally I lost my way. To follow 
 a chock and log fence for about a mile, then cross it 
 and go at an angle till I struck a belt of timber, to 
 go through that until I found a brush fence, and 
 so on, landed me at last in a piece of scrub, not 
 knowing in the least where anywhere might be. 
 
THROUGH THE BULL PLAINS. 99 
 
 However, knowing that I should come to another 
 fence if I only kept in one direction, and that where 
 a fence was a road must in the end be found, I set 
 forward, and to my delight at last heard something 
 which was distinctly made by men — the unmistakable 
 sound of an axe. I came to some rail-splitters, 
 who instantly knocked off work, glad of any excuse 
 to " boil the billy" and drink some tea. How 
 Australia would get on without that favourite 
 drink is a puzzle to me. If, as the Colonials say, 
 u stringy bark and raw hide " are the salvation of 
 Australia, by giving them roofing material and 
 something to tie things with, tea appears to be 
 the support of the Australians themselves. So 
 the splitters and I sat down and fraternized over 
 the fragrant pannikin. I learnt that I was not very 
 far out of my road, for Brown's camp was less than 
 two miles away. By following an easily found 
 fence I reached it an hour afterwards, and was 
 hired at once to drive the horses and carts which 
 took the earth from the great excavation, called a 
 tank, in which the rainy season's water was to be 
 caught. With Brown I remained at very hard work 
 for seven weeks, rising at dawn, and labouring till 
 dark. 
 
 It was now fast approaching summer, and the 
 hottest part of it, and the heavens above were a 
 cloudless and open blue. Our slight camp was 
 situated in a small hollow, as we were naturally in 
 a spot most advantageous for catching the rain- 
 
 H 2 
 
'ioo LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 water, and round us on every side was dense forest 
 or almost impassable scrub. The trees were the 
 universal box, with a few soft-wooded currajongs, 
 so regular in shape as to suggest Dutch gardening, 
 and numberless varieties of bushes, some more 
 nearly approaching weeds, and others only to be 
 distinguished from trees by their size. Here also 
 was to be found the quandong tree, the stones of 
 which make such pretty necklaces. The ground, 
 especially about our kitchen, was covered with 
 countless swarms of ants, bull-dogs and sugar-ants, 
 the small black venomous pismire, and hosts of un- 
 named others ; there were large hairy tarantulas, or 
 triantelopes, as we called them in the native language, 
 which would have been barely extinguished by a 
 saucer, and other spiders of strange and uncanny 
 appearance and ferocious reputation. Under the 
 rotting roots lay large centipedes, and beneath the 
 rails made to fence the tank we every now and again 
 found a fierce scorpion or brown snake. The trees 
 about us were inhabited by iguanas of a size ap- 
 proaching that of small crocodiles, and the birds who 
 scanned our proceedings in their ancient demesnes 
 were bright and numerous. Among these the bell 
 bird was very plentiful, and I heard its note every 
 morning while hunting for the horses, and sometimes 
 it led me astray. It is not like the famous cam- 
 panero of the Brazilian forests, whose voice is as the 
 sound of a hammer striking a large anvil, to be 
 heard for miles, but it is light, airy, at times as faint 
 
THROUGH THE BULL PLAINS. 101 
 
 as the far-distant ghost of a sound, like a bell 
 of dreamland, or a single note remembered in after 
 years. Those who listen to it cannot say " it is 
 here," or " it is there " ; they cannot with assurance 
 affirm that there are many birds, or only one with 
 a strange echoing gift of tongues. There is, I 
 know not why, something pathetic in it, something 
 curiously sweet, whether from its quality or sugges- 
 tions, although it does not chime with a more re- 
 current and regular rhythm than the broken music 
 of sounding streams. Perhaps it may be that it is 
 so unearthly that we hear and dream in waking, 
 being bidden to think of another world, that it is 
 suggestive of something past and dead, or that it 
 prophesies in melancholy something not yet to be. 
 I have stayed in early morning in the quiet forest 
 with the level sun staring at me through the windless 
 trees, and listened with bent head and uplifted finger 
 as though I suddenly heard a summons that was 
 meant for me alone, as though I caught a sound that 
 was inaudible by others, and as though I might, by 
 an abstraction of thought from my visible surround- 
 ings, behold that invisible world which seems at 
 such moments hidden but by a thin and impalpable 
 veil. 
 
 In all tropical and sub-tropical climates there is a 
 possibility of a sudden storm during the summer, 
 and usually the more unexpected it is, the greater is 
 its force and the more terrible the devastation that 
 it works. It was well into December ere the work 
 
102 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 upon which I was employed reached its completion ; 
 and three days before we did the last strokes of our 
 long task there came a storm of tropical intensity, 
 which was startling both by its fury and short dura- 
 tion. The wind had been blowing softly all the 
 morning from the north-west, and yet clouds, the 
 first I had seen for months, were gradually gather- 
 ing in the south-east. By noon all that quarter was 
 black, half the heavens to the very zenith were 
 hidden in murky obscurity, and as though it had 
 been agreed upon by the powers of wind and rain 
 that the clouds reaching so far should be the signal 
 for devastation, the storm suddenly smote us, with 
 no more warning than a few preliminary splashes of 
 heavy rain. In one moment the wind blew a hurri- 
 cane, and was almost solid — to walk against it was 
 like going through water up to the chin ; the dust 
 rose up in one blinding mass, and was instantly 
 smitten to the ground by rain which fell in sheets, 
 and was torn into foam and smoke ere it touched the 
 earth ; sticks and branches hurtled through the air ; 
 the leaves were stripped from the bent trees, and 
 went level in the screaming wind like a solid flight 
 of green parroquets ; and even in the most sheltered 
 forest tree after tree came down with a crash — some 
 torn up by the roots, and others, solid and sound 
 though they might be, were smashed and splintered 
 and their whole crowns thrown yards from the 
 shattered stumps. Our tents lay flat or bellying 
 upon the ground, even though we were camped 
 
THROUGH THE BULL PLAINS. 
 
 [03 
 
 behind the dam we had raised ; the slight structure 
 which had been our kitchen suddenly disappeared, 
 while pots and pans and pannikins rattled and 
 bowled along the ground, as we lay down praying 
 that none of the flying branches might fall upon us. 
 And the rain fell in floods, and in no floods of a 
 figure of speech. This pandemonium lasted just 
 one quarter of an hour, and then, as suddenly as it 
 
 had begun, so 
 suddenly it ceased ; 
 the black clouds flew past 
 us, the sun shone out hotly 
 in a clear sky, and save for 
 the mud, the disordered camp, and our great 
 tank more than three-quarters full, there was no 
 sign of the squall which had made us fear for our 
 lives, and had taught us what a tornado was and 
 what it could do. But it made the grass grow green 
 again for a few days, the grass that would be so 
 surely needed ere the summer was past, for it was 
 getting towards Christmas, and the thermometer 
 stood higher and higher every day. 
 
IQ4 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 That summer job of mine was surely very hard 
 work. I was called the horse-driver, and drive I did, 
 but I learnt to use the pick and shovel as well during 
 that hot seven weeks. The axe, then an almost un- 
 known implement to me, took a great deal of learning. 
 Dora Dora only taught me that it was a difficult 
 thing to handle, but the camp in Morgan's paddock 
 made me fairly proficient. 
 
 The hole in the ground which we called the tank, 
 and from which I helped to take the last five 
 thousand cubic yards of "dirt" (in all it measured 
 fifteen thousand) was surrounded by a fence. I dug 
 many of the post holes with spade and bar. The 
 posts were bored for wire. I bored them in the 
 intervals of driving, just as a recreation. The way 
 left open to the water was corduroyed with small 
 trees pegged down to large ones sunk lengthways on 
 the slope. With a great two-inch auger I made the 
 peg holes. Occasionally I made mortice holes. 
 Now, as every worker knows, every tool makes its 
 natural blisters on a soft hand. The axe raises them 
 in one place, the saw in another, the bar in a third. 
 The auger selects the middle of the palm. As I 
 took up new tools one after the other, blister after 
 blister rose, until at one time on both hands I could 
 count forty places were they were or had been, to 
 say nothing of others quite healed and passed out of 
 sight under new and hardened epithelium. As I 
 was always dabbling in water, or handling wet clay, 
 my skin never got a rest, the tender new skin 
 
THROUGH THE BULL PLAINS. 105 
 
 cracked, my hands were covered with blood ; every 
 tool I touched I left a mark on. The pain and 
 agony were often exquisite, I wonder now that I 
 did not throw up my job and go off on the 
 " wallaby track " once more. But there is at times 
 a certain unthinking tenacity about me. I worked 
 doggedly on day by day, determined to stay till the 
 job was finished. There were no compensations. Our 
 only amusement was throwing sticks at the gigantic 
 iguanas who frequented the trees about the camp. 
 They were often over six feet in length, and one we 
 particularly noticed was nearly nine ; a kind of 
 arboreal crocodile he seemed. On Sundays, I some- 
 times wandered into the thick scrub of the paddock 
 and gathered quandongs, taking out the stones. As 
 fruit, the quandong is not a success. 
 
 As I said above, the paddock in which we worked 
 was known as Morgan's paddock, being named after 
 the most celebrated Australian bushranger. It had 
 been in the old days one of his favourite hiding- 
 places, for the thickness and impenetrability of the 
 scrub made it comparatively safe. Like the tiger 
 that he sometimes was, he lurked in the jungle. 
 At times, when quite alone in the scrub, a mile 
 from our camp, I used to think of Morgan, the 
 solitary criminal, with no friend, no companion but 
 his horse, sitting there too, never quite safe for a 
 moment, never at peace, never able to sleep in quiet, 
 for ever with his hands upon the weapons with which 
 he was such a dead shot. Bobby Rand and he knew 
 each other very well ; and on more than one occasion 
 
io6 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 the squatter had to furnish the outlaw with a horse. 
 None but the best suited Morgan. It was a case ot 
 force majeure. Some months after I left Mahonga 
 I travelled with a man who worked on that station 
 when Morgan was in the neighbourhood. He came 
 in one evening when work was over, ordered every 
 one into the kitchen except the overseer, whom he 
 set playing in the house on a kind of harmonium, 
 with orders to keep on at music under pain of death. 
 Rand himself and his men sat in the kitchen while 
 Morgan had supper, with his revolvers on the table. 
 His hard and awful life was beginning to tell on him. 
 His face was pallid and worn, the eyes burning as 
 in a kind of delirium ; he was restless and nervous. 
 Yet even so he was able to ride a young horse 
 which bucked very hard. That was next morning. 
 He sat the buck-jumper like a born horseman, and, 
 as I was told, held the reins in his teeth, keeping his 
 six-shooters in his hands, never for a moment taking 
 his eyes from the crowd. He feared being shot from 
 behind, as he afterwards was at Pidgiebar in 
 Victoria. 
 
 It is a curious example of the fact that Morgan 
 for all his occasional bloodthirstiness was not alto- 
 gether a bad man, that he took a real interest in 
 the working men's wages and food. Not infre- 
 quently they growled to him of the inadequacy of 
 their allowance of provisions. He would have a 
 talk with their employer on the subject. It may 
 easily be imagined that his slightest suggestions 
 were attended to at once. Like the American who 
 
THROUGH THE BULL PLAINS. 107 
 
 chased another for two miles with an axe, " he warn't 
 a man to go projeckin' with." Of course there is a 
 sad quantity of myth grown up about the man, as 
 there is about every bushranger, and it is often 
 difficult to disentangle the truth from the falsehood. 
 These outlaws are a stock subject for conversation 
 round the camp fire, and share with horses, gold min- 
 ing, and ribaldry the talk of the evening after work. 
 When it was evident that we should put the final 
 touches to the tank in about a week, I began to think 
 of getting some other employment. While reading a 
 newspaper published at Albury, I noticed an adver- 
 tisement by a man not three miles from our camp. 
 He wanted a tutor for his three children. The next 
 Sunday I walked through the bush to his place, and 
 offered my services in that capacity. I was a rough 
 enough looking tutor,but as I had a certificate ofmatri- 
 culation at London University in my pocket-book, I 
 proffered that as a testimonial to my education. It had 
 as much effect as if it had been a voucher of a double 
 first at Oxford, and it was with evident regret that 
 he owned to having already hired some one who had 
 been beforehand with me. Still, if I wanted work, 
 he would give it me on the completion of the tank. 
 1 was to do odd jobs — in fact, be a general rouse - 
 about — for a pound a week and my grub. Having 
 settled that, I went back to the camp. In three days 
 we had cleared up everything. I took my money, 
 bade farewell to my mates, and walked over to 
 take up my duties in a new situation. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 T HE GREAT H E A T. 
 
 r was Dy no 
 means a man of the same 
 character as Brown, the 
 contractor I had just left. There was no ruthless 
 energy about him, and he was well satisfied if 
 I did a moderately fair amount of work. This 
 suited my temperament, for though I can work 
 hard enough at times, I entirely disbelieve in it 
 except as a pis aller. Labour was and is and 
 will be a curse, until each man does his own, in 
 his own way, at his own time. To some extent 
 I had my own way on this little station. There 
 were not many sheep, perhaps only some five 
 thousand ; we had a few cows, but at this period of 
 
THE GREAT HEAT. 109 
 
 my life I could not milk, and they were attended 
 to by Annie, a big, robust, and kindly Australian 
 girl, who was the cook. She and I got on very 
 well together, and never quarrelled very violently. 
 At most stations a man has to wash his own clothes, 
 and rough washing they got from me, as I objected 
 to that Sunday's job, but here Annie did them for 
 me. I cut the wood for the kitchen, did some 
 clearing in the home paddock', ringed a few score 
 trees, killed a sheep every now and again, and 
 occasionally mended a fence. But in my second 
 week there, I had to knock off" work and lay up 
 with a bad hand. An unaccustomed axeman some- 
 times jars his hand when felling timber, and the jar 
 results very often in a kind of whitlow, or rather 
 perhaps a touch of periostitis. My right fore- 
 finger got very bad ; it was impossible to use it. 
 Presently, after a day or two of idleness, the 
 suffering became intense. Neither by day nor 
 night could I rest. All night long I walked in the 
 moonlight between the house and the little shanty 
 in which my bed was ; I threw myself down in ex- 
 haustion ; and rose again to resume my monotonous 
 tramp. For four days and nights I did not sleep. 
 The boss's wife and Annie were very kind to me, 
 but in spite of all they could do, I came very near 
 performing a sudden and ruthless operation on my 
 finger with a sharp tomahawk. Had it been any 
 other than the trigger finger, I think I should have 
 parted with it. But on the fifth day a deep 
 
no LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 incision with a knife brought me relief. I soon 
 recovered, and went to work again. Yet in the 
 growing heat I remained languid for some time. 
 
 The greenness resulting from that fierce rain 
 while I was at the tank lasted but a few days, and 
 the summer sun soon reduced everything save the 
 stubborn box-trees to a universal brown. The 
 paths and roads about us were almost axle-deep in 
 dust, and the sandhills were like dry quicksand, 
 threatening to engulf the labouring teams. The 
 air for the most part was calm and still, but when it 
 blew, the clouds of dust and sand nearly choked 
 man and beast ; while here and there on the wind- 
 less days fantastic whirlwinds that were vast and 
 funnel-shaped stalked across the plain, revolving 
 with terrific rapidity and loud hissing, which when 
 seen against the sun first turned the blazing orb 
 dun red, and then hid it for a moment and passed 
 away into the distance. The air was hot and 
 heavy, burning the throat and lungs and drying up 
 the skin ; the rays of the sun came back redoubled 
 from the fiery ground, whose heat could be felt 
 through the sole of a man's boot, and the earth was 
 weary and panted, while the bitter and cloudless 
 blue above was pitiless and implacable. 
 
 It seemed impossible that the heat could increase, 
 and yet as Christmas drew near it grew hotter and 
 hotter still ; and though every day we declined, 
 almost in terror, to believe that the thermometer 
 could get any higher, still every day it was some 
 
THE GREAT HEAT. in 
 
 degrees above what it had been upon the yesterday 
 On Christmas Day it was 115 in the shade, four 
 days afterwards 120 , and on the first of the new 
 year it stood at 125 , and did not alter for three 
 days. This was in the shade under a verandah, 
 but what it was in the sun I did not have the 
 courage to inquire or the capacity to calculate. 
 The sky was intensely blue, with a whitish haze 
 near the horizon, and the wind now blew steadily 
 from the tropics ; a north wind that slowly passed 
 over nearly two thousand miles of burning plains 
 as it moved to the south, gathering warmth as it 
 came, until it was like the blast of heat that comes 
 from a tapped furnace when the molten metal runs 
 in dazzling whiteness. The sheep and horses stood 
 all day in the shade, with their drooping heads 
 towards the tree-trunks ; the fowls kept in shelter as 
 well, and, like the quadrupeds, they too panted with 
 open mouths and lolling tongues. The ground in 
 the sun was as hot as fire, hardly to be touched 
 with the hand, nor at midnight was there any 
 perceptible alteration or remission, for even then 
 metal was almost too hot to take hold of. Water left 
 out in the sun for a few hours disappeared almost as if 
 it had been boiling, and we were all in a state of per- 
 spiration that was weakening to an extreme degree. 
 Birds even were found dead, struck by the sun in their 
 flight, and there was a sombre melancholy about every- 
 thing ; it looked indeed as if all nature were ready to 
 die, for hope seemed lost and strength exhausted. 
 
112 
 
 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 After the slow passing of those three long days the 
 thermometer went down with an exasperating deliber- 
 ation, first to 1 20°, where it halted for a while, and then 
 to 1 15°, at which point it remained until nearly the end 
 of January, when it dropppd quickly to ioo°, which 
 seemed pleasantly cool to us and quite reasonable. 
 
 Soon after Christmas, as there was very little to 
 do at the station, my employer "lent" me, so to 
 speak, to a man with a contract to split rails. 
 This was quite agreeable to me, and I went to work 
 with the axe felling colonial pine. This is a pretty 
 enough tree to look at, and makes fairly good 
 rails, although it is not very enduring, but as sawed 
 
 timber it is the 
 poorest in the 
 world. To put 
 a nail into an 
 inch board 
 without first 
 boring a hole 
 would split it 
 from end to 
 end. But it was 
 easy stuff to 
 cut, and I threw 
 them down one 
 after anotherin 
 the early dawn, often working by myself from four 
 o'clock till six before the boss came. It was by 
 far the pleasantest time in the day, there was 
 
THE GREAT HEAT. 113 
 
 even a kind of freshness in the air, and the 
 quiet bush a mile from any habitation was absolutely 
 peaceful. As each tree fell with a crash into the 
 scrub I sat down and took a smoke. My water-bag 
 hung on a swaying branch near by. I was fairly 
 happy in those morning hours. When there were 
 two of us we got the cross-cut saw to work, sawed 
 the trees into lengths, and split them with mauls 
 and wedges. I found the pine child's play after box 
 and red gum. By nine o'clock we finished work 
 and went to the tin hut where my temporary boss 
 lived with his wife. We had a slight meal, for it 
 was difficult to eat much in that hot weather, and 
 lying down on the floor on stretched blankets we 
 took a long siesta, often remaining there till three 
 or four. That long noon was painful, it was so 
 impossible to rest, both on account of the intense 
 heat and the hideous Australian plague of flies. 
 For these choke the air, they buzz, and hum and 
 hunt you, they are a summer torture, a long, bitterly 
 persisting onset ; they are unresting, incapable of 
 fatigue, hungry, esurient ; they enter your mouth, 
 your ears, you catch them in your eyelids ; they 
 thirst for the moisture of your lips ; they render life 
 intolerable, and Australia a nightmare. Mosquitoes 
 are bad, their sting is painful, the after itching 
 cruel, but they are rare save by water, near creeks 
 or swamps, or after rain ; but these flies are 
 ubiquitous, and the daylight hears them humming 
 hungrily for ever over all the long plains of the 
 
 1 
 
U4 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 continent south of Capricorn. And then the ants 
 rejoiced in the fiery heat and grew active — sugar- 
 ants, and the fierce small pismire, and the inch long 
 bull-dog whose bite is like the stab of a red-hot 
 lancet. Spiders crawled and swung everywhere — 
 tarantulas, the black spider with the red triangle 
 sacred to Bass's beer on his back, great hairy 
 spiders long legged and diabolical and rough. 
 And scorpions lay under logs, and on disturbance 
 flourished the lithe deadly pointed long jointed tail ; 
 centipedes brown and black crawled about slowly, 
 some small, others half a foot long that one loathed 
 to crush and yet destroyed. For Australia is the 
 great land of the Fly and the Insect : a happy 
 hunting-ground for entomologists. At Mahonga 
 the ophiologist would have deserted his specialty ; 
 in three months I only killed two snakes, one a 
 brilliant brown backed opalescent white bellied 
 active devil, and black one. Dora Dora in the late 
 spring was the place for them, for snakes love water, 
 and by the Murray they flourish. I killed a black 
 snake six feet four inches long- as I walked to 
 Albury : in the bush I rode over them, they rustled 
 thick in the riverside grass. 
 
 This rail splitting work lasted nearly three weeks, 
 and then I went back to my old place, where I was 
 very lazy without hearing any remonstrances from 
 my easy-going employer. As I piled up fallen 
 branches and sticks in the paddock he often came to 
 see me, and we chatted for an hour as we sat on a 
 
THE GREAT HEAT. 115 
 
 log. All this time I have said nothing of the tutor 
 whose job I had applied for. Yet he was a man 
 deserving at least a notice. In age about fifty, he 
 was in strength a man of thirty, and very powerful 
 for that. Six feet high, and some forty-five round 
 the chest, he walked as upright as a pine. He was, 
 or had been, or might have been, something like a 
 gentleman. His appearance was not altogether 
 such as inspires confidence, though he was very 
 handsome ; there was an uneasiness about him at one 
 time and a recklessness at another which was 
 curious. English of course, but he had been in the 
 colonies for years. I came to the conclusion that he 
 had left England for some good reason. We often 
 talked together, but he never told me anything about 
 himself. I know that the man who employed us 
 both felt as I did about him. He was sorry he 
 had ever hired him. Yet he did his work well 
 enough, and taught the three young children quite 
 as nuich as they would learn : at the same time 
 building a kind of schoolroom, for he was a very 
 good carpenter. Sometimes he wrote articles for 
 the paper published at Piney Ridge, some twenty 
 miles west of Mahonga, and these were very well 
 done. Altogether he was an interesting man. I 
 have never been able to quite fathom the reasons 
 for my almost fearing him. Yet sometimes I think 
 I know. 
 
 At the end of twelve weeks after my leaving 
 Brown's Camp it became quite evident to me that 
 
 1 2 
 
u6 
 
 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 there was so little to do that I was not needed to do 
 it. The same obvious fact dawned at last on the 
 boss, and with many apologies he wrote me a cheque 
 and dismissed me 3 I left the station in the company 
 of a man who was taking a bullock waggon loaded 
 with wool down to Albury. We were two days and a 
 half on the journey, camping twice on the way 
 down. During the last day we were rather short of 
 water and I got a morbid and insatiable thirst on me. 
 As we neared the town we came to a tank or dam, 
 where the water was hot in the blazing sun. I was 
 choked with dust, and drank until I nearly burst. 
 Three miles further we reached a grog shanty ; I 
 swallowed two bottles of soda-water. On the out- 
 skirts of the town I went to a house and asked 
 
 for something 
 to drink, and 
 took almost 
 
 ' > few 
 
 a quart of 
 f water. In a 
 minutes 
 more I was 
 in town. The 
 road led by 
 the back of 
 the vicarage 
 where Roland 
 had gone 
 
 when we came up from Melbourne. I thought 
 I would call, just as I was, without going to the 
 
THE GREAT HEAT. 117 
 
 hotel ; but I went in the back-way. The servant 
 stared at me, as well she might. I had my blankets 
 on my back like any ordinary " traveller," my clothes 
 were ragged, my complexion the colour of a coffee 
 berry. And of course I was covered with dust. I 
 asked for the clergyman's sister, as I knew her 
 better than the others. She came out, and when 
 she recognized me asked me in, laughing good- 
 humouredly at my extraordinary roughness. I only 
 stayed a few minutes, much to the relief of the 
 servant, who failed . to grasp the situation, and 
 evidently did not like " travellers." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CARABOBLA AND YARRA YARRA. 
 
 My tramping into Albury had been in consequence 
 of having no horse. The mare that carried me to 
 Bobby Rand's I sold for a couple of pounds to Brown 
 at the tank, being glad enough to get rid of her at 
 such a price ; for I now began to know a little 
 about horses, and their soundness or unsoundness. 
 At my last place of work there had been several 
 young colts and fillies. There is no easier way to 
 learn a little about outside common veterinary know- 
 ledge than to get well acquainted with the shape and 
 feel of the legs of youngsters not yet knocked about 
 and spoiled or rendered unsound. So when I came 
 back to Albury for the last time, I felt more able to 
 buy a horse without being greatly cheated. But I had 
 a few days to spend with Roland before going off 
 into the bush again, and for a little while I became 
 almost civilized. 
 
 Yet it was very curious to sleep in a good bed 
 again. At Mahonga and in Morgan's paddock my 
 couch was nothing but a sheet of stringy bark, 
 
CARABOBLA AND YARRA YARRA. 119 
 
 stripped from the tree, flattened out and left to 
 dry until it grew as hard as a board. On this 
 I put my blankets ; my pillow was my coat 
 and any odd clothes or rags of clothes that I 
 might have. I grew used to this primitive 
 fashion of sleeping : the hardness of the bark did not 
 trouble me. I found it as difficult to get up as if I 
 had been lapped in luxury. In fact what would seem 
 egregious discomfort to most became luxury to me, 
 and when I turned into a bed with sheets and pillows 
 and all civilized appurtenances I could not sleep at 
 all. I rolled and tumbled and tossed and growled, 
 but rest would not come. I felt choked in a room, 
 preferring the open air, or a draughty tent, or a 
 shanty which was only an apology for a shelter. At 
 last in desperation I rose, set the windows wide open, 
 put a chair to the door to prevent it closing, dragged 
 the blankets off the bed and slept soundly on the 
 floor. The chambermaid found me thus in the 
 morning, and laughed at my hatred of a bed. 
 Before I got used to sheets and soft mattresses I 
 was away from town again. I had become something 
 of a savage. 
 
 The heat which we had experienced at Mahonga 
 was of course almost universal in New South Wales, 
 and in consequence grass was a memory and a hope 
 rather than a thing existing. With the failure of 
 pasturage, horses get cheap ; it is better to sell 
 animals at a low price than to see them die of hunger 
 and thirst. So one day there was a sale of horses in 
 
120 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 the town stockyard. I went down there thinking it 
 probable I might pick up one at a reasonable price. 
 There were about sixty in the yard, horses, mares, 
 fillies and colts ; some good, some poor, some big 
 and big boned, others weedy and of little promise. It 
 was a burning hot day, and the horses as they were 
 rushed here and there to part one for sale, raised a 
 choking cloud of dust. Most of us sat on the fences ; 
 all the lazy young boys of the town were there to 
 watch. Prices ruled very low even for that time. 
 Horse after horse sold for one pound, then two, 
 perhaps three. One very fine iron grey, broken to 
 saddle and harness, and sixteen hands high, fetched 
 the top price, selling for as much as nine pounds. 
 At last I saw one I thought would suit me, a 
 bright bay standing an inch over fifteen hands, 
 rising five years. Some one bid ten shillings, 
 another a pound, then another went to thirty. 
 As this last man was a very good judge of horses, 
 he encouraged me to bid two pounds. The bid- 
 ding was very slack, but at last it rose to three 
 pounds fifteen, increasing then by half-crowns until 
 my very good horse Devilskin passed to me for four 
 pounds seven and sixpence. After that the other 
 horses went quickly and for nothing. The 
 auctioneer could get no bid for one weedy year- 
 ling until he turned to the boys with " Come boys, 
 now's your chance." A little lad about seven bid 
 sixpence. It was knocked down to another child for 
 four and sixpence. One boy bought a colt for six 
 
CARABOBLA AND YARRA YARRA. 121 
 
 shillings. Prices were certainly not high, and a man 
 remarked that it reminded him of the Parkes " penny 
 mob M of horses, where it took a first ciass horse to 
 cost a sovereign. I never regretted my purchase, 
 although the name I gave him was bestowed after 
 some experience. He threw me the second time I rode 
 him, and nearly broke my neck. He had a delight- 
 fully neat trick of " propping " or halting suddenly 
 without any provocation. But he never got rid of 
 me after I learned his little ways, and I forgave his 
 faults when I found he had good paces and great en- 
 durance. He was to carry me from Albury to the 
 Willandra Billabong, from the land of the eucalyptus 
 to the great salt-bush plains. The third day after 
 the sale I left Albury. It occurred to me that I 
 might go up to Dora Dora again, and riding through 
 Bowna, I reached it at noon the second day. After 
 
 a chat with Mr. T who showed me the ravages a 
 
 fire had caused on the lower ranges, making them as 
 bare of foliage as the flats of Thologolong across the 
 Murray, I rode through the Tunnel, and called at 
 Mitchell's. Thence I travelled to Gerogery and Ten 
 Mile Creek, a little straggling township. My objective 
 was Carabobla. 
 
 While working in Albury as the stock and station 
 agent's clerk, I had made the acquaintance of a 
 
 Mrs. M , the daughter of a doctor, well known 
 
 in that part of the Riverina. I also knew another of 
 
 his daughters. Mrs. M had been kind enough 
 
 to ask me to call if I ever came that way. She was 
 
122 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 a widow living on her own property near her 
 father's station. As I was very near Carabobla 
 at Ten Mile Creek, I turned my horse's head north, 
 and left the main road. After a three or four mile 
 ride, I came to a little house with a garden in front. 
 I tied my horse to the fence and went in to inquire 
 
 the way to Mrs. M . She herself came to the 
 
 door. After giving me a cup of tea in a civilized 
 manner, not out of a billy as I was now accustomed 
 to take it, I caught and saddled her horse and we 
 rode together through the bush to her father's house. 
 They asked me to stay for a week, for the hospitality 
 of New South Wales is always as free as sunlight 
 in a land of the sun. I was nothing loth to turn my 
 horse loose, and sit under a rose-covered verandah 
 by a garden which ran to the edge of the Great 
 Billabong, at that season quite dry. The Doctor's 
 youngest son Will became my chum at once ; in the 
 company of pleasant and natural people, young 
 girls and men, with a charming hostess and a kind 
 host, I was as happy as running water, as bright 
 as dawn. For once in Australia I did nothing but 
 amuse myself with a free mind. As it was then long- 
 after shearing, Will had little to do ; we rode about the 
 country ; sometimes I lent him a hand at fence mend- 
 ing ; for recreation with a spice of danger in it we 
 went honey hunting. 
 
 The wild bee in Australia is the Apis mellifica of 
 Europe and the whole civilized world, and as in 
 America, it has spread over a great part of the conti- 
 
CARABOBLA AND YARRA YARRA. 123 
 
 nent. On the Murray river and in the whole of the 
 Riverina, where it is not for ever dry, and there 
 are numbers of flowers, it is especially plentiful. 
 Though it may seem a mild enough pursuit, in my 
 opinion it is the only dangerous game to go for in 
 all the ancient land of the marsupials. One has to 
 exercise a considerable amount of awkwardness, and 
 to display much native stupidity to get hurt by a 
 kangaroo ; the innocent native bear is no more a bear 
 than it is a shark ; the sneaking dingo when run down 
 on horseback will turn over to be killed ; and as for 
 the fierce and formidable mosquito, man is his prey 
 rather than the reverse. The first time I ever went 
 honey hunting was at Dora Dora, where Bill 
 Stewart, the man who owned Flo, the celebrated 
 sheep dog, inveigled me into the bush. It took 
 some persuasion to induce me to brave bees in their 
 native wilds, for I distinctly remember having as a 
 child played the fool with a beehive, a course of pro- 
 ceeding which naturally resulted in hartshorn and 
 the blue-baof. I argued that if such were the case 
 with the tame, domestic, civilized bee, the wild ones 
 would be infinitely worse. However, after a 
 judiciously applied series of taunts, Bill induced me 
 to shoulder the axe and take a bucket in hand, 
 though I own that I would much rather have mounted 
 a buck-jumper of the worst description. It seemed 
 better to die of a broken neck than to be stung to 
 death. 
 
 The knowledge I possessed of the bush at that 
 
124 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 time was just sufficient to enable me to get lost on 
 the very shortest notice, and it seemed to me that 
 Stewart was cruelly reckless both of his own life and 
 mine when he plunged into the thick forest and pro- 
 ceeded to climb an almost inaccessible hill. By the 
 time the sharp stubs of wattles had nearly torn my 
 shirt off my back, I was utterly exhausted. But 
 presently we stayed under a big gum tree, perched 
 on a slope as steep as the roof of a house, and my 
 mate informed me that it was a bee tree. He tried 
 to persuade me that he had known of it before ; but 
 I scorned his assurances, not being able to believe 
 that any man could find one particular tree in such a 
 forest. However, we commenced cutting it down. 
 It was the first time I ever handled an axe seriously, 
 and the amount of physical strength I expended in 
 making an ugly, irregular gash in the bark would have 
 sufficed an American from the forests of Michigan 
 for a week's work. Stewart smiled grimly, and set 
 me aside. In about an hour it was evident the tree 
 would soon fall, and desiring to do something serious 
 I took up the axe again. 
 
 I had noticed a bee come down every now and 
 again as if to inspect our proceedings, but as none 
 of them attempted to attack me my confidence 
 returned. I began to scorn the wild Australian bee, 
 believing that its native ferocity had been under- 
 mined by the mild climate of its adopted country. 
 But the tree began to shake, and a bee, evidently 
 much disturbed in mind, flew down fiercely. It made 
 
CARABOBLA AND YARRA YARRA. 125 
 
 three rapid circles round the trunk, and then, satis- 
 fied that I was undermining the constitution of the 
 state, flew right in my face, and stung me under 
 the eye. I dropped the axe with a loud yell, and 
 went uphill like a kangaroo. As I started the tree 
 gave a crack and yielded. It fell with a terrible 
 crash almost on its crown, and the bees came out in 
 a wild excited crowd. I cannot understand why 
 others did not attack us, but we cut the honey out of 
 their hollow branch without more than three stings 
 each. My face did not swell, but Stewart's right 
 eye closed, and the left one nearly disappeared with 
 it. If he had been rendered quite blind we should 
 have been obliged to remain until next day, for I 
 could not have found my way home. It took me 
 months to acquire, even in a primitive way, some 
 kind of instinct of self-guidance. 
 
 The honey that we found was of very fair quality, 
 though it ran all shades of colour, from the white 
 new comb to the deeply stained remains of past 
 years, and the acacia or wattle blossoms give it a 
 pleasant aromatic odour. 
 
 This day's experience at Dora Dora and my com- 
 paratively easy escape, made me readier than I 
 should have been to go out with Will and fell 
 the trees which his keen eyes had marked as 
 having bees in them. As he rode about the pad- 
 docks, with the true instinct of a colonial boy he 
 could remember each hive, and sometimes he added 
 the knowledge of another. Not having cut down anv 
 
126 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 for some time, till I came, he had quite a farm of 
 bees ready for the axe. The pursuit was, it is true, 
 sometimes like gambling. One day we determined 
 to cut down a tree about three feet six inches in 
 diameter, and being firmly convinced that there was 
 much honey in the great hollow limb sixty feet above 
 us, we took a small hand-sledge with a great tin tub 
 on it instead of a bucket. We cut away for a couple 
 of hours, and then took a rest, for the wood was solid 
 and hard, and we were young, or at least I was, at the 
 axe. After another half hour's hot toil, the mighty 
 tree came down with a crash. We took no more than 
 a quart of honey from the hollow branch. Evidently 
 the bees had only lately taken up their abode in it ; 
 perhaps they had been dispossessed from some 
 ancient hive but a week or two before. In silent 
 disgust we threw the light comb into the tub, and 
 started to look for another tree. Presently we came 
 to one about sixteen inches in diameter. Was it 
 worth cutting down, we asked each other? In so 
 small a tiunk could there be much honey? " At any 
 rate," I said, hitting the bark with the back of my 
 axe, M it is half rotten, and won't take ten minutes 
 to bring down. So here goes ! " Out of that thin 
 box-tree we took enough honey to almost fill the tub. 
 The comb filled the whole hollow trunk for a space 
 of nearly three feet, and as the thin shell burst 
 with the fall, the honey oozed out everywhere. At 
 the top it was pure white, growing yellow and then 
 brown, and almost black, as the comb of past years 
 
CARAB013LA AND YARRA YARRA. 
 
 127 
 
 came in sight. But it was all good. At the house 
 there was a busy time straining it and making 
 mead. That lucky find set us free for other 
 amusements : the supply would last for months. 
 
 I have never seen 
 practised in Australia 
 any of the elaborate 
 scientific methods 
 which are employed in 
 America to discover 
 the home of the bees. 
 "Angling" is unknown, 
 and no one makes a 
 profession or business 
 of honey hunting. But 
 as a recreation in the 
 late summer it is pleas- 
 ant, and often exciting. 
 To stand on the fallen 
 trunk and cut out the 
 comb while a thousand 
 bees are flying round 
 one's head in a thick 
 cloud, gives a sensation 
 of daring adventure 
 not often afforded by "bailing up" a wretched 
 kangaroo in a country which is singularly and 
 universally devoid of those animals which satisfy 
 the love of danger in hunting on the western prairies 
 or Rocky Mountains of North America. If any one 
 
128 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 thinks this is not so, he can easily remove his doubts 
 by upsetting a hive in the neighbouring garden, 
 previously making a firm resolution that he will not 
 run away. 
 
 I never noticed the small black stintless Dee f 
 Australia ; but my brother Cecil, who worked for a 
 long time in Queensland, says it is very common 
 there. It does not make a true comb, and the honey- 
 is very thin and watery. The natives call it a name 
 equivalent to " sugar bag," and are very fond of it. 
 
 After remaining in this pastoral home by the 
 Billabong for a week I ran up my horse from the 
 paddock, put the saddle on him, and began to make 
 up my swag. But my hostess would not allow me 
 to go ; some other visitors were coming in a day 
 or two, it was proposed to give a small party. 
 Would I remain ? I fancied I saw myself going 
 away under those circumstances — going away into 
 the wan and desolate bush to ride in solitude through 
 scrub and over long dusty plains, to suffer from 
 thirst and perhaps hunger, while here was ready and 
 instant hospitality. My " no " had little more than 
 the hesitation which extorts a repeated request. I 
 loosed Devilskin and unrolled my blankets. The 
 next day was a Sunday, and we rode into Ten Mile 
 Creek to listen to the only sermon I heard in New 
 South Wales, save of course in Albury, where I was 
 bound more or less to listen to what my friend 
 Roland's clergyman said to us weekly. The church 
 ride would have been pleasant enough — there were 
 
CARABOBLA AND YARRA YARRA, 129 
 
 four girls on horseback, Will and I — but my mount 
 showed strong atheistic principles, refusing to go to 
 church except on violent persuasion, which led to 
 buck-jumping that nearly unseated me. When it 
 seemed that the conflict would last long enough to 
 make them late the others left me, "still sitting '' 
 happily, for Devilskin could not get me off. About 
 a quarter of an hour's further struggle made him give 
 in, and going at a good gallop I caught up our party 
 two miles from Ten Mile Creek. The chapel looked 
 curious enough. It was surrounded by buggies or 
 carriages of all descriptions ; to each carriage a 
 horse, or a pair, was attached ; every fence was 
 crowded with saddle horses. In all there were 
 some hundred animals there to occasionally break 
 the monotonous service by an angry squeal or a 
 kick. When service was over we thought we had 
 done our duty. With the exception of the trouble 
 with my dissentient or dissenting horse, our ride 
 there had been sober enough, but going back we went 
 across country at a gallop, taking all the brush 
 fences in our way. For the New South Wales 
 girls can ride like feminine centaurs. We came 
 back with our horses foaming, and got very properly 
 chided by the elder people for our unseemly 
 behaviour. 
 
 The little party came off the next day and was a 
 great success ; many girls and young men came 
 from the neighbouring stations ; we danced till a 
 late hour, and varied dancing by walking about in 
 
 K 
 
130 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 the brilliant moonlight. As the house was quite 
 full, Will and I and some other youngsters slept in 
 tents set up the day before near the Billabong- 
 Next day we escorted some of the ladies home, it 
 was about the only time I ever did anything so 
 civilized in the bush ; it was the only place I ever 
 stayed at in Australia as a friend. In others I was 
 a traveller, a . " sundowner," a "swagsman," or a 
 " hand " of some description. 
 
 Three or four days later on my host's recom- 
 mendation I went seventeen miles across the ranges 
 and asked for work at Yarra Yarra. This I got at 
 once, and began by looking after the fences in a gang 
 which was nicknamed the Flying Squadron, a kind 
 of collection of boundary riders. Yarra Yarra was a 
 sheep-station, but the one thing I noticed there 
 particularly was the number of dogs. Every man 
 on the place, and there were many, seemed to own 
 one or two. There were scores no one owned. 
 The squatter himself had a few fine kangaroo dogs, 
 which are like very large and heavy greyhounds . 
 there were sheep-dogs, retrievers, mongrels of every 
 description. At night time the ground about the 
 house was black with them ; it required in favourite 
 spots care to avoid treading on them ; if anything 
 happened there was an unmelodious howling which 
 raised the station. And by day they foraged and 
 fought and played and courted until Yarra Yarra in 
 my memory seems like one gigantic kennel. But I 
 did not stay there long. The very next Sunday 
 
CARABOBLA AND YARRA YARRA. 131 
 
 after my arrival I got my horse and rode over to 
 Carabobla. Devilskin strained himself on the range 
 by treading on a loose stone, and I was unable to 
 get back that night. When I reached Yarra Yarra 
 in the morning I was a little later than the usual 
 working hour and very promptly was given the 
 sack. I went back the same day to Carabobla, 
 stayed there that night, and in the morning started 
 on a northward journey which lasted three months 
 and landed me on the other side of the Lachlan 
 river. 
 
 K 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A THREE MONTHS RIDE. 
 
 ) 
 
 T was late in the summer when I finally 
 left Carabobla ; the grass was 
 scanty, the water-holes half empty. 
 Here and there, indeed, they were only plashy mud, 
 whence the sheep sucked what moisture they 
 could before it was trodden into a thick mass 
 which mired the weaker ones and held them till help 
 or death came. The roads were dusty ; dust lay 
 thick upon the trees, and yet in the air was a feeling 
 that Nature was going to help man and beast with a 
 little rain. The second day of my northward travel 
 brought a heavy shower, and for a week it rained a 
 
A THREE MONTHS' RIDE. 133 
 
 little every day. Each station I passed I asked for 
 work, but work was none. My cash was very low ; 
 I had indeed but seventeen and sixpence on that 
 second day. But I was on an unfrequented road ; 
 I already knew better than lo take the Wagga Wagga 
 track : that was sure to be well travelled, and instead 
 of a meal with the men for nothing, liberty to put 
 my horse in the paddock and my blankets in any 
 spare bunk of the hut, I should have been obliged 
 to take the pannikin of flour, the pinch of tea and 
 sugar which constitutes a traveller's rations, to which 
 minimum he thinks he has an inalienable right. 
 We used to argue it out to ourselves in this way : 
 " A squatter wants men, and often has a difficulty 
 in getting them. If he wrote down to town he 
 would have to wait, and, moreover, have to pay the 
 expenses of the man who selected them, and their 
 travelling expenses, running, moreover, the risk of 
 having some sent up that he didn't like. So as we 
 (the party arguing the question under a gum tree) 
 come to his very door, the least he can do is to feed 
 us." That is how we looked at it ; but sometimes 
 when twenty or thirty came in an evening, the 
 squatter had doubts as he saw his diminishing sack 
 of flour. 
 
 But on my road past Wallendool, Urangaline 
 Creek, Brookong, and Boree Creek I had no trouble 
 in getting all I wanted to eat without any question 
 of paying. The only money I dispensed was two 
 shillings for a water-bag. My other one was worn 
 
134 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 out and would hold nothing. But at Spring Creek 
 I came across a traveller who possessed a very good 
 one, and as he had no tobacco, and was accordingly 
 extremely miserable, he parted with the bag. I 
 filled it and went my way rejoicing, and having 
 given him part of a fig of very strong tobacco, I left 
 him sitting on his blankets blowing a cloud, which 
 was a fair sign of content on his part. 
 
 Then I passed the long Buckenbong Lagoon 
 through a comparatively good grass land. Jenkins 
 of Buckenbong was as well known to all who travelled 
 New 7 South Wales as Bobby Rand of Mahonga, or 
 Hungry Tyson, so called because he would never 
 feed travellers, or Jacky Dow, of Toganmain, on 
 whom all bush jokes are fathered, as we put bulls on 
 the Irishman. I came suddenly to the Murrum- 
 bidgee and the Buckenbong home station. The 
 river ran, as the Australian rivers of the plains do, 
 in a deep channel. There was no great current ; 
 the banks were thick with gums. As there was no 
 bridge within any reasonable distance, for Narrandera 
 was miles west of me and Wagga Wagga far to the 
 east, it was manifest I should have to swim it. 
 However, a pleasant-looking woman came out on 
 the verandah as I stayed to survey things, and in 
 answer to my inquiries as to how I was to cross, she 
 ordered three young black fellows, the aboriginal 
 Australians, to row me over in a boat. So I put my 
 saddle in and led Devilskin behind. It required the 
 persuasive touch of a stockwhip, skilfully wielded by 
 
A THREE MONTHS' RIDE. 137 
 
 a fourth black boy, to induce him to enter the water, 
 but once in, he swam so fast that I had to let him 
 go. I caught him easily on the farther bank, and, 
 bestowing sixpence on the youngsters, rode on. 
 
 If there had been no one there to help me I should 
 have had to swim across by myself. The crossing 
 of rivers is often a ticklish business and requires a 
 good deal of consideration, it being perfectly easy to 
 drown one's horse and one's self too. For one thing, 
 it is always necessary to unbuckle the reins, for if the 
 horse gets nervous and pulls away from a boat, or 
 if one is on his back and gets put off, the animal may 
 thrust his foreleg through them and drown himself. 
 One may ride the horse, or swim alongside holding 
 his mane, or hang on by his tail. If he naturally 
 swims very deep, it is best not to be on his back. 
 But more accidents occur through the rider going in 
 at the wrong place. It is often better to choose a 
 comparatively bad place to go in if the landing 
 places are few. When a stream is hedged about 
 with dead timber the horse often plunges as soon 
 as he touches bottom, and may stake himself. A 
 little thought, a good survey of the river, and a careful 
 calculation of the rate of the stream will usually put a 
 man and his horse across any ordinary river in safety. 
 
 After leaving the river I came, about a mile further 
 on, to a wire fence. The gate was very high and 
 strong, and moreover locked. I had no wish to try 
 to jump it, having never taken Devilskin over high 
 timber, but at first there seemed no choice. How- 
 
138 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 ever, I knew that there must be some way out. Men 
 on horseback must often go that way. So I tied up 
 my horse and hunted along the fence very carefully. 
 Presently I chuckled with pride at my insight. One 
 post had been carefully cut away at the top, so that 
 part of it would pull out, leaving the upper wire free. 
 I pulled out the chock, took the wire out of the slit, 
 and bringing up Devilskin, took a stirrup leather 
 from the saddle and carefully strapped the three wires 
 together. I had now a very low jump, and on it I 
 put my coat to show the horse plainly where the wire 
 was. Mounting, I went back a few yards and rode 
 over it easily. I put things as I found them and 
 went on. 
 
 My object, if, indeed, I had one, in coming up 
 this way through Urangaline, Brookong, and Buck- 
 enbong, was to get to a place called Grong Grong, 
 on the northern side of Murrumbidgee. Mrs. 
 
 M 's brother-in-law had a new station there, and 
 
 when I met him at Carabobla, where he stayed for a 
 day in coming from Albury, he asked me to come to 
 Grong Grong if I was ever that way. Until I reached 
 Boree Creek I had hardly thought of this invitation, 
 but the boree trees, of which I there saw a few, 
 reminded me that his station was in the boree 
 country. So I determined to go there. And now I 
 could not be very far from the place. But whether 
 it was to the right or left or straight ahead I could 
 not tell. I found a road, or an apology for one, and 
 followed it, and at sundown I came to a house. 
 
A THREE MONTHS' RIDE. 139 
 
 " Is this Mr. M 's ? " I asked of a man 
 
 sitting under the verandah. His answer almost 
 paralyzed me. 
 
 "What do you want with Mr. M ? " 
 
 I stared at him for almost a minute, and then 
 replied by another question. 
 
 " And why do you want to know what I want 
 with him ? Who are you any way ? " 
 
 He started and looked angry. 
 
 " I know M 's business as well as I know my 
 
 own, and " 
 
 I cut him short, thinking him either impertinent 
 or crazy. 
 
 '■• If you do, this is my business. Have you any 
 objection to my camping here ? " 
 
 " Yes, I have. I don't like any one camping 
 about my place." 
 
 Such a thing had never happened before in my 
 short Australian experience, nor did I think it possi- 
 ble. I pointed out to him that it was rapidly grow- 
 ing dark, that I was in a wilderness of a country 
 totally unknown to me, and that the customs of 
 New South Wales were being most grossly outraged 
 by him. He became quite sullen, and only growled 
 when I said I wanted no food of him. 
 
 "Very well," I said at last, " perhaps you will 
 tell me how to reach Grong Grong ? " 
 
 " That's the road," he grunted, pointing down the 
 fence towards the west. 
 
 44 And is it easy ? " 
 
140 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 " Perfectly easy." 
 
 n Now," said I, "as you have been so kind to 
 me, perhaps you will let me have a drink of 
 water ? " 
 
 And getting off my horse I went to a small tank 
 and took some. 
 
 " Good-bye," said I, as I rode away; M I shall 
 
 acquaint your neighbour, Mr. M , with your 
 
 genial courtesy." 
 
 I should have enjoyed breaking his head, and 
 banging him against his own verandah posts. I 
 don't believe there are half a dozen men in New 
 South Wales capable of acting as he did. America 
 is thick with such, but in Australia I so rarely met 
 any unkindness of word or deed, that I boiled with 
 rage as I went off into the gathering darkness. 
 My gentle friend's perfectly plain path might have 
 been plain to one who rode it every day ; with 
 light I might have found it, but the starlight is a 
 poor path-finder. After following the fence for 
 about two miles I got into dense scrub. Retracing 
 my steps I found the track again, but lost it finally 
 in what I found, on striking a match, to be sheep- 
 trails. I used some strong language, which echoed 
 in the forest, for here there were many trees, and 
 now sought some open place to camp in. In a few 
 minutes I came to an old sheep yard. I could go 
 no further. But I dare not let my horse go. It 
 was practically an unfenced country, the paddocks 
 must be ten miles across, and I might lose 
 
A THREE MONTHS' RIDE. 141 
 
 him for days, even if I ever got him again. So 
 taking off his saddle, I tied him to a post inside 
 the yard. Finding a fairly soft place, I lay down 
 in my blankets and tried to sleep. But sleep would 
 not come. Thirst came instead, and because I had 
 neglected in my anger to fill my water-bag I had 
 nothing to drink. I began to get worried and 
 feverish. Suddenly I felt a sharp sting like that of 
 the fierce little black pismire ant. I rubbed the 
 place and probably killed that explorer, but others 
 followed, until I jumped up in anguish. A match 
 showed that I had lain down on a nest of them. I 
 had to strip to the skin to get clear of them. I 
 shook my blankets and sought another place. Again 
 the ants attacked me. Only on the third attempt 
 did I succeed in finding a spot free of these poison- 
 ous little black devils. Then to irritate me by 
 suggesting possibilities I heard a frog croak — a 
 wretched, solitary frog. " There must be water 
 somewhere," I said ; but I could not find it. It 
 was impossible to locate the sound. I lay down 
 dry-mouthed, determined to sleep, if only a good 
 try would bring me oblivion. Then a more-pork, 
 the Australian night-jar, began in the biggest tree 
 above me. He said in a melancholy way, with 
 long drawn out insistence on the greedy syllables, 
 " more-pork." In the distance came the answer, 
 faint and far, from another of his race, " more- 
 pork ; " and this was repeated and again repeated, 
 until I longed for a gun to make the wretched bird 
 
142 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 cease his foolish request. It is curious how abso- 
 lutely like these two words their cry is. They are, 
 like the night-jar, stupid birds to look at, hence in 
 Australia " more-pork " is used as a term of con- 
 tempt for a stupid person. 
 
 It was growing a little light low down in the east 
 before I got to sleep for an hour. When I rose 
 without having rested, I found a small water-hole, 
 took a drink, gave my horse some, and hunted up 
 the road that I had lost in the darkness. By about 
 eight o'clock I came to Grong Grong, and was 
 received by Mr. and Mrs. Morgan and their five 
 daughters with much kindness. Morgan laughed 
 at my adventure with his neighbour. He evidently 
 knew him. 
 
 The house was situated in the middle of a grassy 
 plain with here and there clumps of the grey-leaved 
 boree upon it. In the distance this plain was 
 ringed by dark bull and she oaks, and box trees. 
 As yet Morgan had little or no stock on it, save a 
 flock of about a hundred goats, which his daughters 
 milked. They were let out in the morning and 
 generally disappeared from view in the distance. 
 But at sundown the girls went into the open and 
 raised a great shout, an appeal to them to return. In 
 a few moments we could see them tearing across the 
 level plain as hard as they could put hoof to ground. 
 They rushed into their yard at once, and remained 
 quietly when the young ones were parted from their 
 mothers. They had learnt this habit of returning 
 
A THREE MONTHS' RIDE. 143 
 
 home on being called when the only herd was a ewe 
 goat and two kids. 
 
 I remained at Grong Grong a week, giving my 
 horse a good rest, for now I was going further north, 
 and had no friends or acquaintances to call on. As 
 work was so scarce I might travel a long time before 
 getting any chance of a job. It was well to have a 
 fat horse. 
 
 When I left Morgan rode with me as far as Mirrool 
 Creek. We saw the superintendent of the station, 
 but he said there was nothing to do just then, and 
 had no need of men. So I shook hands with 
 Morgan and went onward alone. But at night I 
 came to Arriah, and there made the acquaintance of 
 a man who travelled with me to the north of the 
 Lachlan. He was a little Englishman, an educated 
 man who had been an apprentice on board a sailing 
 vessel. As he was going my way, and as I was 
 going very slowly, he came with me. His name 
 was Irving. 
 
 The next night we came at dusk to four or five 
 men camped by a water-hole. . They were all on foot, 
 and like ourselves were without food. We had all 
 reckoned on making a station, but failing to do so, 
 it seemed that we were to fast that night. Presently, 
 however, one of the men who had a little terrier 
 dog with him, said that he would go and catch a 
 "possum." I did not think what he meant, but the 
 others were more alive to the situation. In about 
 twenty minutes something was cooking in a frying 
 
144 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 pan carried by one of my temporary mates. We 
 shared it all round. To me it tasted very like 
 mutton, and I said so. There was a general laugh. 
 " How much of the possum did you take, Bill?" 
 said one man. 
 
 " Only a quarter." 
 
 " And the rest ? " 
 
 " Threw it in a water-hole," said the hunter. 
 
 Of course it was a sheep. He told us that he 
 never went hungry if any "jumbucks" were about, 
 for his dog had learnt the very handy trick of catch- 
 ing a sheep by the hind leg and holding it till his 
 master came up. I believe we were all liable to a 
 term of hard labour for this, for though it is excus- 
 able to kill a sheep if one is really starving, none of 
 us could plead that excuse. Before a magistrate my 
 real innocence would not have served me. But it 
 was a very good meal. 
 
 The weather now showed very distinct signs of 
 breaking up. Though it had scarcely rained since 
 leaving Wallendool, the sky began to get very 
 threatening. Two days after the incident of the 
 "possum," Irving and I came to Euglo station, on 
 the Euglo or Humbug Creek. We got some 
 grub from the cook, and camped down in the horse 
 paddock, where was fine grass for my horse. By 
 midnight it began to rain heavily, and as from the 
 appearance of the sky that was only the beginning, 
 we bundled up our blankets and made our way in the 
 darkness to the station. We lay down again in a shed 
 
A THREE MONTHS' RIDE. 145 
 
 which had a roof but no sides. Presently the wind 
 rose and drove the rain in on us ; then a stream of 
 water began to course through this poor shelter. We 
 rose again and went into the blacksmith's shop. It 
 was pretty dirty, but almost weather-proof. And the 
 rain came down in bucketfuls. 
 
 In the morning the Humbug Creek, which ran 
 right by the station, was almost full to its banks ; 
 the smaller horse-paddock was flooded. For three 
 days it never ceased to pour, and I never made 
 the smallest motion to leave quarters which, if not 
 comfortable, were certainly better than the bush in 
 heavy rain. We went into the kitchen and took 
 our meals as if we belonged there. At times we 
 played poker for matches, a mild form of gambling 
 which is quite popular in some parts of the bush. 
 No one did any work. It was an idle time, and I 
 was really glad when the rain held up on the even- 
 ing of the fourth day. The only work I did for 
 my board and lodging was done then. I held a 
 candle while two men skinned a bullock. In the 
 morning I had to borrow a horse to run mine in, 
 for though he was hobbled, he knew how to gallop in 
 such fetters, and four days' rest with half-wild horses 
 made him very wild himself. I rode away, leaving 
 Irving to follow in a waggon, for there was a very 
 long swamp to cross. After such rain it was not to 
 be accomplished on foot. Even on horseback I had 
 rather a bad time of it. Sometimes Devilskin sank 
 up to his knees and had to free himself with a violent 
 
 L 
 
1 46 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 plunge. Once I dropped his bell from my saddle, 
 and getting off to pick it up, I went down more than 
 a foot. But at the end of the three mile swamp 
 we cleaned ourselves by crossing a creek that came 
 up to the saddle flaps. Here I noticed what I have 
 since often found to be true, that a horse generally 
 can tell at once whether a stream is deep enough to 
 render swimming necessary or not, even when the 
 state of the water prevents his rider making more 
 than a rough guess. 
 
 On the far side of this creek I came to a sound 
 grassy flat. A half mile canter brought me to a 
 deserted house which was in very good condition 
 though the windows had been taken out. There 
 was a small fenced-in paddock of about two acres, 
 with abundant sweet grass in it. It was an ideal 
 spot to camp. I turned Devilskin loose, and as the 
 sun was now shining I spread out all my clothes and 
 blankets to dry. In an hour Irving came along and 
 joined me. All we now wanted was food, for after 
 staying four days at the Euglo, doing nothing but 
 eat, I lacked the necessary impudence to demand 
 provisions on going away. 
 
 But where this house was another must be. The 
 situation of the homestead had been changed, that 
 was all. So saddling up I rode off to find it, 
 taking my bags with me. For bags are as necessary 
 on some roads as a billy : it is not always that 
 squatters will tell one to go to the hut, though they 
 will give generously of their meat and flour. I 
 
A THREE MONTHS' RIDE. 147 
 
 found it so in this instance. The only one with 
 authority at the station was a woman. On my 
 asking for the boss, she said he was away. Work 
 she had none ; tucker, or grub, yes. I went with 
 her. She gave me about seven pounds of Hour, two 
 pounds of sugar, nearly half a pound of tea, and 
 when she came to the beef I had to check her. I 
 could not carry more than a lump weighing ten 
 pounds. I saw that very few travellers came that 
 way, and told her so. She smiled and said she 
 had not seen any but me for weeks. I thanked 
 her for the food and went back to Irving. We 
 had enough for a week, and did not shift our 
 quarters for three days. 
 
 This was very easy travelling. Yet what was the 
 use of being in a hurry ? No one seemed to want 
 hands. It really began to get sickening asking for 
 work. We might just as well lie down and smoke 
 and look at the sun and drink in the air. But at 
 last we tired of doing nothing and went on. 
 
 The next day we saw a curious and charming 
 sight as we went through a great paddock thinly 
 touched here and there with trees. As Irving and 
 I talked we heard a noise behind us, and stayed, 
 turning to listen. The low roar we heard was not 
 that of loosed waters, nor that of a great wind, nor 
 of distant thunder. Yet it was like all these. I 
 turned my horse towards an advancing cloud of dust 
 which came towards us furiously. He quivered in 
 every limb. It was instinct, but not the instinct of fear, 
 
 l 2 
 
148 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 The line, which came closer and closer yet, was 
 about twenty yards wide upon the dusty plain 
 which we had just left to enter upon a long stretch 
 of comparatively sound and grassy country ; and as 
 the sand gradually gave way to the thicker herbage, 
 so the swirling cloud that hung over the unseen 
 squadron was dissipated until through its thinner 
 veil we caught sight at length of outstretched horses' 
 heads. For it was of these that the squadron was 
 formed. How many there were it was at first 
 impossible even to guess, but as they emerged from 
 the dust in a wide loose column, we saw there were 
 at least hundreds coming on with a thunder of hoof 
 which was almost terrifying in its swift approaching 
 increase. They were all colours, from black to 
 bright chestnut, to bay and grey and white : their 
 manes and tails were flying, and their eyes flashed in 
 the light of the northern sun at noon behind us. 
 No one was driving them, they were drawn by 
 desire, not driven by fear, and as they came nearer 
 and nearer my horse snatched at his bit. He was 
 wild with excitement and would join those his free 
 companions. He reared violently as I checked him, 
 and stood pawing the air while the riderless cavalry 
 came within fifty yards of us and performed a sudden, 
 beautiful evolution which made us shout for joy. The 
 front line of the column stopped as though at some 
 signal, and from both sides those behind shot out 
 into a curve until we were in the centre of a long 
 semicircle of horses some two deep, who burst with 
 
A THREE MONTHS' RIDE. 149 
 
 one accord into a great chorus of whinnies and 
 neighs which seemed to ask who and what we were, 
 and to invite Devilskin to get rid of his rider and 
 join the ranks of the free. 
 
 Throwing up his head he answered them loudly, 
 and for a moment I feared the invitation would be 
 accepted. But at last he quietened down, and I had 
 time to look at the wild mob in front of us, which 
 gradually broke from its orderly formation as two 
 or three stallions and the most curious of the others 
 approached us more nearly. These came up to within 
 a few yards, and, turning round suddenly, galloped 
 away at the smallest motion we made, while the rest 
 squealed and kicked and bit and played until the 
 noise they made was deafening. Then at last their 
 curiosity was sated and they began to draw off in 
 loose order. I turned my horse's head northward 
 and we resumed our journey. We had not gone a 
 mile before we heard the thunder of their hoofs 
 again as they came after us in a long column some 
 ten wide at the head. On reaching us they again 
 halted suddenly, and shot out into the wide-winged 
 curve. But now I had seen enough of them* and, 
 disengaging my stockwhip, I cracked it loudly. At 
 the very first report they threw up their heads, 
 wheeled round, and were in rapid flight across the 
 plain. They followed us no more. In the after- 
 noon of that day I was offered the first job since 
 leaving Yarra Yarra. But as it was bullock-driving 
 at fifteen shillings a week, less by ten shillings than 
 
ISO 
 
 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 the normal wages for such work, I refused it at 
 once. 
 
 That night we came to the Lachlan. Across it 
 we saw the little bush township of Condobolin. 
 
 The Australian rivers vary somewhat in character, 
 but after they leave the hill country in which they 
 rise, they generally assume the aspect of slow, deep 
 streams within high banks on which grow such gum- 
 trees as rise to a great altitude by rivers or a chain 
 of water-holes. No one seeing the Lachlan in its 
 later summer quietude could imagine that it ever 
 
 became vigorous and ener- 
 
 
 getic, and the evening 
 Irving and I made our 
 camp upon its banks it 
 was dumb and motionless. 
 We stayed near a little 
 " tin house " made of cor- 
 rugated iron, which was 
 occupied by a solitary man 
 and surrounded by fairly 
 good grass, and when I 
 climbed down the steep 
 river-bank to obtain water 
 for tea-making I could 
 hardly discern which way 
 But as we smoked with the hut- 
 dweller after supper, a horseman came along. He 
 pulled up at the door. 
 
 " I hear," said he, "that the river is rising fast 
 
 the river flowed. 
 
A THREE MONTHS' RIDE 151 
 
 above Forbes. They say there is a good deal of 
 water coming down." 
 
 I took but little notice of the ensuing conversa- 
 tion and soon after curled up in my blankets under a 
 big gum, while my horse picked up a plentiful repast 
 near the banks of the river. When I woke in the 
 morning very early, just as the dawn showed very 
 faintly through the heavy sombre foliage, I became 
 aware of a slight and unusual sound. It was rather 
 a hiss than a roar, even though distant. I fancied it 
 might be the light air stirring the top branches of the 
 gums, but when I turned over towards the Lachlan, 
 whose banks were but fifteen yards away, I saw a 
 pool of water, which I knew had not been there the 
 evening before, between me and the sloping edge of 
 the stream. I recalled the words of last night's 
 traveller, and knew that the mountain flood must 
 have reached us on the plains. I rose and went 
 towards it. The sight was a curious one. 
 
 In a long, grey, level country, like the greater 
 portion of western New South Wales, a turbulent or 
 eager river is a novelty. Last night the stream had 
 moved on lazily and with reluctance, a leaf dropped 
 on its still surface by an opossum in the boughs of 
 an overhanging tree stayed in the same spot for 
 many minutes, or if it did move it was with such a 
 slight progression that it mocked one's powers of 
 measurement and deceived the eye into believing the 
 still waters in those deep banks were no more than 
 a pool or long lagoon. But now the great gap 
 
152 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 between bank and bank was filled with a strong and 
 energetic flood which rushed onward steadily and 
 only stayed in those places where it flowed out upon 
 the level. The river yesterday was pellucid, now it 
 was as turbid as a street torrent. By an optical de- 
 lusion the stream's centre seemed higher than the 
 sides ; in the middle was a wide streak of dirty foam, 
 which half hid the leaves, sticks and branches the 
 flood had collected from the sloping banks for 
 hundreds of miles, as well as a few drowned sheep 
 and here and there a bullock or horse, suddenly sur- 
 prised in a place whence escape was impossible. 
 The day before the river had been dead, now it 
 was strong, alive, palpitating : it possessed being, 
 and power, and faculties ; it could do things, and 
 speak ; it had a soul and a voice ; the mountains far 
 away to the eastward, where Australia leaps at last 
 from the level, had given it a mission and imparted 
 to it some of the primaeval strength that dwells in 
 the regions of snow and tropical rain. It looked to 
 me like an irruption of northerners into the realms 
 of luxurious Rome, an invasion of a summer Sybaris, 
 a warning and an awakening in a slothful land of the 
 lotus, for as I stood and watched it, half in a dream, 
 it seemed to send my own blood faster by a strong 
 suggestion and sympathy. It was with difficulty 
 that I tore myself away to make ready for the day's 
 journey. 
 
 In the middle of the following day we came to 
 Forbes, the scene of the once famous Lachlan gold 
 
A THREE MONTHS' RIDE. 153 
 
 diggings. It was a town of dead gold-fields and 
 dead tree-stumps. Though it seemed active enough 
 from' a business point of view in the heart of the 
 town, in the outskirts an abomination of desolation 
 reigned. The piles of white earth ejected and re- 
 jected from the silent pits of deserted mines, no 
 longer thronged by eager men ; the thousands of 
 dead, stricken, and destroyed trees only evidenced 
 by ghastly stumps, made me anxious to get away 
 from the largest town I had seen since leaving 
 Albury on the Murray. For here humanity was 
 mainly manifest by the outrages it had committed 
 on nature, the town itself seemed but a small, ugly 
 parasite fattening on the carcase of the once 
 flourishing forest, and seeing the evil works of 
 civilized man, I preferred going farther into the 
 wilderness. So, after vainly asking for letters at the 
 post-office, we turned westward again, going down 
 the Lachlan, which was now rapidly falling in volume 
 and failing in energy. We camped in a silent, un- 
 touched forest of gum-trees. 
 
M, 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BURRAWANG. 
 
 By this time, if I reckoned from the date on 
 which I left Albury, I had been on the road, looking 
 for work, for three months. I had asked a hundred 
 times for something or for anything to do, along 
 three hundred and fifty miles of country, and had 
 asked in vain, I was now without money, though that 
 does not matter much in most parts of New South 
 Wales, and was almost in despair as to getting work. 
 Irving and I had, indeed, come to the resolution to 
 ask no more if we failed at the next place. We 
 elaborated a gigantic scheme which included selling 
 my horse and getting some kind of a boat in which 
 to navigate the Lachlan or Darling right through 
 New South Wales to Adelaide. But fate was kind, 
 and did not send us to encounter the difficulties 
 
BURRAWANG. 155 
 
 which would have awaited us at every turn of such 
 a journey, for we came to Burrawang. 
 
 At this big '■ station " every one was in violent 
 activity. Building was going on at a great rate and 
 new foundations were being dug for an immense hut 
 to shelter all the employes, while horses and carts 
 and horsemen were as busy as though it were the 
 headquarters of an army preparing for winter. The 
 prospect seemed encouraging for men willing to 
 work, and in ten minutes we were both engaged, for 
 I tackled one " boss " after the other until finally I 
 came to the owner of the place. He stared at me 
 for half a moment and then said — 
 
 "Yes ; you go out to the Deadman Plain, both 
 of you. Be at the store at one o'clock and go with 
 Ross." 
 
 We had not the least notion what we were to do, 
 and it was only when we were in the waggon on our 
 way to the plain so disagreeably named that we 
 found that our destined task was "burr cutting." 
 It required some further explanation to satisfy me, 
 for I knew not what burrs were nor why they should 
 be cut. There is, as it appeared, a kind of harmful 
 plant which grows increasing on the plains of New 
 South Wales. It is known as the Bathurst Burr, 
 and is a great nuisance to wool-growers, as the burrs 
 get knotted in the sheep's coats, and by making the 
 wool hard to comb render it much less valuable. 
 By Act of the Legislature, squatters are required to 
 cut it down ere it sheds its seeds and burn it. We 
 
156 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 had come just in time for the burr-cutting season, 
 and were soon hard at it with a hoe apiece. 
 
 Our camp was close to Deadman Plain, which was 
 so named from a traveller dying there of thirst, and 
 only divided from it by a thin belt of bull and she 
 oaks and dry sombre-looking dwarf box-trees. Our 
 tents were comfortable, we had a good cook and 
 good rations, and we drew good water from a shallow 
 lagoon enlarged artificially by a dam. To this lake 
 came black swans and spoonbills, with smaller water- 
 fowl. At night time what we called curlews flew 
 overhead and made the melancholy plain ring with 
 their fearful screams, which suggest hideous 
 massacres of unarmed people. I know no more 
 dreadful note in all nature. But curlews they 
 certainly were not. Our ornithology was at fault. 
 Curiously enough I have no desire to identify them 
 in a long list of names. It is enough that I heard 
 them cry at midnight in a strange land, which is 
 sombre and melancholy even at noon. Being un- 
 known, they make it more mysterious yet, and 
 almost spiritual. Every tree about us was plentifully 
 provided with opossums, who stole at night into 
 our tents ; and every day we saw kangaroo, and 
 their lesser relatives the nocturnal kangaroo-rats, 
 which we disturbed in their sleep as we worked on 
 the plain. They usually camp in little hollows of 
 the ground, and carefully cover themselves with dry 
 grass, in order to protect themselves from the fierce 
 sun, or to hide from the eagles which for ever fly 
 
BURRAWANG. 157 
 
 round overhead looking for such game or a lamb or 
 sick sheep. For these birds poison baits were 
 specially laid, and we often came across a splendid 
 dead specimen destroyed in this way. Not infre- 
 quently pigs which had run wild and multiplied in 
 the bush were also poisoned, There was certainly 
 plenty of animal life about our camp. We did not 
 keep dogs, as it was necessary to have them closely 
 muzzled on account of the baits which were lying 
 everywhere about us. 
 
 The great " eagle hawks " of this country are of 
 the species Aquilafucosa, according to Gould. They 
 were very numerous. At any hour of the day I 
 could count a dozen circling high above the plain. 
 Occasionally they swooped down to the ground, and 
 then I knew that they had descried a stray lamb, or 
 a ewe in labour, or a piece of carrion, for noble as 
 these birds are in appearance they do not disdain 
 dead food. Thus they are easy to poison. 
 
 One evening, when I and another man were 
 making our way home through a belt of bull-oaks, 
 we saw a very large eagle on the ground. He made 
 an abortive attempt to rise, but fell back and let us 
 approach without making any demonstration. But 
 he watched us very keenly. He had evidently been 
 poisoned, yet showed no signs of pain, his eye was 
 fierce and bright, and the clutch of his sharp talons 
 as strong as ever. When I put a stick near him 
 he grasped, it tightly, so tightly indeed that I could 
 scarcely make him let go. To me, it seemed a great 
 
i 5 8 
 
 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 the eagle captive. 
 
 pity that so fine and noble a bird should meet such 
 a miserable and unnatural end. I proposed to 
 my mate that we should carry him to the camp, 
 which was about a quarter of a mile away, give him 
 some water, and see if he would not recover. For, 
 as I have said, there were no signs of death about 
 him. The result of the poison was no more than a 
 kind of paralysis. It was no easy task to take 
 Indeed, if it had not been for 
 his fierce grasp 
 of the stick, 
 which he re- 
 fused to let go, I 
 doubt whether 
 we s h o u Id 
 have been able 
 to carry him. 
 After some 
 difficulty, be- 
 ing in no little 
 danger of re- 
 ceiving a terrible snap from his beak, I got him by 
 the neck, put a strap round his legs, and thus we 
 carried him between us on a pole. When we 
 reached the camp I offered him water which he 
 refused. I loosed his legs, managed to keep the 
 strap on one, and tied him with a short tether. In 
 the morning he was dead. This particular bird was 
 a very fine specimen, and would have been well 
 worth skinning if I had been a practised hand at 
 
BURRAWANG. 159 
 
 such work. His weight was I should think nearly 
 fifteen pounds, the spread of the wings almost seven 
 feet. 
 
 I suppose from the point of view of the sheep- 
 owner these eagles are but noxious and destructive 
 vermin. Yet it seems a vile thing to poison such 
 beautiful birds, often the only living things to be 
 seen on the plains or over them, when the hot days 
 make the low-flying birds glad to seek the heavy 
 shadows of the oak belts, while no animal shows in 
 the sun. But of course we want wool and mutton. 
 No one needs eagles. They are a luxury even for 
 an ornithologist, and one he hardly expects to get. 
 Soon, when Australia is one vast meat farm, this 
 dun-coloured eagle, with his lofty flight, and swift 
 stoop, with his terrible beak and talons, will become 
 rare. Towards the south of New South Wales and 
 in Victoria it is no longer common ; there the sheep- 
 owners have no need to use strychnine. 
 
 One day, or rather afternoon, as we were working 
 on the far side of Deadman's Plain, a kangaroo -rat 
 sprang out of a hollow, thrusting aside the bunch of 
 grass with which it was concealed. The man who 
 had disturbed it was a swift runner. He dropped 
 his hoe and chased it. Soon it became evident that 
 he was actually coming up with the flying marsupial, 
 until the wretched animal, which was a female, put 
 its fore-paw into its pouch and threw away its young 
 one, or in Australian parlance " dinged the joey." 
 This little joey I caught at once. It was a soft, 
 
160 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 beautiful little thing 1 , and being loth to leave it or 
 even to mercifully kill it, I opened my shirt and put 
 it next my skin. It nestled down at once as if in 
 its mother's pouch. I carried it thus till knock-off 
 time. The men chaffed me a little, asking how I 
 liked being a mother kangaroo-rat, but they were 
 all pleased to see my joey when it peeped out and 
 then suddenly retreated. All kangaroos and 
 wallabies are very easily tamed, and this youngster 
 was no exception. When we reached the camp I 
 put him on the ground and he hopped about as if 
 quite at home. The cook, a rough old English 
 sailor, was so delighted with the little animal that he 
 begged it of me, and as it is at all times and in all 
 places good to be a persona grata with the chef, I 
 parted with my pet, though not without some 
 reluctance. But the cook being at the camp all day 
 had a better chance to look after him. He made a 
 bed of dry grass for him in a box in his tent. At 
 night-time as we had supper, the joey would hop 
 out and pick up crumbs. If he heard any alarming 
 noise in two jumps he was in his box covered up 
 with the grass. 
 
 During six weeks of the late summer Irving and I 
 worked hard at burr cutting for the regulation wages 
 of a pound a week. We hoed them down, raked 
 them together in heaps to dry, and finally made 
 great bonfires of them under the burning Australian 
 sun, which is always hot whenever it shines, even 
 though it be only a cloudless interval of the rainy 
 
M 
 
v 
 
BURRAWANG. 163 
 
 season. The heat was frequently intense, but I 
 found, as is so often the case, that I endured it better 
 than the native-born whites themselves, of whom we 
 had several representative specimens in the camp. 
 
 Men born and reared in wild countries are rarely 
 well educated in any sense of. the word, but after a 
 varied experience of all sorts and conditions of 
 Texans, Californians, British Columbians, and many 
 others, commend me to a bush-bred New South 
 Wales man for sheer downright ignorance. I by 
 no means attempted to set up as an authority or 
 a dictator of debates, and yet I was continually 
 getting into trouble by innocently introducing what 
 my mates considered new and dangerous heresies. 
 
 For instance, I one day let fall a remark which 
 implied that the world was round. If I remember 
 rightly I said that England was nearly beneath us. 
 This caused a most violent commotion in the circle 
 seated round the camp-fire near our lagoon. The 
 elder of two brothers — both very big men and 
 hostile to me on account of other strange theories — 
 was so righteously indignant with me that for a 
 moment I feared I had said something which hurt 
 his feelings. When he had discovered by questions 
 that I was not joking, he looked at me solemnly 
 and with great self-control quoted .the Bible. I 
 made some innocent remarks about Biblical and 
 other early cosmogonies which the whole company 
 considered impious and heretical. I began to feel 
 like Galileo before the Inquisition. I wondered 
 
 m 2 
 
1*4 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 whether I was in a tribe of savages or whether my 
 education had been conducted on a radically wrong 
 basis. They plied me with questions, threw ridicule 
 on me, used the rudest species of bush irony and 
 backwoods sarcasm, and when I appealed in despair 
 to Irving to support my view of the universe, they 
 begged me to leave him alone, as they felt certain 
 he was not such a fool as to believe anything so 
 absurdly, so ridiculously, so impiously and startlingly 
 new as my theory. I grew angry and retorted, 
 used all the well-known arguments, asked them 
 questions in return, and at last hit on one which 
 nobody could answer. Then Big Bill rose up in 
 wrath, and, backed by his brother and the applause 
 of the crowd, actually threatened to go for me then 
 and there if I did not refrain from the promulgation 
 of blatant atheism. As I saw no prospect of being 
 able to fight the whole camp with any satisfactory 
 result, I retired, like Achilles, to my tent, and 
 smoked in silent and solitary indignation. 
 
 If I had been a little older I might have known 
 better than expect intelligence from a gang whose 
 sole talk was of horses, varied not infrequently with 
 the vilest ribaldry. Should my evil destiny ever 
 drive me again among Australians of that sort, I 
 am prepared- to acknowledge that the cutting of 
 burrs is a necessary preliminary to the study of 
 philosophy, and will without demur subscribe to the 
 Cartesian theory of vortices or to the ancient 
 cosmogony of Ptolemy. When I have grown so 
 
BURRAWANG. 165 
 
 meek I shall never attempt to defend school 
 astronomy, nor will I fight for any new-fangled 
 geographical theory whatever. 
 
 Why it is I cannot say, but there is little or no 
 reading done in the Australian bush. In America 
 one may always find the best novels— of course in 
 pirated editions — in every store. I have bought 
 Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd, 
 and George Meredith's Diana of the Crossways on 
 a counter covered with bear hides in a little British 
 Columbian store by the Shushwap Lake, but I never 
 found any literature in the New South Wales bush. 
 A weekly newspaper is as far as one may go there. 
 
 As it was, I did not get away from Deadman's 
 Plain without a desperate fight, in which I got 
 satisfactorily whipped after putting my thumb out 
 of joint. The cause of the combat was neither 
 evolution nor history, but language. And language 
 of a kind which according to bush ethics left me with 
 no peaceful alternative. 1 had been suffering from 
 an ulcerated throat, and had eaten nothing solid for 
 a week. When I recovered I restored the balance 
 of power, and a week afterwards triumphantly fired 
 the last dried heap of cut burrs and went back to 
 the Home Station. 
 
 I had entertained some hope of employment for 
 the whole of the winter, or rainy season, which was 
 just setting in ; but was disappointed. Apparently 
 the great business of the year was over, and I 
 received my cheque, or what is called in bush 
 
166 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 parlance my " walking papers." Fortunately, I had 
 my horse, and so had a man with whom I made 
 chums, who had just been sacked for fighting with 
 his boss. Charlie McPhillamy was a young 
 Victorian, a rather melancholy ne'er-do-well, who 
 began at twenty-nine to regret having lost what 
 opportunities Fate had afforded him, in the deso- 
 lation of the grey-brown plains of New South 
 Wales. Yet he was an amiable, well-dispositioned 
 fellow, whom I liked much, and should have liked 
 far better if it had not been for his ineradicable 
 desire to get up early. All my life I have abhorred 
 that most unnatural proceeding ; in all my 
 wanderings and strange tasks the necessity for 
 getting up with the fanatical sun has been the most 
 bitter of all bitternesses to me, and now I make up 
 for it by remaining in bed, if I possibly can, while 
 I reflect with satisfaction that no ranch bell rings, 
 no saw-mill whistle blows, no watch on deck roar 
 " Starbowlines ahoy!" no bo'son sings out " Turn 
 to ! " and that no boss of any description whatever 
 comes to threaten me with the sack if I don't 
 mend my morning manners. I sometimes hated 
 McPhillamy for rousing me, and once I chased .him 
 with a stirrup I snatched from my saddle. For 
 early rising in Australia when travelling in the 
 rainy season was wholly unnecessary. Still he was 
 a very good fellow, and a man more after my heart 
 than Irving, who remained behind at Burrawang 
 when I left. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 TOWARDS THE WILLANDRA, 
 
 The weather was now really going to break up in 
 earnest. As Charlie and I rode out of Burrawang 
 the sky was heavily clouded. Yet the rain did not 
 come just yet. My new mate and I held a consulta- 
 tion as to where we should go. This was almost 
 a matter of indifference to me so long as it was not 
 where I had been before. But Charlie had got over 
 his earlier desire for adventure and new things. 
 Accordingly he suggested going west. How far, I 
 asked. A couple of hundred miles or so. He had 
 worked on a station called Mossgiel, well out in the 
 Lachlan Back Blocks, as the country far from the 
 river is called. I was quite willing, and accordingly 
 we turned our horses' heads towards the west and 
 followed the Lachlan down for some miles. One 
 night we camped opposite Condobolin, in a wretched 
 ramshackle old hut, with a companion whom I seemed 
 to know. After some conversation it turned out 
 that I had met him the year before on the Murray 
 River, more than three hundred miles to the south- 
 
1 68 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 ward, when he was in a state of prosperity — fat, 
 well-dressed, with a good horse, having charge of a 
 mob of travelling sheep. Now he was on foot, in 
 rags, carrying his blankets and cooking a little flour, 
 affording a good example of the sudden changes of 
 condition so often witnessed in new countries and 
 usually to be traced to drink or gambling. 
 
 That nient our horses took a little stroll all on 
 their own account, and in the morning were not to 
 be seen. I took up their trail, as I thought, and 
 followed it for about seven miles through thick bush, 
 often getting thrown off the scent, but as often 
 finding it again. I was sure that they were our 
 horses, because Charlie's animal dragged his near 
 forefoot the veriest trifle, making a peculiar mark, 
 but when I at last came up with them I found, to my 
 intense disgust, that they were not ours. I had 
 been tracking from eight o'clock in the morning 
 until two, and had to wearily retrace my steps. 
 Charlie I found recumbent in the hut, smoking with 
 melancholy satisfaction that it was not he who was 
 in the bush, but he did not look so pleased when he 
 saw me limp in, tired, disgusted and unsuccessful. 
 After a rest I took the billy and went down to the 
 river, which was about eighty yards away, and close 
 to the banks I found the horses I had walked 
 fourteen miles for. If I fancied my own wicked 
 animal, Devilskin, leered with satisfaction and was 
 fat with sell-conceit, I may not have been far out, 
 for he certainly knew a thing or two about travelling. 
 
TOWARDS THE WILLANDRA. 169 
 
 In the next township I bought a bell for his neck. 
 My last one I lost at the Horse Lagoon before 
 coming to Burrawang. But he played me a different 
 trick soon afterwards, which the bell did not serve to 
 prevent. 
 
 That day was the last fine weather we had. In 
 the evening it came on to rain heavily, and hence- 
 forward, for six weeks, there were few hours that the 
 sky was not lowering. It is not pleasant work, 
 riding along for a whole day, wet through, but when 
 a day multiplies itself indefinitely, and a dry skin 
 becomes a kind of legend or myth in one's personal 
 history, the infliction has a tendency to depress the 
 strongest traveller. We rarely came to a travellers' 
 hut, the stations were thinly scattered, and to stay in 
 the hotels at an occasional township which consisted 
 of a general store, a drinking house and a black- 
 smith's shop, was decidedly hard on one's purse. 
 Ours were not very heavy, for though Charlie left 
 Burrawang with ten pounds, I had only five. So we 
 usually camped out in the open or under the gums, 
 which are not a whit more satisfactory as shelter- 
 trees than the straggling cedars of the Pacific slope 
 in British Columbia. They do no more than con- 
 centrate the rain and pour it on you in spouts rather 
 than in sprinkles. Yet there is a certain satisfaction 
 in being under a big tree ; one can make believe 
 that he has something over him, and, trusting to his 
 imagination, may pity the poor fellows who that 
 night are forced to camp on the open plain. 
 
170 
 
 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 For a week it rained, and then for another week, 
 until the ground, which at no time was hard or rocky, 
 became saturated, and so soft that the horses went 
 in over the hoofs, and we wretched individuals woke 
 up in the morning to find that we lay in pools of 
 warm muddy water. During the whole jour- 
 ney Charlie was eager to rise betimes. It may 
 seem that he was wise, seeing the state of affairs ; 
 
 but if so I 
 was foolish. 
 The weather 
 was not very 
 cold, my blan- 
 ket s were 
 new and 
 heavy (they 
 are the same 
 I took all 
 over West- 
 ern America 
 and I possess 
 them now), and I was fond of sleep. I did not mind 
 being wet so long as I was warm, and I used to refuse 
 to rise on any pretext. Charlie would get up, go 
 away and then come back and relate to me through 
 the blankets which covered my head, that he believed 
 our horses were lost. I replied sleepily that I was 
 glad of it, and wished he would go and lose himself 
 too. Yet it was in vain. I had to rise, sulkily, at 
 last. Then, to add insult to injury, I could by no 
 
TOWARDS THE WILLANDRA. 171 
 
 persuasion get him ready to leave camp. As long 
 as I was up he didn't care, and would do nothing. 
 It fell to me to seek the horses : often and often I 
 saddled his as well as my own, and sometimes I rode 
 off a mile, leaving him lazily contemplating his wet 
 gear or hunting for a hot coal to light the fourth pipe 
 he had smoked since rising. Certainly we did not 
 work well together. 
 
 One night we came to a nice little bend in the 
 river where there was plenty of grass and an 
 immense quantity of fallen dead timber. The gum 
 trees there were particularly large for that part of 
 the country, some of them measuring fifteen feet or 
 more in girth. We selected this place for a camp 
 and turned our horses loose. We started a fire 
 under a great trunk, determined, since it still rained, 
 and was comparatively cold, that we would for once 
 have a real blaze. Charlie and I carried wood for 
 an hour, and by nine o'clock the flames shot twenty 
 feet into the air, roaring and hissing with the 
 falling rain, while the leaves of the gum trees 
 above turned brown with the parching heat. For 
 once in a while we were dry. But in the morning 
 my horse was gone, bell and all. Charlie's nag 
 stared at us disconsolately when we found him, but 
 he was decidedly alone. For three days my mate 
 hunted the absentee, and when he was just on the 
 point of giving up the search, he discovered him in 
 a large mob of horses belonging to the station on 
 which we were camped. He drove them all into 
 
172 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 the stockyard and I parted Devilskin from the rest 
 with some trouble. When I saddled him he was 
 nearly wild and bucked violently, so excited was he 
 by his temporary intercourse with the half-wild 
 strangers. Then in the morning my mate's horse 
 was missing. This was a heavy blow to us, for we 
 wanted to get on. It took three days to find him. 
 When we finally did leave that unlucky bend we 
 went into a wretched little township a few miles 
 farther down the river and stayed at the hotel, 
 where they charged us seven-and-sixpence apiece 
 for the entertainment of our horses on what is 
 known as "hay" in that part of the bush, that is, 
 barley in the straw. 
 
 In the morning we started off, and came by 
 night, in the rain, to the most wretched camping- 
 ground we had yet had. It resembled a swamp ; 
 indeed, it was partly covered with a kind of reed or 
 cane-brake, which only grows in damp situations. 
 The added rain made the place terrible indeed. 
 We tried to go on, but with the falling darkness 
 much more travel was out of the question. Besides, 
 the farther we went the worse it got. At last we 
 camped in despair, and chose the only sloping piece 
 of ground we could see, which was by a big rain-pool. 
 Suitable wood there was none, and all there was 
 seemed proof against fire, for weeks of soaking had 
 saturated it. Charlie, who had been much longer 
 in the bush than I, was more hopeless of a blaze. 
 He affirmed that we could not get one without an 
 
TOWARDS THE WILLANDRA. 
 
 173 
 
 axe, or a tomahawk at the least, and we possessed 
 neither. But I would not camp out without a fire. 
 I took my knife, and going to the trees ; peeled oft 
 the outside bark, which I rejected, but taking the 
 under layer, scraped it up and put it inside my shirt. 
 1 chose the most sheltered spot of ground I could 
 find and turned over the leaves until I came to a 
 layer of those which were less wet than the others. 
 I put them with the bark. Going round to the 
 gathering darkness, I rattled the bush about to find 
 dead twigs, which I broke into small pieces and 
 pouched as well. Then I returned to my mate, who 
 was sitting on 
 his saddle in a 
 state of gloom, 
 with the heavy 
 rain pouring 
 over him. I 
 asked him for 
 paper — a let- 
 ter, an enve- 
 lope, anything. 
 He had none. 
 I had none 
 
 myself, so at last I was compelled to cut away part 
 of the only match-box I had and shred it up fine. By 
 this time I was very damp, and my fire materials, 
 though they made me very uncomfortable, seemed 
 dryer. I scraped a little spot clear, and making 
 Charlie hold his hat over it, put my paper down. 
 
174 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 This I covered with a few leaves. Match after 
 match went out, but each one that did so dried the 
 materials a little, besides going on the pile, and at 
 last I got a little blaze. By careful attention I 
 preserved it so that it grew, adding leaf by leaf and 
 twig by twig, until Charlie was able to put his hat 
 on again. In an hour we had a fine fire, and were 
 able to turn our attention to making the tea, 
 without which every travelling Australian is a 
 miserable rebellious animal against destiny. 
 
 Meantime the rain came down in torrents. We 
 were, of course, saturated, our blankets were heavy, 
 the ground squelched with every step we made and 
 squirted liquid mud. I took Charlie's blankets with 
 one of my own and spread them on the sloping 
 ground, while I fixed some rude poles and a hori- 
 zontal stick, upon which I placed my other blanket. 
 With my hands I scraped a rough trench at the 
 top, and carried it round at the sides. The fire 
 was at our feet, and we crawled in very carefully to 
 avoid bringing down the canopy. The bed was at 
 any rate soft, so much could be said for it, for I felt 
 myself sinking as if I were on feathers. The fire 
 being fairly hot, and the two of us close together, 
 we managed to keep warm, finally going to sleep 
 steaming in a kind of mingled mud and rain bath. 
 For very soon the water came through the upper 
 blanket. 
 
 In the middle of the night I woke up feeling very 
 cold and uncomfortable. Stretching out my hand I 
 
TOWARDS THE WILLANDRA. 175 
 
 found that the trench above had so altered its con- 
 figuration that it concentrated the water and delivered 
 it on me in one volume, A little more and I should 
 have slid out of the impromptu tent. I growled and 
 plastered vainly at the trenchwith mud which was 
 too liquid to dam the breach, and in my struggles I 
 dislodged the sticks, letting the canopy and horizontal 
 down on Charlie. He woke up and looked into 
 matters. , Finally we rejected the sticks, let the 
 upper blanket remain where it was, rolled close to- 
 gether, and determined to take what fate sent. So 
 I slept again in a running stream. 
 
 In the early morning we crawled out, looking two 
 more wretched mortals than any Prometheus brought 
 fire to. We were plastered with mud and running 
 with water. Neither could have been moister if he 
 had slept in the rising pool which hissed now in the 
 lower embers of our sinking fire. I took hold of the 
 blankets and ripped them from the ground, which 
 then showed deep casts of our figures. As they 
 could not be wetter, and might be cleaner, we washed 
 them in the pool, wrung them out, and wore them as 
 ponchos or cloaks. In sombre silence we looked to 
 the fire, made tea, saddled up and departed, The 
 next day we came to the Willandra Billabong. 
 
 So far as I am aware there is no similar feature to 
 the true billabong in any country except Australia. 
 Certainly there are rivers whose raised banks only 
 restrain them from flooding the adjacent districts 
 such as the Po, and other streams of northern Italy ; 
 
176 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 but to this end human labour has been employed 
 during many centuries in heightening the natural 
 barriers which grow less and less efficacious as the 
 detritus and wash from the Alps fill their beds in the 
 lower valleys and plains. In Australia the level of 
 some of the rivers at flood time is decidedly above 
 the level of the neighbouring districts, and the billa- 
 bongs found in the Lachlan and other streams are 
 natural aqueducts, like the lashers of some of our 
 rivers, artificially raised by locks, which draw off the 
 water when it rises to a certain level. On reaching 
 the Willandra Charley McPhillamy, who was familiar 
 with that part of New South Wales, pointed out to 
 me what had all the appearance of a dry affluent to 
 the river by which we had been journeying, and 
 asked me what I thought of it. I said it was a 
 " creek," or stream-bed, then dry. It certainly seemed 
 to be what I said, and yet, in spite of its look, no 
 water ever ran from it into the river. On the con- 
 trary, as I soon found out, when the river rose as it 
 had done when I was travelling with Irving, the 
 turbid waters poured out into the country by this 
 gap and ran like an original stream through three 
 hundred miles of plain which had otherwise been 
 wholly dependent on rain and dug wells for its 
 supply. 
 
 That night we stayed at the junction of the Will- 
 andra with the Lachlan, camping at a very good 
 travellers' hut. The boss of the station gave us 
 meat and flour, and as three other men were likewise 
 
TOWARDS THE W1LLANDRA. 177 
 
 camped there, we made up quite a small party to 
 discuss work and the weather, and the probability of 
 water from the river getting into the Billabong that 
 year. In the morning, on going to the Lachlan for 
 water I passed a wretched old black fellow camped 
 in a bit of a gunyah or native hut with his two wives, 
 He was very urgent that I should give him some 
 tobacco, and offered various inducements which did 
 not in the least tempt me. In the morning we turned 
 down the Willandra, for Mossgiel is on the Billabong, 
 and that night, after no very long ride, we stayed on 
 a barren-looking, open salt bush plain, at a grog 
 shanty known as Bale's Hotel. We were now well 
 into the salt bush country. On this salty, but suc- 
 culent thick-leaved plant sheep flourish admirably. 
 In the hotel we did not flourish, for both of us had 
 something there described as brandy, but known to 
 colonials as " sheepwash." It is said that in order 
 to make the vile concoction take quicker effect on 
 the unwary tobacco is put in the cask. Certainly, 
 three small drinks made me feel as if I had been 
 poisoned, and Charlie, who took more, was ill for four 
 or five days afterwards. 
 
 The country we were now in could hardly be 
 described as interesting. On leaving the Lachlan 
 we quitted the region of the big gums, while the box 
 trees grew smaller and more dwarfed yet as we got 
 into the heart of of the plains in the Back Blocks. 
 The billabong was then almost empty, save for a 
 few pools here and there ; its banks and beds were 
 
 N 
 
J78 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 covered with dry wind-shaken reeds, around us 
 everywhere was a boundless level, only broken by a 
 few stray clumps of dismal dwarf boxes that could 
 be seen, though not larger in girth than nine inches, 
 very many miles away. Fortunately for us, the 
 weather changed a little ; it no longer rained in 
 ceaseless torrents ; the sky, though sometimes over- 
 cast and rarely free from clouds, was not a dismal 
 canopy of leaden hue ; the sun often shone cheerfully 
 and we were rarely quite wet to the skin. But we 
 had a week's journey before us yet, and having 
 started from the separation of the river and billabong 
 with nothing but flour and some jam in our com- 
 missariat, we found at the only place we expected to 
 get meat that the occupants of the hut were just then 
 no better provided with flesh foods than ourselves. 
 
 There is such a thing as being hungry and not 
 being able to eat certain foods. I found that exist- 
 ing five days on bread and jam while riding in the 
 open plains, or while occupying oneself for a day or 
 so in succession hunting up a strayed horse was 
 almost as unpleasant as the absolute and horrible 
 starvation I was yet to experience. I loathed the 
 bread made in thin cakes on the coals, known in the 
 colonies as Johnny-cakes, and as for jam, I think I 
 have not yet recovered my liking for it. We were 
 both almost ready to steal a sheep, so keen grew our 
 carnivorous desires. In the end we absolutely re- 
 fused to touch what we had left and rode on fiercely, 
 knowing that we could not be very far from the 
 
TOWARDS THE WILLANDRA. 
 
 179 
 
 Mossgiel sheep-shed, by which some Chinamen were 
 living". We reached their huts at last, late in the 
 evening. 
 
 I dismounted and walked up to the place. Peering 
 into the dirty interior, dimly lighted by the bush 
 light called a slush-lamp, I spied four Chinamen 
 playing euchre with a pack of almost indistinguish- 
 able cards. They 
 looked up rather 
 sulkily on being 
 disturbed. I 
 asked for meat, 
 or rather deman- 
 ded it, having 
 previously made 
 up my mind that 
 if there was any 
 to be had, I 
 would obtain it 
 at any cost, even 
 by fighting. 
 They denied 
 
 they had any, but as I saw a dried piece of sheep ribs 
 hanging on a hook, I seized hold of it without any 
 circumlocution and asked how much they wanted. 
 On payment of a shilling I departed with my prize, 
 and we repaired to the shearers' hut, at that time 
 of the year quite empty. 
 
 We were perfectly ravenous. It was dry salt 
 meat, but to think of wasting time in boiling it was 
 
 N 2 
 
180 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 ludicrous. We found a rude gridiron made of fencing 
 wire in the old hut's fireplace and began grilling. 
 I ate fifteen small chops in rapid succession, and 
 Charlie finished the remainder. Though the saltness 
 of it was indescribable, I never enjoyed a meal more 
 in all my life, and shall probably never do so again 
 until I ride a hundred miles in keen bright air living 
 on bread and jam, But during the whole night I 
 was drinking water. In the morning the door of 
 our sleeping hut was burst violently open and a big 
 black-and-tan collie rushed in. He made instant 
 overtures of affection to me and ended by leaping 
 into my bunk, where he lay until the boundary rider 
 who lived close by called to him. 
 
 For breakfast we ate the remainder of the salt 
 mutton and some flat bread cakes given us by this 
 same boundary rider. The seven miles between the 
 shearing shed and Mossgiel we accomplished in a 
 leisurely fashion and reached the home station by 
 about eight. The boss on being appealed to in the 
 customary manner, gave Charlie his old job of 
 boundary riding, and asked me if I could kill sheep 
 and milk. Without any hesitation I said I could 
 and was hired. I had never milked a cow in my 
 life. The only time I had ever tried was at Mahonga 
 and, though Annie tried her best to teach me, the art 
 remained occult and unattainable. But I was tired 
 of travelling and would at least try. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE LAND OF SHEEP. 
 
 
 
 TTHuch to my surprise I found that I could milk 
 without any difficulty. It is true that my 
 hands grew very tired at first but that soon wore off. 
 I became dexterous in a week, and could without 
 trouble always supply the two buckets of milk needed 
 for the house and have a little over for the men's 
 hut. This was a very small quantity to get from six 
 cows, but then in the bush, especially far up from 
 town, cows are not bred especially for milking 
 purposes. The butchering was an odious job, one 
 which I was with difficulty reconciled to. Even now 
 I hate to think of it. The demands for meat in a meat- 
 
182 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 eating country with some fifty men to keep supplied 
 often gave me a hard tussle. But at last I became 
 dexterous even at that, learnt to use the knife in 
 both hands, and could give several minutes to any one 
 on the station. I disliked both jobs but the milking 
 was least disagreeable. 
 
 Yet even in that I had much trouble. They 
 were continually taking away quiet cows for some out 
 station, and to replace these they sent me wild ones 
 to break in. A young cow with her first calf is an 
 awkward customer to handle and I often sat on the 
 fence wondering how to begin with an animal 
 which showed a strong and pointed disinclination to 
 let me enter the yard at all. But there is a way to 
 do everything and fortunately a cow can be roped 
 from a distance. Occasionally when that failed, and 
 no one in Australia is really clever with the lasso, I 
 had to go in and let the cow charge me. It happens 
 that any beast can be knocked down and stunned if 
 struck in the proper place ; and in cows and bullocks 
 this is just behind the horns. So I took a stick about 
 a yard long which was rather supple, and an inch and 
 a half through at the thick end. As the cow charged 
 I jumped aside, struck her, and as she lay put the 
 rope over her horns. It was sometimes rather 
 dangerous work. But at any rate it was exciting 
 and afforded some compensation for the monotony 
 of a job which often left much time on my hands and 
 no means of occupying it. 
 
 In this part of the country there were usually a 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 183 
 
 good many black fellows. They camped at the back 
 of the station, towards the north, and the gins or 
 women always came to me begging for the sheep's 
 heads. As colonials do not care for any but the very 
 best parts of the mutton, I was always at liberty to 
 give them away. These black fellows were for the 
 most part a very miserable lot, though there were a few 
 bright young boys among them and some very tall 
 men. One called Moses, out-topped me by an inch. 
 He took a sort of liking for me, and once or twice 
 made me a stock whip-handle out of a piece of myall 
 wood. But he never forgot to apply for some silver 
 afterwards. The women were mostly of a hideous-' 
 ness on a par with their mental and moral status. 
 Only one, a tall girl known as Catherine, who alw r ays 
 dressed in loose calico gown and nothing besides, was 
 passably good-looking, and she was invariably intoxi- 
 cated. If there is any such law in New South 
 Wales as they have in British Columbia forbidding 
 the gift or sale of liquor to the aborigines, I never 
 knew it enforced. But they are a doomed race, and 
 cannot exist for long, even if our pleasant civilization 
 be restrained from destroying them by its vices. I 
 cannot regret the women, but some of the men were 
 really fine fellows in their way, and wonderfully keen 
 and intelligent. 
 
 After working very regularly at my new job for 
 nearly two months I began to sicken of it most 
 heartily. I think if I had still had my horse I 
 should have asked for my cheque and saddled up. But 
 
184 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 I sold Devilskin to the man who had been milkman 
 before I came, and got a very good price for him, 
 £i$. Horses on these plains are much more 
 valuable than in the hills. However, I went to the 
 boss, who was now Mr. Webster, formerly of Round 
 Hill, north of Albury and near Burrumbuttock, and 
 asked to be given the next vacancy as boundary 
 rider. He promised it to me as soon as any likely 
 traveller came along to replace me. This happened 
 the next week, just at the very time a boundary 
 rider left the Strathavon out-station, fourteen miles 
 to the southward of Mossgiel. I initiated the new 
 man into the mysteries, showed him where he was 
 most likely to find the cows in the big horse pad- 
 dock, rolled up my blankets, and went south to 
 occupy the loftier and more generally esteemed 
 position of a man whose duty was to ride. 
 
 For in the bush there is something of the same 
 feeling which distinguishes cavalrymen from lines- 
 men. A dragoon despises a foot-soldier ; " infantry 
 swine " is a common term of abuse in the army. It is 
 almost the same among the workers in the Colonies. 
 I felt it a distinct rise in society to be a boundary 
 rider, but soon discovered that the common im- 
 pression that a horseman's work was no work at all 
 was quite a delusion. " Just sitting on a horse " was 
 very decidedly work, when the ordinary day's ride 
 was rarely less than thirty miles and often nearer fifty. 
 And on extraordinary occasions, when we mustered 
 sheep in the great paddocks ten miles square, I 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 185 
 
 sometimes covered eighty or ninety miles in the 
 day. 
 
 For Mossgiel was a great station which stretched 
 far away to the north and south, and consisted of 
 1, 100 square miles of territory, or 700,000 acres. On 
 this vast salt bush plain roamed hundreds of thousands 
 of sheep. In the three paddocks whose fences I was 
 responsible for were about thirty-five thousand, and 
 by the end of lambing nearly fifty thousand. For 
 sixteen thousand in one paddock were ewes, and our 
 lambing percentage was that year over a hundred. 
 My outside fences were fifty miles round. 
 
 At Strathavon the overseer had a small house, as 
 he was a married man with a young family, while I 
 lived in a tent, and did my own cooking ; my mate was 
 mostly an oldish man, called Veale, who was com- 
 paratively wealthy, though he worked as I did for a 
 pound a week and his grub. He had had some three 
 thousand pounds left him by a relative in England, 
 but showed no signs of leaving off hard work. 
 
 My work at first was not very arduous as I was 
 used to riding. I usually went round one paddock a 
 day to see if any of the wires were broken. Occasion- 
 ally a kangaroo got trapped in them as he came along 
 in the dark. The kangaroos of the plains are reddish 
 in colour, not grey as their congeners of the hills or 
 wooded country. Then there were numbers of emus 
 everywhere. It was curious to see them running 
 along the plain in single file. Few horses can run the 
 older birds down, but I once captured a youngster 
 
1 86 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 by coiling my stock-whip round its neck. They 
 grow as tame and impudent as a pet kangaroo or 
 lamb. These emus I frequently found in the fences, 
 for when they put a leg through on one side and 
 toppled over on the other, the twisted wires held 
 them like a vice* On these rides I carried wire 
 tools, a nipper for cutting, and a piece of iron with 
 holes in it to twist together, or splice the broken 
 wires. If posts were knocked down, I told Veale on 
 my return home, and he went out with a bar and 
 shovel to set them up again. This was practically 
 all my work for nearly three months. My long 
 leisure time I spent in reading, and reading again all 
 the books I could get. As they were few, I read 
 them over till I knew them by heart. 
 
 My best companion — for after all Veale was but a 
 thick-headed worker — was my dog Sancho, the very 
 colley who was the first inhabitant of Mossgiel to 
 greet me as I and Charlie McPhillamy slept in the 
 shearers' hut. His owner left the station, and sold 
 him to me for three pounds. I had another young 
 dog I had brought from Mossgiel. I was struck in 
 him with the earliest manifestation of perfect instinct 
 I ever saw in collies. It was a little rough-haired 
 colley pup, whose mother belonged to a man who 
 was travelling. . As she littered at our place he was 
 going to destroy the pups, but fortunately there was 
 another colley suckling some at the same time, and I 
 made her undertake the office of foster-mother for 
 three by force. I held her down in spite of her 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 187 
 
 resistance while the little fellows I had selected made 
 a meal, and at the end of some days she did not 
 know the strangers from her own, and brought them 
 up together. I kept the most promising one for 
 myself, and named him Bo'son. He was only 
 two months old when I took him with me to 
 Strathavon, and until then he had never beheld a 
 sheep at close quarters. For three or four days I 
 kept him tied up close to my tent, but on the fourth 
 he got away and followed me and my big dog Sancho 
 down to the gate of the paddock where I had just 
 driven about one hundred and fifty rams. On 
 reaching them I found I had left my tools for mend- 
 ing wire fencing behind me, and as I rode back 
 Sancho came with me, for there was no need to fear 
 they would stray far, being slow and steady in their 
 ways, and also somewhat advanced in age. I had 
 not noticed that Bo'son remained behind. On 
 returning in a few minutes I saw, to my surprise, 
 that the rams had not spread out to feed, but were 
 bunched up together in a close mass, and that the 
 outer ones were following the motions of something 
 which I could not see, but which they evidently 
 feared. I reined in my horse, waved back Sancho, 
 and watched. Presently I saw woolly little Bo'son, 
 who certainly was no bigger than the head of the 
 least of them, paddling round and round the circle 
 in a quiet, determined, and business-like manner. I 
 remained motionless and watched to see whether he 
 was doing it by accident ; but no, he made his rounds 
 
LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 again and again, and as he did so the huge-horned 
 rams followed him with their eyes. It was with much 
 difficulty that I enticed him home, and from his air 
 I have no doubt he would have gone on circling his 
 self-imposed charge until his legs failed him from 
 fatigue. By the time I left Mossgiel he was a very 
 promising sheep-dog. 
 
 Sancho, of whom I have spoken, was a large 
 
 smooth-haired 
 f*> rv Tasmanian, and 
 
 nA&mk tj the best animal 
 
 to handle a flock 
 numbering tens 
 of thousands 
 that I ever saw. 
 Yet when I first 
 owned him he 
 
 ' S ^^l dffiS' ^ a d more plea- 
 
 ^^ *r* sure in chasing a 
 
 .* v- low-flying crow 
 
 than in doing his 
 duty, and it cost me some trouble and him some 
 suffering before I broke him of an unworkmanlike 
 habit due to his former training. He had worked 
 for two years near a well, from which water was 
 drawn in the hot season for the sheep, and to the 
 troughs came not only these, but innumerable crows 
 from many miles round. The men engaged in 
 raising water encouraged Sancho to drive them 
 away and, as one of them, who afterwards worked 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 189 
 
 where I was, told me, he would race up and down 
 for hours at a time while the miserable crows tried in 
 vain to get a drink. Old Veale too pretended that he 
 knew what the birds said about it, and he translated 
 their melancholy cawing into " O-o-h, Sancho-o-o, 
 you wretched dawg," with a long nasal crow-like 
 twang at the end which made Sancho prick up his 
 ears when he heard him relate it. But when I had 
 finished with him he would actually look the other 
 way if a crow flew by, and pretend to be violently 
 anxious to scare anything else in the world. For he 
 was as frightened of my whip as the sheep were of 
 him, and he had reason while they had none. 
 
 But I own I had almost enough of sheep while at 
 Mossgiel. How I ever took to them again when I 
 went to Texas I cannot tell. They are the stupidest 
 creatures in all creation, especially when one has to 
 herd them. Fortunately in Australia I had little of 
 that. 
 
 One may perhaps make out, by special pleading, 
 that horses and dogs are astonishingly intelligent, 
 but no one can convince a man who has herded 
 sheep, and seen them exhibit their foolishness in a 
 thousand ways, that they are anything but semi- 
 idiotic, although to an outsider without responsibility 
 their obstinacy and obtuseness may be merely 
 farcical. Take this American experience as an 
 example. 
 
 Remembering how they served me when I was 
 charged with seeing to their safety and general 
 
190 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 well-being, I sometimes laugh, but at the time I 
 generally swore. One would think that a ewe who 
 had been the mother of a lamb for several years in 
 succession would at last learn that man was not 
 blood-thirstily desirous of destroying its last acquisi- 
 tion in the shape of offspring, but nevertheless an 
 ancient ewe is as foolish as her grand-daughter, 
 showing the most visible anxiety on one's approach, 
 even when the herder comes to assist her in her 
 trouble. The lambing season is at all times a period 
 of toil and care in a country where the flocks are 
 herded by day and night on account of wild dogs or 
 coyotes ; but if the ewes showed the least spark of 
 reason, that would lighten more than half one's 
 burdens. Let me give an illustration, and say that 
 I have a dozen ewes, with offspring from a few 
 hours to a day old, which I must put by them- 
 selves. I have made the flock travel during the 
 day, so that their little corral is now no more than 
 half a mile off. Meantime the sun is sinking over 
 the brow of a westward hill, and in less than an hour 
 it will be dark. Surely, a novice would say, it can- 
 not take more than a few minutes to put these in 
 yonder corral, which seems but a step across the 
 plain. Wait, my young friend, and see. 
 
 I am on horseback, and have my long stock 
 whip. I go carefully through the flock, slowly 
 drive the mothers out, and gather my twenty-four 
 in one group. I put their heads in the right 
 direction, and move behind them in a quiet walk. 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 191 
 
 But some of them gaze longingly after those who are 
 not yet mothers, and quietly edge off to the right. I 
 intercept them cautiously. Now that ewe on the 
 left has her head where her tail ought to be, and her 
 lamb totters after her. When I have turned her, 
 those on the right have reversed front again, so I go 
 back a little more quickly. With a sudden jump 
 the hindmost ewe goes on, frightens her nearest 
 neighbour, the last lamb is left alone, and the next 
 one has a ewe by its side which is not its mother. 
 Now the result of this manoeuvre is very complex, 
 and not to be disposed of in a few words. The 
 deserted lamb bleats loudly and laments, whereon all 
 the ewes turn round hurriedly in great anxiety, ex- 
 cept perhaps the real mother, who is content for 
 a moment with her neighbour's offspring. Perhaps 
 two or three run back a little way, and then their 
 lambs cry out for them to return. By and by the 
 ewe who has the little stranger by her side turns 
 to smell it, and for a moment looks suspicious. When 
 a second sniff has converted her dread suspicion into 
 certainty she butts the poor staggering little wretch 
 over, and scurries fearfully from one to the other, 
 knocking half of them down when she is sure they 
 are not hers. By this time she is at the head of 
 the band, and the horrible thought strikes her that 
 she must have left her lamb with the main flock. 
 She is off like lightning, and so am I, being 
 lucky if I stop and turn her. When I do get her 
 back the others are carefully retracing their steps ; 
 
192 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 while the deserted lamb, being sure that every sheep 
 it sees is its parent, tries to obtain milk on the 
 strength of the relationship. By the time it has 
 been knocked down half a dozen times the mother 
 comes up at a run, there is a bleat and a baa, and 
 momentary content. I turn them and begin again, 
 being a little heated in temper. I crack my whip 
 softly, and then louder as I move on. Suddenly a 
 lamb, probably the very youngest, is struck with the 
 evident belief that my horse is its mother, and tries 
 to get under his hoofs. I stop until the deserted 
 parent comes and persuades it that a horse after all 
 is not a sheep. When that is settled, and the lamb 
 has taken a little milk to make quite sure, I move 
 on again. Alas ! I come a little too close, and a 
 ewe who is smitten with sudden intense hunger 
 and the apparent desire to eradicate one particular 
 knot of grass, does not see me until I am right 
 over her. In a moment she frightens all the rest, 
 the big sheep are together, and the lambs by 
 themselves. Then what a Babel ! I have to stop 
 two or three who break out to go to the main body, 
 now some distance away, and then the lambs come 
 to the conclusion that one ewe in particular is re- 
 sponsible for them all, while she is perversely in- 
 clined to believe that I have stolen her peculiar and 
 natural property. The other agonized mothers hurry 
 up and dash into the bleating band, smell and butt 
 over one after the other in frantic anxiety, and then 
 subside into their customary demeanour as each finds 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 
 
 193 
 
 her own. There is peace once more ; but by this 
 time the sun has disappeared, the shadows lengthen 
 rapidly over the dusty plain, and the corral is nearly 
 as far off as it was at first. 
 
 What next, then ? Why, this, that one lamb de- 
 clines, poor tired little wretch, to go further on any 
 pursuasion. So I dismount, and lift it up very slowly, 
 while the wild-eyed mother watches every motion I 
 make. I walk on, but before I have got a yard the 
 ewe runs madly after the rest, looking for the very 
 lamb she saw me lift, and her baaing sorrow would 
 make any one else but a sheep-herder pity her. After 
 some ineffectual sniffs, which the other ewes resent, 
 she too thinks that her lamb has returned to the 
 main flock in some miraculous manner, although she 
 ought to know that it cannot move at all. I have to 
 put it down, mount in hot haste, and do another 
 fiery gallop. Then the same thing occurs again, but 
 I am more cruelly careful this time, and pinch the 
 lamb every few yards to make it bleat. The mother 
 runs up and down wildly, but comes to smell it as I 
 stop and hold it out at arm's length. Then she 
 backs, and after another step or two I have to 
 repeat the holding out and pinching, while on both 
 sides of me the others are trying to return. At last 
 I have to put it down and get them together again, 
 with the inevitable result that they all lose their 
 lambs once more, and unanimously resume their 
 sniffing, butting over, and wild rushes, just as if it 
 was the first time it had ever happened. And it is 
 
 o 
 
194 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 nearly dark by the time we reach the corral. When 
 we do, all the ewes get in while the lambs stay 
 out. On getting the lambs in, the ewes are out. 
 When I think I am on the point of getting them all 
 in one ewe will stay out with the wrong lamb, whom 
 she knocks sprawling. Then she rushes half a dozen 
 times round the corral without seeing the entrance. 
 Meanwhile the lamb finds its mother with the fence 
 in between, and is making great efforts to get through 
 a hole much too small for it, while the mother eyes it 
 from within in the last stage of fear. If I finally can 
 leave them by the time the light of day has quite 
 faded and supper is finished at the camp or home 
 ranch, I am lucky. And this is repeated often and 
 often, until the lambs know their mothers well and 
 the sheep have become accustomed to be nightly 
 corralled. 
 
 It may perhaps throw some light on the obscure 
 causes of the stupidity of sheep to see them fight 
 as I often did in the Mossgiel yards. To watch two 
 rams engage in a duel, which they do in a most 
 gentlemanly manner, as if it were as much a matter 
 of etiquette as an engagement with swords in the 
 environs of Paris, is better than most farces nowa- 
 days. Perhaps there are some ten or twenty rams 
 in a yard or corral, and presently two put their heads 
 together. Probably they are having a conversation, 
 and in it some debatable matter crops up, for one 
 shakes his head impatiently as if doubting the word 
 of his interlocutor. The insulted ram looks up, 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 195 
 
 advances a step or two, and they rattle their horns 
 together. Instantly all the other gentlemen gather 
 round as the two intending combatants march back- 
 wards step by step with an admirable slowness and 
 deliberation. They are the two knights at the ends 
 of the lists. There is an instant's pause, and then 
 they hurl themselves violently forward to meet 
 forehead to forehead with a shock that ought to 
 break their skulls. Then the solemn backward 
 march recommences, the pause is made, and the two 
 belligerents leap at each other once more, and the 
 terrible thud is heard again. Sometimes they run 
 ten courses before one turns dizzy and declines the 
 battle, but oftener five or six blows make the 
 thinner-skulled turn away, to be contemptuously 
 hustled in the rear by the conqueror. Occasionally 
 the sight of one set of duellists inspires the unoccu- 
 pied lookers-on with a noble ardour, and couple 
 after couple join in to march backwards side by side, 
 and rush forward in line to meet the opposing forces. 
 It seems to me that there is more interest in this 
 than the mere farce of the display. However such a 
 habit arose, it can hardly now be advantageous to 
 the species, and must tend to lower them in the 
 scale of intellect ; for while the thickest-skulled 
 remain lords, those with the most room for brains 
 often get their craniums cracked with fatal results. 
 This may help to explain the very uncommon idiocy 
 of domesticated sheep, just as the duello among the 
 Australian blackfellows may throw light on the dull, 
 
 o 2 
 
196 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 thick-headedness of some of the native humans in 
 that country. For their favourite method of duel- 
 ling — at least it was that of which I heard most — is 
 to take two clubs, and having drawn lots in some 
 manner for the first blow, to strike the loser on the 
 head, as he bends down, with the utmost force pos- 
 sible. If that blow is not decisive — and it is not 
 always so — it is the turn of the other man to do his 
 best, and so on until a skull is cracked or its owner 
 rendered insensible. It would be harder to find 
 a nearer parallel to the duel of the rams, except 
 perhaps the butting of fighting negroes. 
 
 It was at Strathavon, in this land of sheep, that 
 I first learnt to cook with any degree of skill and 
 certainty. Old Veale taught me to make bread in 
 the proper way. I could even now set " a sponge. " 
 1 made the yeast from hops which were part of my 
 rations. I even manufactured sugar cakes, called in 
 the bush, " brownies," which were quite eatable. 
 As curry-powder was one of our luxuries, a dish of 
 curry sometimes relieved the usual chop. The 
 Australian bustards, known vulgarly as turkeys, are 
 very plentiful on the saltbush plains, and we often 
 shot them. As the weather grew intensely hot, 
 most of our mutton was salted. We could only have 
 one meal of fresh meat; for though the sheep was killed 
 at midnight it would be bad by dawn in the worst 
 weather. Still salt mutton is not so disagreeable as 
 it may sound to those who have not tried it, and with 
 good bread instead of the uncivilized " damper," or 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. i 97 
 
 cake of unleavened flour, baked in the ashes, we 
 thought we had very good " tucker." Sometimes 
 I cooked for three or four without much discontent 
 on the part of any temporary guests. I began to 
 get proud. Most boundary riders content them- 
 selves with the least possible amount of cooking, 
 '•flap-jacks" and " johnny-cakes " are the staple of 
 their indigestible diet. One of the slang names 
 given to boundary riders at Mossgiel was "johnny- 
 cake disturbers." Many of them said it was no use 
 cooking, for some other man would come along when 
 they were away and eat everything up. It certainly 
 is annoying to come home and find the last two 
 loaves gone, eaten by a couple of one's hungry 
 mates who know what man makes bread, and what 
 man contents himself with flap -jacks. Of course 
 cooking well was really little more than a device to 
 fill up my time. After reading a novel fourteen 
 times it palls on the mind ; there is a lack of fresh- 
 ness about it. And in making bread there was still 
 an uncertain ddnoument. 
 
 But as it drew on towards the summer I began to 
 have less time to cook and more to do with the 
 sheep. Fortunately there was plenty of water in 
 the paddocks or I should have had to teach them 
 where to find it. For when the water-holes, or 
 as they call them in that part of Australia, cooliman 
 holes, gave out, it was necessary to resort to the 
 wells, such as the one where Sancho learnt his bad 
 and unbusiness-like habit of crow-hunting. If sheep 
 
198 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 are left alone in a paddock without water they travel 
 up the wind until they come to a fence. There they 
 remain until they die. At one boundary of my 
 Long Clump Paddock I rode over the skeletons of 
 five thousand who had thus quietly died of thirst. 
 But now it grew on towards shearing time. The 
 shearers from the north began to come south, as 
 they " cut out " the sheds nearer the Tropic of Capri- 
 corn. As ours was a big clip they waited for the 
 shearing. Webster made an attempt to reduce the 
 price per hundred. The usual rate was then a 
 pound, the men finding themselves. As it is a very 
 poor Australian shearer who cannot get through 
 more than a hundred a day, the men made good 
 wages. Webster offered seventeen-and-sixpence, 
 and on these terms got a number of men together 
 who camped in and about the shearers' hut. He 
 supplied them with a certain quantity of provisions. 
 But when the gathering grew sufficient to begin 
 work, there was discontent. They demanded the 
 pound. It was refused, and the men rolled up their 
 blankets. I happened to be in at the home station 
 that day, having brought up ten thousand sheep. 
 About two in the afternoon we saw a long procession 
 of horsemen coming from the direction of the wool- 
 shed. They were in regular order, marching two 
 abreast, and numbering about a hundred. Behind 
 them came the rouse-abouts, men on foot mostly, 
 those who would have picked up and tied the fleeces, 
 handed the tar to put on cuts, or worked in the yards. 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 199 
 
 At the head of them all was a man in a red shirt, 
 said to have been a Garibaldian. He was the leader. 
 
 They filed slowly through the gate, came to the 
 front of the house, and wheeled into a long line. 
 Then at the signal given by the leader, who called 
 out " Three groans for Mossgiel ! " three groans were 
 given. This was followed by three cheers for Tarra- 
 wonga at which station the pound per hundred was 
 given. The boss did not show up, receiving his 
 groans without remonstrance. Then the men 
 jumped off their horses ; and, letting them go, came 
 up to the men's hut where we were standing. Quite 
 unjustifiably, as I now think, seeing they had agreed 
 to take the half-crown less, we were quite in 
 sympathy with them. Without asking leave they 
 cleaned out the kitchen of any eatables and gradu- 
 ally dispersed, mostly going south to Mossgiel 
 township, where a very large proportion got drunk. 
 
 This incident was known for a long time as the 
 Great Mossgiel Roll Up. It put the shearing back 
 for a week or two, and it was found necessary to 
 give the pound after all. And the new men had it 
 all their own way. Once when 1 brought a mob of 
 sheep into the shearing yards from Strathavon, I 
 walked through the shed and heard the superin- 
 tendent say to one man, " You are putting these out 
 much too rough." The shearer replied coolly, 
 14 You'll have them a deal rougher yet!" If he 
 had been sacked all the rest would have gone 
 with him. 
 
200 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 I was now very hard at it mustering in my 
 paddocks. It is not altogether an easy thing to take 
 all the sheep out of a hundred square miles of 
 country, but with five men we usually made a clean 
 sweep of it. On entering the gate we spread out in 
 a line. As I had not very good sight, but was 
 usually as well mounted as the overseer himself, I 
 generally took the fence, going near enough to see 
 that there were no sheep between it and me. If I 
 went to the left I drove all I found over to my right, 
 going all the time at a canter or gallop, until they 
 were taken by the next to me, who kept them in 
 sight. Driving them towards the centre of the 
 paddock his neighbour controlled them. Thus by 
 the time I had passed three out of the four fences 
 we began to close down on the entire mob. Then 
 I could slacken speed, and the long, slow driving 
 on the plains began. 
 
 Much as I had admired the thick wooded hills of 
 the Murray, the little river flats, the glory of the 
 golden wattle, and the bright river itself, by slow de- 
 grees I came to love more the wide sunburnt plains 
 across which one could gallop at ease in the large 
 freedom of a distant horizon. The Murray country 
 was beautiful and harmonious, but its beauty was 
 broadly marked, its harmony easy to resolve. The 
 plains were subtler, and in the fine distinctions of 
 their music almost unisonic. Only by slow degrees 
 I saw the infinite variety of the unit. As a single 
 note is made up of the pure tone, the overtones and 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 201 
 
 harmonics, so it is with the plains. They seem one, 
 but in nature there is no absolute indivisibility ; with 
 knowledge comes deeper knowledge still. After a 
 great flat plain where a pile of wind-drifted sand is a 
 far landmark, the sea, save in its wilder hours, is mono- 
 tonous ; after the level land whose horizon is blurred 
 with vapour and set very far off, the sea's round line 
 is restricted. And in mountains, by a curious sug- 
 gestion of a prison, by the inability to see beyond 
 near barriers, one chokes as for want of air. But 
 the plains are free, the winds unchecked, one looks 
 afar and rides with that same ease of thought given to 
 a man who lives not from day to day, but is set towards 
 some distant goal. If, as has been well suggested 
 by a friend of mine, much of the mysterious attrac- 
 tion of the plain is due to a sudden reversion to the 
 nomadic period of our race's history, some of it is, I 
 think, to be found in this freeing of the will. The 
 mountain path is like civilization, we are not only 
 hemmed in, but we are cursed with the constant 
 necessity for watchfulness, we have continually to 
 shift our course, we compromise with a straight line, 
 we are slaves to a zigzag, we have to think. But on 
 the plains I could live and breathe, could see the 
 end and attain it. I could travel by night, and 
 gallop under the stars. 
 
 In those days it was breakfast at the earliest dawn. 
 We were on horseback while the air was still a little 
 fresh, for when I brought up the horses from the 
 small horse paddock I often hunted for them in com- 
 
202 .LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 parative darkness. It was a great rush to gather 
 the mob, but then Sancho came in useful. Few 
 people in this country have ever seen 20,000 sheep 
 together, and can scarcely imagine what a space of 
 country they cover when they are being slowly 
 driven along at a rate which permits them to feed. 
 Yet my dog Sancho would handle so many with the 
 greatest ease ; indeed, the more there were the better 
 he seemed pleased. As a matter of fact, I must ac- 
 knowledge he was not much good with a very small 
 number. But when I was riding on an endless 
 plain, with the mob spreading out two miles, he 
 would watch for me to wave my hand when all 
 shouting was useless by distance. When he was so 
 far off that I could not distinguish him, I knew well 
 that he was looking out for the signal of a fluttering 
 handkerchief to the right or left, and that he could 
 discern a different motion which meant " that would 
 do." When the flock was set in the right direction, 
 he would make a long bend to come to me, and with- 
 out any orders keep each wing up, first going half a 
 mile to the left, and then as far to the right. 
 
 When the weather was very hot, as it was now, we 
 had to treat our dogs very carefully. They were 
 always fed at night, being allowed to eat as much 
 meat as they could consume, but they never had 
 anything in the morning. If by accident they found 
 enough to gorge themselves on, they did no work ; 
 it was impossible to urge them to it, even with a 
 stock-whip. Perhaps at lunch time we could give 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 203 
 
 them a bite of what we carried for ourselves, but it 
 was always very little. 
 
 There is one thing that colonial shepherds much dis- 
 like when there is going to be a big muster, and that 
 is rain. Though the next day may be fiercely bright, 
 and most of the plain dry enough to be dusty a few 
 hours after dawn, the water will lie for some time in 
 the pools. As sheep work is thirsty work, the dogs 
 rush into these water holes, and drink every time 
 they come across one. Then they come out on the 
 parching ground, and after a while their paws will 
 crack, unless in very good condition. It is no good 
 ordering the dog not to drink, he thinks that does 
 not come in the orders which he is bound to obey. 
 Consequently they often get lame. At night time I 
 used always to examine my dog's feet for these 
 cracks, or for thorns. Fortunately there are no 
 prickly pears in Australia, or the collies would have 
 a bad time of it. Perhaps the prevalence of these 
 pests in America has prevented the common use of 
 dogs in herding. 
 
 But gradually the year's great work got done. 
 With a hundred men shearing a hundred a day, and 
 some shearing a hundred and eighty, even two 
 hundred thousand sheep are soon disposed of, and 
 we began to settle down as the weather grew to 
 summer heat. The pressed bales of wool went down 
 the country to Deniliquin in horse and bullock 
 waggons, for the railroad then came no further north 
 I was almost idle once more, and began to regret the 
 
204 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEAFARING. 
 
 change of sometimes sleeping at the shearing-shed, 
 where there were so many men to talk to. If one 
 wanted it there was plenty of gambling going, if not 
 we could sit at the long table and tell stories. The 
 cook for the shearers, a big handsome ne'er-do-well 
 from Dublin, with a queer history, was as good a 
 raconteur as a cook. And it takes good cooking 
 to satisfy shearers who pay for their own food. 
 Now I had nothing to do but loaf my usual thirty- 
 five miles a day, being intensely glad if I chanced at 
 the farthest fence to see a boundary rider belonging 
 to the next station. For then we smoked a pipe 
 together and exchanged what news we had, or 
 swapped experiences and life histories. I began at 
 last to think of England again. Australia so far 
 had been to me as a jam-pot is to a fly ; the more 
 I tried to get out the further I got in. If I stayed 
 long enough I should come out at the Gulf of Car- 
 pentaria. And presently I at last got the chance 
 of going somewhere else. It happened through a 
 cow. I was sent in to Mossgiel to bring out one 
 with her calf. I stayed at the home-station all night, 
 and rose betimes to do what turned out to me my 
 last day's work in that country. Perhaps that is 
 why the day remains with me so strongly. I can 
 see it now as plainly as I saw it then. 
 
 It was midsummer, and a clear blue sky was 
 overhead. Under the sun the long brown plains 
 ran to all points of the compass, and, covered with 
 salt and cotton bush, which the hungry sheep had 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 205 
 
 now left leafless and barren, disappeared at the 
 far horizon without the sign of a single hill or even 
 of rising ground. The landmarks of that vast stretch 
 of country without permanent water, were no more 
 than a few isolated clumps of dwarf box-trees, which 
 stood out in the distance like pillars to be seen from 
 afar, or rather like low clouds, for they showed dis- 
 severed from the soil, which was then parched and 
 brown by three months of unconcealed and constant 
 sun. Beyond the last faint clump lay Strathavon. 
 It was but fourteen miles and I had all day before 
 me. When, therefore, I mounted my horse after 
 our early breakfast, I considered that I had no more 
 than a fairly easy and comfortable day's work. But I 
 reckoned without my host, and without the wire 
 fences which cut the whole country into squares, and 
 without my horse, an animal untrained to run stock, 
 which I never rode if I could help myself, for he 
 had neither the alertness of intellect nor the quick- 
 ness of eye and foot necessary for such work. But 
 surely, I said, with only a cow and calf, neither of 
 which was wild, I might manage to make him do. 
 I uncoiled my fifteen-foot stock-whip, cracked it 
 complacently, and started on my journey. 
 
 At first my main charge showed no recalcitrance, 
 and, having the whole day before me, I was in no 
 hurry as I lounged easily in my comfortable saddle, 
 and looked across the long plain towards distant 
 Strathavon, directing my way first of all towards the 
 Five Mile Clump. We came to a gate, and passing 
 
206 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 through it entered a smaller paddock some four 
 miles square. Here the road ran by the side of the 
 fence, which was of wire, and a little more than three 
 feet high, and as my own chief work at this time of 
 the year was once more to look after similar fences, 
 I cast my eye on it every now and again to envy 
 the little trouble it gave the home station boundary 
 rider. For it certainly required little attention, being 
 a strong new fence, well strained up, and without 
 a single bad wire in it, while day by day my own 
 were broken by kangaroos or emus. I did not then 
 think how I should curse those same inoffensive 
 wire threads before I had passed through the 
 paddock they bounded on the northern side, but 
 presently my troubles began, for the cow commenced 
 to show unequivocal signs of a decided disinclination 
 to go any farther as soon as she saw that I was bent 
 upon taking her away from her accustomed pastures 
 and former companions. She lagged so that I was 
 compelled to swing my whip and drop it lightly 
 about her hind quarters until she moved at a more 
 reasonable pace. But this was only the very first 
 of her manoeuvres, and much the simplest ; the next 
 thing was to drift away from her calf, who apparently 
 had been previously instructed as to the course he 
 was to pursue in such circumstances, for he showed 
 no eagerness to follow in her wake. Then, while 
 I was driving one, the other turned back towards 
 Mossgiel, moving in a nonchalant manner, as though 
 it were out of no evil motive or even quite uncon- 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 207 
 
 sciously. After zigzagging across the plain for 
 about half a mile, I grew tired of the persistency 
 they showed, and, putting my horse into a gallop, 
 which he resented by a feeble and futile effort to get 
 rid of me, I drove the two together once more, and 
 hurried their lingering pace a little. We were then 
 rather more than a mile from the gate, and suddenly 
 the cow jumped over the fence into the next paddock. 
 
 Now some horses will jump wire, and one at least 
 that I constantly rode at Mossgiel never made any 
 bones about it, not even requiring me to strap it 
 down or put my coat on it to show the exact height 
 plainly, but I knew from previous experience that 
 the roan brute I was then blessed with could by no 
 earthly means be persuaded to face it, and therefore 
 I dismounted, climbed the fence, and spent ten hot 
 minutes in vainly endeavouring to make the cow 
 return to her offspring, who in the meantime was 
 slowly wandering back the way we had come. But 
 all my efforts were useless ; she eluded me in every 
 way, and gradually got farther and farther off, until 
 at last I was in a speechless rage and perspiring 
 furiously, for in the summer season of Australia the 
 heat is intense, even an hour or two after sunrise. 
 So I returned panting, crossed the fence, mounted 
 my horse, and galloped right back to the gate. 
 
 It may be asked why I did not cut the wires and 
 go through, but I think I can offer enough evidence 
 to prove that I was not quite a fool in acting as I 
 did. In the first place, the fence was new, and I 
 
2oS LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 might well have got into trouble about it. In the 
 second, I had nothing to cut it with. In the third, 
 being without my wire tools, I could not have mended 
 it again, and as there were sheep on both sides, close 
 at hand, who might have got mixed if I had found a 
 way to cut it and then left it, that would be another 
 excuse, if any were needed after the two I have 
 given. 
 
 When the cow caught sight of me coming up the 
 fence on the same side as herself, she instantly 
 crossed it once more and rejoined her calf, who by 
 this time had accomplished about a quarter of a mile 
 on the return journey. I dismounted, drove them 
 well out into the paddock, and then rode back again. 
 That made a four- mile ride for nothing, but I thought 
 little of that when on coming back I found the cow 
 so close to the fence that, in spite of all my efforts, 
 she jumped it once again. It almost makes me 
 angry to think of it now, but then ! I was furiously 
 determined not to go back again, so I wasted half 
 an hour in trying to make my horse jump the fence. 
 I strapped it down with a stirrup leather until it was 
 barely two feet high ; I put my coat on it to make 
 it plain ; but the only result of all my trouble was 
 increased perspiration and loss of temper, as I 
 divided my growing wrath between the cow and my 
 mount, for he was obstinacy itself upon the point that 
 wire was wire even with a coat upon it, and a 
 dangerous thing to have anything to do with. 
 
 I took at last to considering whether I could not 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 209 
 
 hit upon some more subtle means of gaining my end, 
 and finally I thought that if I were to go on driving 
 the calf, its mother might follow me on the other 
 side. I tried it, but apparently her maternal affection 
 was not so strong as her desire for the old pasture, 
 for she began to graze towards Mossgiel just as 
 placidly as if her offspring were weaned, and had 
 become quite indifferent to her. Then, on finding 
 this fail, I endeavoured to make the calf cross the 
 fence, but as that did not succeed, I myself went 
 over once more, and again chased the mother on 
 foot. In the end I had to give it up, and ride that 
 terrible two miles again. This time I drove her and 
 the calf fully half a mile into the paddock, and fortu- 
 nately when I returned I found her still on the right 
 side of the fence. I hoped that she was satisfied 
 with the diversion that she had had, but no — the 
 two recommenced the lagging and separation trick, 
 and so well did it succeed, that it took me about two 
 hours to drive them two miles. By that time we 
 were nearing the gate which led into the big 
 paddock, on the far side of which lay our destination, 
 Strathavon. Unfortunately, this same gate was in 
 the corner of the paddock we were in, and I was 
 perforce obliged to take her near the fence, which 
 she had already jumped twice. I came close to it 
 again with fear and trembling, and my worst fears 
 were realized, for no sooner did she see it within a 
 hundred yards than she rushed at it, and was over 
 once more. If I had been mounted on any kind of 
 
 r 
 
210 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 a stock horse, or even an apology for one, it would 
 never have happened, but the blundering brute I 
 rode could not turn until I lugged his head round by 
 force, and he always overshot his mark like an ill- 
 handled boat trying to pick up moorings. I confess 
 to being nearly heart-broken, and quite past swearing, 
 for I was hoarse already, so I sat for a while in 
 despair to take in the situation, which was now worse 
 than ever. The gate behind us which I had used 
 twice was four miles away, and the one in front — 
 the one at least which led into the paddock she now 
 occupied in triumph — more than two. However, 
 there was nothing else for it, and to that gate I 
 went. This means that I rode nearly five miles to 
 reach her. After sending her over with a few extra 
 whipmarks upon her hide, I tried to drive them on 
 foot the remaining distance to the gate leading into 
 Strathavon paddock, but after running until I was 
 tired I had to ride back after all. That made 
 another five miles, and my horse, who had now gone 
 more than sixteen unexpected miles, began to show 
 signs of fatigue. I wondered anxiously what was 
 going to happen — indeed, I made up my mind to 
 leave her if she crossed those wires again, and kept 
 as much as possible between her and the fence. But 
 this time, and at last, I actually got her through the 
 gate, and there were no more to pass. I thought 
 all my troubles were over, since the road went near 
 no fences, although I had still about nine miles to go 
 under the burning sun. 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 
 
 211 
 
 Time passed, and it was now close upon four 
 o'clock, although we were still about five miles from 
 Strathavon, whose corrugated iron roof I could just 
 see across the level ground. I tried to rouse up the 
 failing energies of my horse, but found him almost 
 dead-beat. Could I have incited him by any means 
 to gallop I would have put the cow into the same 
 pace, which, by the way, should never be done with 
 a milker ; but, try as I would, I could not get him 
 to follow her 
 turnings,which 
 even now 
 showed the 
 same obstinate 
 bent towards 
 Mossgiel they 
 had done when 
 she first dis- 
 covered that 
 I intended 
 
 taking her away from home. At last we came to a pool, 
 or water-hole, about three feet six inches deep and 
 some forty feet across, and into this she plunged. I 
 went in and she came out, I came out and she went 
 in, like the man and woman in the old-fashioned 
 country predictor of coming weather, and neither by 
 rein nor whip nor spur could I get my jaded horse 
 to exhibit sufficient energy to eject her and keep her 
 ejected. It was a case of merely formal eviction. 
 Finally I grew so wrathful that I struck my horse and 
 
212 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 broke my stock-whip handle in two pieces, and thus 
 rendered it entirely useless as a means of persuasion. 
 That was the last straw, and the back of my persist- 
 ence broke. After gazing speechlessly at the whole 
 earth and sky for some dens ex machina who came 
 not, I turned towards Strathavon, leaving the cow 
 in the pool, but meditating as I went along upon the 
 awful surprise I should give her when I returned. 
 When I reached home I did what I might have 
 done at first — rode into the paddock, ran up to the 
 horses, selected a mare called Beeswing, the quickest 
 animal after cattle of any kind on the whole station, 
 put my saddle on her, and after mending my whip 
 went back at a hard gallop, to find the cow still com- 
 placently cooling herself in the water. She seemed 
 to look at me with an air of contempt, thinking 
 herself mistress of the entire situation, but she 
 reckoned without her host, being ignorant that my 
 bright bay mare was not cut after the pattern of the 
 roan. I wasted no time, but drove straight at the 
 pool, and taking off from a bank about two feet 
 above the water-level, landed seven yards off with a 
 tremendous splash and a loud yell close by her side. 
 As I struck the water my renewed whip struck her, 
 and made her move with far more alacrity than she 
 had displayed at any time during that tiring and 
 most ridiculous day. In a single moment I had the 
 cow and calf together, and headed them for home. 
 There was never any need to tell that mare what to 
 do — indeed, I could actually have trusted her to 
 
THE LAND OF SHEEP. 213 
 
 accomplish her work without a bridle, for she was 
 first on one side and then on the other, following 
 every motion made, while my stock-whip swung 
 through the dusty air and cracked like rifle shots 
 behind them as they rushed bewildered and terror- 
 stricken at the sudden alteration in affairs through the 
 dry salt bush straight for Strathavon. I know that 
 I drove them harder than I should have done, but I 
 really think that that cow earned, fairly earned, the 
 treat she got and the painful lesson I taught her. 
 At the same time I know that I too learnt a lesson, 
 and that was, never to ride when it can be helped 
 after obstinate or wild cattle upon a horse which has 
 neither knowledge nor instinctive aptitude for his 
 arduous and peculiar business. 
 
 But though that was the end of the day's business 
 for the cow, it was not for me. The overseer came 
 down to the yard, and looking at the mother and 
 calf, told me sharply I had driven them too hard. I 
 replied I knew that very well, and that if I had. to 
 drive that cow again I would kill her. I was very hot 
 and tired and angry. He replied in a way I did not 
 admire, so I told him that he could milk her in the 
 morning if he liked, that I would take nothing in the 
 shape of reproof from him, and that I should go to 
 Mossgiel next day. We had no more words, but by 
 ten o'clock on that day I received my cheque at the 
 home station, and with about forty pounds in my 
 pocket set my face to the south. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HUNGER AT BULLIGAL CREEKS. 
 
 I own to having experienced an intense repugnance 
 to walking down to Deniliquin or even to Hay on 
 the Murrumbidgee. After so many months of fairly 
 living on horseback I had become like the typical 
 colonial of the bush who will walk two miles to catch 
 a horse to go one. To Bulligal, on the Lachlan, 
 our nearest town, was nearly seventy miles ; thence 
 to Hay, on the Murrumbidgee, across the One Tree 
 Plain, about fifty ; and thence again over the Old 
 Man Plain to Deniliquin, where I could take the 
 railroad, not less than ninety — in all, two hundred 
 and ten miles, which, even if I made no halts, would 
 take me ten days' travel. The prospect was not 
 pleasant to me, for, moreover, the roads were almost 
 axle-deep in dust, while the skies rivalled those of 
 the last burning Christmas which I had passed at 
 Mahonga. It was a relief to find that there was a 
 team going to Hay with a load of sheepskins, and 
 I gladly accepted the driver's offer to take me with 
 him on condition of my helping to harness the horses 
 
HUNGER AT BULLIGAL CREEKS. 215 
 
 and to cook. I had no pleasure in "humping my 
 swag," and I threw my blankets on his load. 
 
 That night we camped near a tank, and filled 
 all our water-bags and bottles, for we were to 
 drink no more fresh water for three days, being 
 forced to trust to the wells, which were nauseous 
 and brackish to a degree. Our camping-ground 
 was on the open plain, and the mosquitoes were 
 so watchful and numerous, on account of the near 
 water, that I was at last obliged to roll myself 
 completely up in my blankets, and there I lay, 
 sweating and suffocating the whole night through. 
 
 When our fresh water was at an end we took a 
 new supply from a well which had all the bad qualities 
 of the most evil spring at Gloucester (in England) 
 and foul bilge-water mixed. I was forced to hold 
 my nose to drink it ; but, bad as it tasted, the heat 
 of the day was so tremendous that I was obliged to 
 have recourse to it at exceedingly short intervals, 
 although each time it seemed worse than it was 
 before. For three whole days we had no other, and 
 I was beginning to think that life was not worth 
 living at the price, when Johnstone, the driver, 
 pointed out a little house, or shanty, about a mile in 
 front of us, asking me if I saw it. I answered sulkily 
 enough, but soon altered my tone when he told me 
 that there was real fresh water to be had there, in a 
 big water-hole, or cooliman hole, as we called it in 
 Back Blocks. I walked towards it at a good five 
 miles an hour pace ; the last hundred yards I ran ; 
 
216 
 
 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 -3*^fc- 
 
 ^r<\ 
 
 and then I threw my sell down in the mud, and, resting 
 my elbows fairly in it, put my head down and drank 
 like a horse. English people would call it muddy, 
 
 and complain 
 of its flavour, 
 but it was 
 nectar to me ; 
 the sweetest 
 draught I 
 ever swal- 
 lowed. And 
 I swallowed a 
 good deal ! 
 That was the last day of my suffering for water, 
 but next day suffering of a kind was to come which 
 till that time I had known very little of. It was 
 starvation, and I believe from my experience then 
 that few people know what the word means better 
 than I do. 
 
 At sundown we camped right in the middle of the 
 Bulligal Creeks, a network of streams which were 
 either quite dry or running feebly with a small thread 
 of water at the bottom of their deep, wide beds. 
 After crossing two of them, we unharnessed the 
 horses, for there was some grass there of a distinct 
 green, quite unmistakable for old hay or chips, and 
 the driver wanted to give his horses the benefit of 
 the fresh feed. After eating supper, I called John- 
 stone's attention to the fact that there was no more 
 " tucker," or food. That was all right, he said • to- 
 
HUNGER AT BULLIGAL CREEKS. 217 
 
 morrow we should be in Bulligal. But he reckoned 
 without his host, and we did not see Bulligal on the 
 morrow. We had not crossed all the creeks as we 
 should have done. 
 
 The spot we had chosen for our camping-ground 
 was pleasant enough, having sufficient of freshness 
 and greenery about it after our sixty miles of shadow- 
 less, sandy journeying to make it welcome, to my 
 eyes at least. The trees were no longer dwarf boxes, 
 but gums of a more reasonable stature, and standing 
 closely together they were not so dusty and full of 
 grime as their sparse and thin congeners of the outer 
 plains. Here, too, was a little water, and a few 
 birds chattered and screamed among the branches.. 
 It did not occur to either of us that they were 
 feathered barometers and foresaw a change in the 
 weather, nor when I rolled myself in my blankets 
 and stared at the stars, as I smoked my last good- 
 night pipe, did I think that their sharper and more 
 brilliant appearance betokened rain in the near 
 future. Both of us, indeed, lay down in the 
 open, disdaining the cover of the waggon, and 
 expecting anything rather than a wet night. We 
 easily got to sleep, for the mosquitoes were fortunately 
 few, the surface of water for their hatching being so 
 small. My companion put his head under his 
 blanket, but I kept mine outside, and was con- 
 sequently roused first, when just about midnight 
 something wet fell on my face. I started, 
 thinking that perhaps one of our horses was standing 
 
218 
 
 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 over me, and had dropped some foam as he chewed 
 greener grass than he had lately been accustomed to ; 
 but when I raised myself upon my elbow, I saw 
 that it was darker than it should be, that there was a 
 lively wind blowing, and that the sky was covered 
 with a dense mass of clouds. Before I could move 
 the deluge commenced, and ere I could bundle my 
 blankets together I was wet through. Johnstone did 
 
 not need call- 
 ing, and in a 
 few seconds we 
 were crouch- 
 ing under the 
 bed of the wag- 
 gon, cursing 
 and grumbling 
 in a duet. We 
 spread our 
 blankets again 
 and tried to 
 get to sleep. 
 The rain 
 came down as if it was in a hurry, for none had fallen 
 for four months, and as if it was trying to make 
 up for lost time. In half an hour we heard the 
 rush of water in the creeks above the ceaseless 
 roar of the rain, and then, although we seemed to 
 be in a fairly high position, the water began to en- 
 croach upon us on all sides, the splashes moistened 
 us all over, and by the morning we were lying in a 
 
HUNGER AT BULLIGAL CREEKS. 219 
 
 pool of mud, which stuck upon our blankets in cakes. 
 At daylight I rose, and putting one of mine round 
 me I went out to inspect the creeks, for I began to 
 think w r e were in a " tight place," as they say in 
 America. I was right enough, for, behind and be- 
 fore us, they were running full to the very banks, 
 covered with drift wood and foam, roaring as they 
 rushed to the Lachlan. The smallest was twenty 
 feet wide, and from what we had seen of them when 
 they were empty, I knew that they must at least be 
 twelve feet deep. The rain did not cease, indeed it 
 scarcely lessened in intensity, and the prospect be- 
 fore us was not encouraging, for neither horse nor 
 man could ford such streams. 
 
 It was time for breakfast, and there was none to 
 be had. It rained and it was noon, but the dinner 
 was as unsubstantial as the breakfast, and there was 
 no hope of supper. I had never at that time been 
 really hungry. It is true that on my journey from 
 Forbes to Mossgiel I had lived for three days on 
 jam and pancakes, which began to pall on me after 
 a few meals ; but that was not true hunger, although 
 I and Charlie did gorge ourselves so ravenously on 
 that salted mutton when we obtained meat at last. 
 But now I really began to starve, and before I saw 
 Bulligal, I could have passed an examination on 
 the symptoms and progress of that peculiarly 
 distressing complaint. 
 
 A little after noon it almost ceased to rain, but the 
 creeks showed no sign of lessening, in spite of the 
 
22o LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 enormous volume of water they carried at the rate 
 of three or four miles an hour. Still we knew that 
 they would soon go down, if the rain did not con- 
 tinue, and we hoped that it would not. But the sky 
 was still threatening, and it came on to rain in the 
 evening as hard as ever. By this time we had been 
 without food twenty-four hours, and I began to feel 
 so very hollow and ill at ease, that I contemplated 
 swimming the creeks. On inspecting them carefully 
 however, I came to the conclusion I was much safer 
 where I was, and I went to my wet and muddy 
 blankets to sleep instead of eating. 
 
 In the morning the rain ceased for a while, the 
 sun came out, and then it again commenced pouring. 
 The trees about us looked beautiful and fresh, the 
 grass began to spring, and by the time I had done 
 without another three meals, there was a pleasantly 
 perceptible tint of verdure on spots which had been 
 bare for three months. This second day of fasting 
 was extremely painful, for I had terrible gnawing 
 pains in the stomach which came and went, return- 
 ing with fresh force, which at times bent me nearly 
 double. For six months at least I had been accus- 
 tomed to plentiful and regular meals, and now I paid 
 an extra penalty for my former comfort. I have 
 starved since then, but not quite so systematically, 
 and it is a fact that those who eat at uncertain in- 
 tervals do not suffer from prolonged fasting (up to a 
 certain point, that is) as much as those who live 
 with clockwork regularity. 
 
HUNGER AT BULLIGAL CREEKS. 221 
 
 By evening I was much worse than Johnstone, 
 who, being an older and stronger man than myself, 
 was more enduring than I, whose age was then not 
 quite twenty-one. I went continually to the creek 
 and filled myself with water, which by distending 
 the stomach eased the pain ; but the relief was only 
 temporary. Then I turned to tobacco and chewed 
 that, and certainly it was of great assistance to me. 
 I now began to think of the stories I had read of 
 cast-away seamen, and of what they had eaten, and 
 I found out the falsehood of much that I had been 
 told in other days. People say that a hungry man 
 will eat anything eatable, however horrible it may 
 be. I know that he will not always do so, for I 
 actually grew dainty and fastidious. I went several 
 times to the box in which we had kept the food, 
 and on turning out everything I found a little piece 
 of bread, less than two inches square. I had made 
 a great discovery, I thought, but could scarcely make 
 up my mind to share it with my companion. I went 
 through a severe struggle before I came to the con- 
 clusion that I ought at least to go halves. But, alas ! 
 it was not only mouldy but sour, and when I put my 
 teeth into it, it nearly made me ill. Then I offered 
 the whole piece to Johnstone, but he could not eat 
 it either. So I put it back into the box, visiting it 
 several times in the course of the day, thinking that 
 I was perhaps hungry enough to swallow it at last. 
 But all my attempts to get it down failed, for the 
 smell revolted me, and I absolutely loathed it. 
 
222 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 That night, the second without food, was a dread- 
 ful one. I kept on dreaming of gorgeous banquets, 
 and of simpler repasts, and in my voracious dreams 
 I had a stomach capacity which would have satisfied 
 a Roman Emperor. For however much I ate, I 
 was still hungry, and hungrier yet. Many times I 
 woke, and groaning savagely, I tightened my belt 
 in more and more, and fell asleep to commence my 
 calenture of Lucullus anew, and with no more satis- 
 faction. As I lay there I seemed to return to 
 Mossgiel, and in my dreams I renewed my old 
 loathed occupation of butcher. I seemed to catch a 
 sheep. I killed and skinned it eagerly, and then 
 cooking it slightly, I swallowed it half-raw in huge 
 gobbets, such as the Cyclops might have savoured. 
 But it was all vanity and emptiness, and I woke 
 again and again unsatisfied and disappointed. 
 
 In the morning the pain had passed away, and 
 though I felt ill and very weak, I suffered no ex- 
 treme anguish. The rain had finally ceased in the 
 night, and the sun shone out as hotly as though 
 there had never been a cloud in the sky. Yet the 
 creeks were much too full to attempt to cross, and 
 though this was the third day of our fasting it had 
 to be endured, for now I had not the strength to 
 swim. Johnstone and I rarely spoke to each other, 
 and sat apart doing nothing, save when we went to 
 the creek and drank. I fancy his sufferings were 
 scarcely comparable with my own, but he bore them 
 with at least equal doggedness, and made no com- 
 
HUNGER AT BULLIGAL CREEKS. 223 
 
 plaint. During this third day I got at times rather 
 light-headed, perhaps partly from my constantly 
 chewing tobacco, which at last threw me into a sort 
 of dull coma, for the nicotine had a much stronger 
 effect than was usual, although it did not make me 
 feel in the least ill. I had not smoked since the 
 second morning, and had no desire for the pipe. 
 
 I was in such a state of dreaminess, with so little 
 volition, that the outside world seemed to have a 
 very feeble existence for me. Had nothing hap- 
 pened to rouse me from this comparatively pleasur- 
 able state of weakness, I could have been almost 
 content to die. But I certainly was not to die in 
 peace. The sun, which had been fierce and strong 
 all this third day, had hatched millions of mosqui- 
 toes, who rose in the evening in swarms, and hung 
 under the trees in black clouds, each composed of 
 tens of thousands. As long as it was still light they 
 did not trouble us much, and their irritating ping ping 
 came but seldom, considering their numbers. But 
 as the sun went down, and darkness fell on the earth, 
 they seemed to suddenly smell us out, and came in 
 legions and myriad battalions thirsting for our blood. 
 They hung around us in swarms ; they got into my 
 ears, my eyes, and down my neck ; they flew up my 
 sleeves, and almost bit me into madness. Our 
 horses stood and stamped and switched themselves 
 with their tails, snorting to blow them out of their 
 nostrils, and rushed through the bush, at last making 
 a charge for the creek, which they swam over, run- 
 
224 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 ning far out into the plain. As for me, weak as I 
 was, I hunted for damp wood to build smoky fires 
 to drive them away. But still we could not keep 
 them off. It was as if they had sworn to leave no 
 blood in us, and I was in no state to lose much. At 
 last, in desperation, we got our blankets, and lying 
 down to leeward of the fires, we rolled ourselves ' up 
 tighter and tighter until we were nearly suffocated, 
 for the night was terribly hot, and we were artifi- 
 cially warmed as well. But it was in vain to attempt 
 to get free of them, for they crawled in at every hole 
 and corner of the blankets, and we fought with them 
 all night until early morning. The torment almost 
 made me forget that I was hungry, and the irritation 
 roused me to unnatural exertions. But at dawn 
 weary and exhausted nature could stand it no longer, 
 and I fell into a dead sleep. In a few minutes, 
 doubtless, I was disencumbered of the blankets, and 
 the mosquitoes had their will of me. As I did not at 
 that time wear long boots, they crawled up my legs, and 
 bit me in hundreds of places right to the knees. They 
 got inside my shirt and bit me all over. Where the 
 sun of three fierce summers had burnt me to a deep 
 mahogany colour the bites did not swell and itch, 
 but where the skin was of its natural whiteness I 
 was smarting with countless intolerable lumps. Next 
 day the irritation was so extreme that I scratched 
 myself until the blood ran down to my ankles. It 
 can be imagined what a pleasant one that fourth day 
 of hunger and pain was. 
 
HUNGER AT BULLIGAL CREEKS. 225 
 
 About noon Johnstone, who had been sounding 
 the creeks, announced that they would soon be shal- 
 low enough for the waggon to get across. This was 
 joyful news, and shortly after he waded through 
 and drove up the horses. He and I languidly har- 
 nessed them and started. We had not gone ten 
 yards before the king bolt of the waggon broke ! 
 It was too disappointing, we did not know sufficient 
 bad language to say anything strong enough for the 
 occasion, and were silent. This accident necessitated 
 our unloading the waggon, and though it was easy 
 enough throwing off the bales, when we came to 
 lifting the bed to get the bolt out it was almost too 
 much for us. I was tempted to refuse to try it, but 
 if I did, I should certainly have to walk into Bulligal 
 in my then state of hunger and weakness. Besides, 
 it would be mean to refuse aid to my companion in 
 misfortune, although I was pitiably feeble with the 
 fasting, heat, and profuse perspiration. When we 
 were at last able to reach the bolt, Johnstone put 
 the two pieces into a sack, and mounting a horse, 
 rode off to town to get a new one made, and to 
 procure food. 
 
 But I had many hours to wait yet, though he went 
 away a little after noon. When he was out of sight 
 I used my remaining strength to gather a pile of 
 wood, and having lighted a fire to be ready for 
 cooking, I lay down and fell into a broken and 
 uneasy slumber, in which my dreams ran still on 
 eating, and again on eating. Fortunately a breeze 
 
 Q 
 
226 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 sprang up at sundown and drove the mosquitoes 
 away, for if they had been as vicious and countless 
 as on the previous night I believe it would have 
 proved the last straw, and I should have taken 
 leave of my senses. Even as it was, I was on the 
 borders of feverish delirium, and in my dreams 
 passed beyond them. Yet although it was more 
 than four days since I had put anything inside my 
 lips save water and tobacco, I did not feel as 
 intensely hungry as might be imagined. I knew 
 well that my sensations of lightness, hollowness and 
 intense weakness were caused by famine, yet the 
 feeling of acute and eager hunger seemed to have 
 passed away. For I was in the chronic stage, as it 
 were. Doubtless if I had been deprived of food for 
 much longer these pains might have returned in full or 
 redoubled force, but so far I was relieved physically. 
 I have never in all my wanderings come across a 
 man who has absolutely fasted for so long a period 
 as myself, unless perhaps it was the " Man-Eater " 
 about whom I have spoken in another place, but 
 some I have known who were three days with 
 nothing to eat, and our experiences were similar on 
 this point. 
 
 As I have said, I slept, and at times I slept 
 soundly, for although I spent some hours of that 
 fearfully long evening in listening for the returning 
 steps of my comrade's horse, and in cursing his 
 delay, when he did actually return he rode to the 
 fire where I was lying, and called me by name 
 
HUNGER AT JBULLIGAL CREEKS. 227 
 
 before I heard him. He threw me down the bag, 
 which contained, in addition to the new king bolt, 
 some raw beef and bread. I well remembered even 
 then that it was inadvisable to eat in large quantities, 
 but I was so wholly unable to restrain myself that I 
 threw a steak on the hot wood coals, and rending a 
 loaf with my hands, I crammed the bread into my 
 mouth, and then devoured the steak half raw. If 
 what I have read of the evil effects of sudden 
 gorging in famine were always true, I ought to have 
 paid some penalty for my folly, but as it happened, 
 I took no harm from a fairly Gargantuan repast 
 For I ate like an Esquimaux or a Yakut Indian, and 
 rolling myself in my blankets I fell into deep and 
 undisturbed slumber. I had been without food for a 
 hundred and six hours. 
 
 In the morning we loaded the bales on the 
 mended waggon, and as Johnstone declined to move 
 that day, for it was Sunday, and the Bulligal Bridge 
 was Puritanically closed to wheel traffic, I shook 
 hands with him and we parted. I walked into town, 
 and that evening camped alone nine miles south of 
 that place on the One Tree Plain. This was an 
 eighteen mile walk, and I think it was no mean 
 feat for anyone to accomplish after the privations 
 which I had endured. My next stage was twenty 
 miles, and by noon on the day following I entered 
 Hay, a ragged, brown, and weary traveller. I was 
 tired of walking, and taking the coach across the 
 Old Man Plain I reached Deniliquin by the next 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 morning, and was in Melbourne early in the after- 
 noon. 
 
 In the train I made the acquaintance of a young 
 Frenchman, named Landerer, and we walked through 
 Melbourne together. He had come from a little 
 further north than Mossgiel and was bound home 
 to Paris. We made a curious pair in a civilized city. 
 As a general rule men coming from the bush rig 
 themselves up in new clothes before reaching town. 
 But he and I had made no alteration. Yet com- 
 pared with me Landerer was respectable. A little 
 ragged, perhaps, and very dusty, that was all. As for 
 me I had scarcely a button anywhere, the lining was 
 gone from my coat and hung in ragged ends out of 
 the sleeves ; my wide hat was full of holes ; my 
 boots had not been blacked since I bought them. 
 My face was so tanned that even among sailors I 
 looked very dark ; the deep red burn ran into 
 a point down to my chest, for my shirt was 
 always wide open ; my hands were tinted like old 
 mahogany. On our backs we carried our swags. 
 Such travellers were rare in town. Every one 
 stared at us curiously. The police took a great 
 interest in me. Just at that time the bushranging 
 gang of the Kelly brothers was very hard pressed 
 up in the Wombat Ranges, and it was expected that 
 they would try to leave Australia. So when two 
 policemen asked me carelessly if I had just come to 
 town I knew what they were thinking of. They 
 walked by us for a hundred yards. I conversed 
 
HUNGER AT BULLIGAL CREEKS. 229 
 
 carelessly but at last stopped, looked them full in 
 the face, and said, " Come now, I am not in the 
 least like Ned Kelly or any of the gang so far as I 
 know. And if I look a little wild I am not Wild 
 Wright." They laughed and left us. Landerer 
 went to a Swiss pension. After staying in Mel- 
 bourne for a day or two I began to think it time to 
 make my arrangements for going to England. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IN THE FOC SLE. 
 
 HRD made up my mind, even before leaving 
 the Lachlan Back Blocks, to return to 
 the "old country" before the mast, and 
 thus to earn money instead of spending it. Had 
 I been a professional sailor there would have been 
 nothing risky or out of the way in my so doing ; 
 but although I knew much more about ships 
 and a sailor's work than most landsmen, I had 
 only been one passage in a sailing vessel, and 
 that in the character of a passenger. During 
 
IN THE FOCSLE. 231 
 
 the hundred and two days that it took us from 
 Liverpool to Cape Otway, in the Seringapatam, 
 I had, with an eye to future contingencies, learnt 
 the names of all the ropes and gear, their leads 
 and uses, and had so persisted in going aloft that 
 I was at last capable of service there. Hence 
 I considered myself something of a " sailor-man,'' 
 and thought that with the faculty I have always 
 possessed of learning most simple handiwork at 
 sight, I might easily pass for a trained man, con- 
 sidering that I was yet young, and looked even 
 younger than I was. 
 
 My first step was to put up at a sailors' boarding- 
 house in Williamstown, one of the ports of Mel- 
 bourne, and I went there in a cheap slop rig of 
 seaman's serge, which suited my complexion, burnt 
 to such a dark tint in the New South Wales sun, 
 and my walk, which was a queer compound of a 
 sea roll and a cavalry stride, due to my two years 
 spent almost entirely in the saddle. The boarding- 
 house was one of the very rowdiest and most dis- 
 reputable places in the town, which could boast no 
 few dens in which a new chum would have hesitated 
 to set his foot. 
 
 In this " hotel" there were two doors to the bar, 
 which was backed by a gaudy glass and gaudier 
 bottles of spirits, with piles^of cheap cigars in boxes 
 and bundles. The space in front was half choked 
 with barrels, some stowed on their bilges, each of 
 which rocked with an intoxicated seaman or loafer, 
 
232 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 and some on their chimes, which held spilt beer. 
 Here, and there were piles of seamen's bags thrown 
 on the barrels, together with ragged coats discarded 
 on account of the heat or for purposes of personal 
 combat ; while the floor was covered with the 
 ''doddle" from the bottom of juicy clays, with old 
 cigar-ends, with saliva or beer, and the atmosphere 
 reeked with tobacco fume in conflict with the subtler 
 and more persistent odour of spirits. The customary 
 occupants of this den were certainly admirably placed 
 in such a milieti, for few of them were either clean 
 or sober by the hour of noon ; while there was a 
 perpetual din of argument, of beery chuckles, of 
 angry oaths, or of violent laughter, which rose and 
 fell but never wholly died away, until the last man 
 was violently ejected at closing-time or dragged out 
 by some more sober companion. I remained in this 
 house seven days, and during that short time I 
 witnessed or took part in eight fights. How many 
 others occurred in my absence I cannot tell ; but as 
 a general rule some one or other was adorned by a 
 new bruise or black eye each time I returned from 
 town. 
 
 The eating-room in this house was an extra- 
 ordinary apartment, and deserves more than the few 
 words I can bestow upon it. The rough pine-tables 
 and benches, which had been hacked by generations 
 of boarders with dinner and sheath knives, were 
 securely clamped to the floor, which was only occa- 
 sionally swept and apparently had never been 
 
IN THE FOC'SLE. 233 
 
 washed, in order that they might not be broken up 
 and converted into weapons if any general row 
 should arise at meal times. The windows were 
 fixed at least six or seven feet from the floor, and 
 higher still at one end of the room was a strongly- 
 nailed notice, bearing the peremptory legend, " Order 
 ■must be preserved," which sufficiently declared how 
 very liable the peace was to be broken. The meals 
 we got in this charming place were what might have 
 been expected, served as they were on the bare deal 
 with unpolished knives and two pronged forks, with 
 potatoes boiled in their skins in tin dishes, and steaks 
 which the strongest-jawed and most sharp-toothed 
 seaman could scarcely chew, even when impelled 
 by hunger ; while the tea and coffee were infusions 
 of some mysterious herb or berry, which tasted 
 sufficiently like neither to pass, under stress of cir- 
 cumstances, for both. Our waiters were a slatternly 
 girl, and a boy who wiped his hands upon his dirty 
 face as though it were a jack-towel. 
 
 I had been accustomed to roughing it in the bush, 
 but this was a trifle rougher than I liked, and I made 
 preparations for getting away. To ship in most 
 ports, at least where seamen are plentiful, a " dis- 
 charge " from another vessel is usually indispensable. 
 To use the phrase of common domestic service, this 
 paper constitutes a man's " character," and as I of 
 course possessed none, I was obliged to buy a 
 certificate from some one else — a proceeding by 
 which I believe I laid myself open to the charge of 
 
234 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 a misdemeanour of some kind, punishable by fine and 
 imprisonment. I went to the "runner," who looked 
 up ships for the men in the house or touted for new- 
 comers, and told him that I wanted a vessel for 
 England, offering him at the same time a sovereign 
 if he shipped me within a week. That was sufficient 
 to render him anxious to get me off his hands, and 
 I had no fear that he would not exert himself 
 on my behalf, if I danced attendance on him at 
 the shipping office. 
 
 Just at this time there was a feeble sort of strike 
 for higher wages in existence among the " deep- 
 water " sailors of the port. Five pounds a month for 
 able seamen was what captains were giving, and the 
 men wished to obtain six. On my first visit to the 
 office I was accosted by their recognized leader, and 
 by him invested with a small piece of blue ribbon in 
 token that I too was on strike, a proceeding that caused 
 me no small amount of inward amusement, consider- 
 ing that I had no right to call myself a sailor. But 
 I took it seriously, and for some days marched about 
 with a band of about two hundred, sometimes carry- 
 ing a banner and sometimes simply walking in the 
 ranks, answering with my new friends and fellow- 
 strikers the chaff of the bystanders, who laughed 
 good-humouredly at Jack ashore. Yet the strike 
 was a mere farce ; there were too many idle men for 
 it to be sustained, and some were constantly ship- 
 ping at the ordinary rate. On the fifth day the 
 runner called me in, and I signed, under his own 
 
IN THE FOC'SLE. 
 
 237 
 
 discharge, which he sold me on our original bargain, 
 as Edward Mitchell, A.B., or able-bodied seaman, 
 in the barque Wessex, bound to London. On 
 coming out I was laid hold of, and being asked for 
 what rate of pay I had signed, I said six pouuds a 
 month, for if I had not lied in company with the 
 others who had shipped with me, I should have been 
 mauled by the strikers then and there, and have 
 made enemies of my shipmates for the passage 
 home. 
 
 That afternoon I devoted to buying what things 
 were necessary, and it was at a scandalous den .of 
 thieves that I purchased a big monkey-jacket, that 
 was a regular " Cape Horner," a suit of oilskins, a 
 pair of gum or rubber sea-boots, a sheath-knife, 
 which I still possess and shall keep as a memento of 
 the past, a tin plate, cup, and a knife and fork. The 
 boarding-house keeper, who was as big a ruffian as I 
 have ever foregathered with, and I have known 
 many, looked hard at me as I produced five or six 
 pounds to pay the bill, which was probably no more 
 than 300 per cent, too much, and said earnestly — 
 
 ''If I had known that you had as much money as 
 that, my boy, you wouldn't have gone out of my 
 house for a while ! " 
 
 He meant it, and didn't mind my knowing that 
 he did. I smiled amicably. 
 
 " Thank you," I said ; " but I didn't mean you to 
 know. However that's the lot, and now I'm nearly 
 dead broke. So there's no more to be got out of me." 
 
238 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 This was not true, for I still had twenty pounds in 
 my belt ; but I was scarcely fool enough to let him 
 know that, for I should most assuredly have been 
 drugged and robbed that very night. Yet in spite 
 of his ignorance I was glad to get on board the 
 Wessex, a barque of rather more than a thousand 
 tons, at five o'clock the next morning. 
 
 I confess to feeling somewhat scared about the 
 step I had taken. It is a serious thing to profess 
 one's self an able seaman on board a vessel about 
 to make a long passage. On land any obvious 
 incapacity to do what is expected only results in 
 being told to go elsewhere ; but a man cannot be 
 discharged at sea, and failure to do his duty brings 
 down on him the wrath of the officers, together with 
 the grumbling, and, if they dare, the ill-usage of the 
 crew, who have to make up for his shortcomings. 
 Nevertheless I determined to do my best to be 
 second to none, to learn all that I could, and above 
 all to be very " willing," for that covers a multitude 
 of sins at sea. So if there was anything I could do 
 I jumped to do it ; I was first up aloft and the last 
 down, and being always ready to take anything off 
 my next mate's shoulders, and always cheerful, 1 
 had my reward. 
 
 At ten o'clock we mustered aft, and were put 
 into watches, with the result that I occupied the 
 proud position of " foretopman " in the starboard 
 watch, there being another of the same denomina- 
 tion, a young Dublin fellow, named Jack Reynolds 
 
IN THE FOCSLE. 239 
 
 With him I hastened to make friends, telling him I 
 had not been to sea for a long time, and that the dis- 
 charge I had shipped under was not mine. He was 
 a good-tempered, easy-going, round-faced man of 
 about twenty-three, and my judgment of confiding 
 in him was not at fault, for he made a regular chum 
 of me, and often saved me from reprimand. 
 
 For four days we lay at anchor in Hobson's Bay, 
 off the watering-place called Queenscliffe, waiting for 
 a wind, and during this time I had to keep my eyes 
 open and my wits about me to an extent that almost 
 fatigued me. Every little thing that I saw done, 
 but did not know, I managed to learn ; everything I 
 heard I caught up, and I watched every one out of 
 the corners of my eyes. If anything was going on 
 that I was ignorant of, I skulked most skilfully, and 
 made up for it by jumping like a cat to do anything 
 that I understood. Sometimes, however, I got fairly 
 caught, and had to exercise ingenuity which, until it 
 was required, I did not believe I possessed ; but day 
 by day my confidence and knowledge grew, until I 
 began to think myself a real seaman and not a mere 
 make-belief. 
 
 The Wessex, though of such a size, carried no 
 more than six able seamen in each watch, with two 
 boys in mine and an ordinary seaman in the other. 
 Besides these, there was the bo'son, and each watch 
 had a bo'son's mate, who live in the deckhouse. Our 
 foc'sle was forward, and was dark, draughty, and 
 uncomfortable. There were no proper doors to it, 
 
240 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 and when a heavy sea came over the bulwarks it 
 usually found its way amongst us under the tarpaulin 
 screen which but ineffectually kept out the wind. 
 Our dining-table was the hatch over the fore-peak, 
 where the spare gear was kept, or more frequently 
 our knees, and we sat down on chests, on the deck, or 
 on a low partition which ran fore and aft just where 
 the cable lay when the chain was bent on to the 
 anchors. It was in these quarters that I made a 
 more intimate acquaintance with my shipmates as 
 we grumbled over the quantity or quality of the 
 food, or told strange and surprising adventures of 
 our last ships, which in my case were partly apo- 
 cryphal, or drawn from the vessel in which I had 
 gone to Australia as a passenger. I even excited 
 envy because my story included the narrative of that 
 outbreak among the Lascars on board the Seringa- 
 patam, which I have already related. 
 
 My mates included an old seaman of sixty, called 
 Mac, who had followed the sea since he was ten, 
 and had become by natural endowment and fore- 
 mast education a great and admirable liar. His 
 yarns were mostly received with silence, except by 
 Jack Shaw, a discontented old grumbler of a man, 
 who would argue and, if need were, fight about 
 anything. But as these two had tried conclusions 
 in Melbourne in a fight in which Jack had been 
 victorious, Mac only received his contemptuous 
 comments in sulky silence, which lasted until there 
 seemed a reasonable chance of reeling off another 
 
IN THE FOCSLE. 241 
 
 stiff yarn, which outdid the last. Shaw and I often 
 bickered, because he knew I carried a " purser's 
 name " {i.e. one not my own), and was not quite so 
 experienced a seaman as I should have been. But 
 as he was lame from an old injury to his knee, and 
 I bore no malice, but on the contrary often did 
 things for him, we never really quarrelled. Yet he 
 invented a nickname for me, calling me il Lord 
 Paget," and not content with conferring this brevet 
 nobility upon me, professed to be anxious to reach 
 England in order to see my father arrive with a 
 coach-and-six to bear me to some palatial residence. 
 He took me for a runaway apprentice, and deemed 
 me a marvellously well-educated man when it 
 turned out that I knew enough French to read what 
 was said outside some tinned meats which bore 
 directions for cooking in that language. This 
 indeed was sufficient to make me an authority on 
 anything, and I was frequently appealed to on 
 points of difficulty, such as the relative quantity of 
 ice above and below water in an iceberg. Here, 
 however, my decision was received with scorn, and 
 it was only when I established my dictum by an 
 appeal to a book in our doctor's possession that I 
 recovered and confirmed my authority. 
 
 By the time affairs had become as settled as 
 this, we had been at sea for some time, and had 
 experienced a gale far to the south-east of New 
 Zealand in the same latitude where the Somerset- 
 shire of our line had once been totally dismasted. 
 
 R 
 
242 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 The chief mate seemed quite superstitious about the 
 locality, and from his nervousness one might have 
 imagined that he considered this part of the ocean 
 a kind of Quilp's yard, with a gale lurking on one 
 side or the other ready for a spring. It was due 
 more to him than to the captain that we hove the 
 vessel to in only a moderate gale of wind — moderate 
 at least compared with some I have seen before and 
 since — and drifted to leeward for about twelve hours. 
 For my own part I was glad when we were hove to, 
 or running under shortened sail, for then, barring 
 accidents, there was nothing to do, and the watch 
 on deck might retreat to the foc'sle and smoke. 
 Perhaps it is not positive comfort to be idle if all 
 one's clothes are damp, and to sit in a wet shirt with 
 wet oilskins is not wholly cheerful, yet I confess 
 to liking it better than hard work. 
 
 On such nights the scene in the dim foc'sle was in 
 its way picturesque. The gale is blowing hard, but 
 everything is made snug, the ropes coiled on their 
 pins, and the " That'll do the watch " of the officer 
 on duty sends both watches below, one for sleep and 
 the other for shelter, until some unwelcome order is 
 bellowed from the poop. In a few moments the 
 port watch are in their bunks, their hanging lamp is 
 extinguished by the last man, while on our side the 
 dim oil burns and swings with the variable roll and 
 pitch of the vessel. It requires some time to discern 
 by its light that the foc'sle is wedge-shaped, and that 
 the bunks line both sides in a double tier. Each of 
 
IN THE FOCSLE. 
 
 243 
 
 these is about two feet wide and eight inches deep, 
 while there is so little space to spare between the 
 bottom boards and the deck above, that I sometimes 
 bump my head if I am called very unexpectedly. 
 There is no prospect of our being wanted for a 
 while, so taking off my sou'-wester and oilskin coat, 
 I throw myself into my bunk, with my wet sea-boots 
 over the edge, and smoking a short black clay pipe, 
 I look down on the others. Jack Reynolds, my 
 fellow foretop-man, sits on his chest beneath me, 
 with his black painted oilskins shining in the dim 
 light as his hands move slowly about an apparently 
 endless task of making a round sinnet chest-lashing. 
 In the darkest corner sits little old Mac ; I can 
 guess it is he, for his glowing pipe is so low down ; 
 and on his own chest is Jack Shaw, mumbling and 
 grumbling as usual while he rubs his left knee. He 
 once fell from a vessel's main royal yard, and struck 
 the side with his leg, going overboard. His com- 
 panion fell on the deck, and never spoke again. If 
 I turn my head, I see various sea-boots projecting 
 from the other bunks, and on the deck are streams 
 of water, for as she plunges and dives into the head 
 sea, it spurts in through the ill-plugged hawse-pipes, 
 or holes in the bow for the cables, and drips through 
 the cracks of the scuttle or hatchway above us. 
 Every now and again a heavy sea strikes against the 
 bow where I am lying, for we are hove to on the 
 starboard tack, and makes everything shiver and 
 groan ; while outside there is a vast and perpetual 
 
244 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 harmony of stringed instruments, for every stay and 
 shroud sings strange music, and even the braces are 
 bent inward by the wind and tautened like bars. On 
 deck over my head is our lookout man, and I hear 
 his steps as he walks to and fro in the steadier 
 intervals, or his stamps as he tries to restore the 
 circulation in his feet. 
 
 It was already March when we rounded the Horn, 
 and very fine it was, with none of the traditional 
 hard weather to make work. The long westerly 
 rollers were unbroken by the steady wind, which 
 allowed us to keep most of the lighter sails set, and 
 would not have prevented us shaking out the royals 
 had not the yards been sent down on deck some 
 time before. We passed far to the south, even of 
 the Diego Ramirez Islands, which sailors, with their 
 extraordinary faculty of mispronunciation, usually 
 call the " Dagarammarines," and had been in the 
 Atlantic forty-eight hours before the fine dry days 
 came to an end. But then a sample of weather fit 
 and appropriate to those latitudes came howling 
 after us. 
 
 For nearly three weeks we were in a succession 
 of gales, and it was " Hands shorten sail," and 
 41 Hands make sail," alternately with a persistency 
 which almost wore us out, for we were, as is now 
 only too usual, much undermanned ; and it still blew 
 hard, even when we shook out a reef or set the top- 
 gallant sails above the reefed topsails. Long before 
 this I was able to sit astride the yard and haul out 
 
IN THE FOCSLE. 245 
 
 the weather earing myself, and do everything 
 that came to hand, so I considered I had that right 
 to growl which may fairly be thought due to a 
 man who knows his work and is exceedingly 
 uncomfortable. Indeed some home-keeping youth 
 might consider our plight deserved a stronger 
 epithet. For one thing, the foc'sle got more and 
 more leaky ; my blankets, by reason of the dripping 
 from the deck above, the perpetually moist air, and 
 the water I was forced to import into my bunk 
 personally, became almost as wet as when I had 
 camped on the Lachlan river in three weeks 
 rain, and one by one my few clothes were soaking 
 as well, for it was impossible to dry them. When I 
 went below, I had to turn into a cold, moist bed, 
 which soon began to steam as though I was wet- 
 packed in a hydropathic establishment ; but before 
 I did that, I took off my shirt, gave one end to Jack 
 Reynolds, and then wrung the superfluous and 
 unusual water out of it. For a certain quantity 
 always remained. Then I hung it up, and when 
 one of the watch on deck came and roused us with, 
 " Starbowlines ahoy ! turn out, you sleepers ! " the 
 wet shirt had to be donned once more, then a wet 
 jacket, and perhaps damp and dripping oilskins too. 
 Yet I never suffered from rheumatism, nor did I 
 have even a cold until I reached England and slept 
 in comfort. 
 
 During this spell of bad weather we were served 
 out no fresh water for washing purposes, and though 
 
246 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 we rinsed our faces every now and again with salt, 
 we became darker and darker in complexion, until I, 
 whose skin had been burnt to mahogany by more 
 than two years of Australian bush life, began to 
 look somewhat darker than a dirty mulatto. Yet as 
 this melasma grew on us together, there were no 
 remarks made until we ran out of the storms into 
 fine warm weather, and were allowed some water to 
 wash ourselves with. Then it was astonishing to 
 see the difference that the fresh element and soap 
 made upon us, and as we laughed in each other's 
 clean faces, I considered that I had a complexion of 
 almost feminine purity. Doubtless three weeks' 
 unremoved grime made me fairer, just as the 
 Alaskan Indian belles use soot and grease before a 
 dance or festival, in order to make themselves whiter 
 and, as they believe, more attractive. 
 
 It was a pleasant change to be able to go about 
 one's work clothed only in a pair of " dungaree 
 pants " and a "dungaree jumper," with the soft air 
 blowing, and a bright sun overhead which would 
 soon grow tropically hot. The only drawback to the 
 weather was our energetic mate, who kept us hard 
 at it with souji-mouji (strong alkali), paint and 
 tar. We tarred down, rattled down (that is, put new 
 ratlines on the rigging), painted the lower masts, 
 yards, and rail, and I, who somehow showed a 
 dexterity with the brush wholly surprising to my- 
 self, was set with one or two others to do the fine 
 work in the cabin. I was even asked whether I had 
 
IN THE FOC'SLE. 247 
 
 served my time as a painter. I did not give a direct 
 answer, but allowed my questioner to believe that I 
 had, for dexterity in a trade might always help me 
 if I were bowled out in matters of seamanship, 
 though I had almost ceased to fear that by this time, 
 for when the painting was in progress we had run 
 into the tropics, and the greater part of the passage 
 was done. 
 
 It was in these latitudes and this vessel that I 
 first noticed what I have never heard commented 
 on or even mentioned. As I lay on my blankets on 
 the top of the deckhouse, where I often made my 
 bed, I used to stare dreamily straight up into the 
 sky, past the royals and the spar yet above them, at 
 the stars, and moon floating in the deep serenity of 
 space, and I often saw, by a curious transference of 
 unperceived bodily motion, the whole heavens break 
 loose, as it were, from their ancient holdings, and 
 swing to and fro a few degrees on this and that side 
 of the apparently stationary mast. I knew of course 
 that the vessel itself was rolling, though so slightly 
 that I could not perceive it save from the lofty spar 
 which fulfilled the same office as the long index of a 
 chemical balance which has to deal with weights 
 inappreciable in an ordinary machine ; but, never- 
 theless, it was hard to come to that conclusion, for 
 the swing and rhythm of the passing and returning 
 stars seemed so real and obvious. For I saw it, and 
 felt that I was being conjured with by nature and 
 the fallible senses. Yet it was a strangely beautiful 
 
248 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING, 
 
 illusion to see, though by surprise, the everlasting 
 firmament, the very ether, play such fantastic 
 tricks, for if they moved, what was stable, fixed, or 
 eternal ? As I wondered, perhaps there came a 
 little larger swell from the west ; the pointer moved 
 a degree too far, the illusion was dissipated, the vessel 
 itself was once more in motion that restored her to 
 me as something almost alive and breathing, being 
 no longer the sole fixed point beneath the loosed 
 moon and stars. 
 
 The pleasantest hours of the whole passage were 
 those spent working quietly up aloft with Jack 
 Reynolds, when there was nothing very particular to 
 be done down below, for we could sit near each 
 other, spin short yarns, and chew tobacco ad libitum, 
 provided we were careful to spit overboard. Our 
 work at such times consisted in looking after all the 
 innumerable trifles up aloft which require to be 
 carefully attended to, and if at last we could find 
 nothing that really wanted renewing, out came my 
 knife from its sheath, a seizing disappeared over- 
 board, and we put a new one in its place. " Just as 
 well to be careful/' Jack would say, grinning; "our 
 lives might depend on it some day." For we would 
 never willingly confess that we had nothing to do 
 on the foremast lest the bo'son might find us some 
 less pleasing task, such as his tribe have a knack of 
 doing. Ours was a very good fellow, though, in his 
 way and never surly with me, although he soon 
 found out that I was not an able seaman of very 
 
IN THE FOC'SLE. 249 
 
 long standing. Yet my unexpected dexterity in 
 being able to make a complicated knot called a 
 " Matthew Walker " on a four-stranded rope which 
 a much older man had got confused about, impressed 
 him very favourably, although from my not being 
 able to do much simpler things, he looked on me as 
 a queer mixture of cleverness and crass stupidity. 
 But he was down on one man from Gravesend, who, 
 though a fine fellow to look at and very good- 
 natured, was extraordinarily dense, and had a rooted 
 objection to going aloft any more than he could 
 avoid. As he let this be seen, the bo'son invariably 
 picked him out for any job which took him there, 
 especially if it was such a thing as putting in the 
 gilt trucks at the top of the masts, or fixing a dog- 
 vane there. But Phil was very amusing to us, and 
 had a standing grievance and topic of conversation. 
 This is how it came about. 
 
 As is well known, it is customary on the 180th 
 parallel of longitude to add a day to the reckoning 
 when going east, and to subtract it going west. It 
 thus fell out that we had two Fridays running, and 
 it was a sore puzzle to poor Phil. We took it in 
 turns to try to demonstrate it to him, but it was no 
 use. His answer was to scratch his head and say, 
 " I shall ask the pilot when he comes on board, and 
 just you see, we shall be a day out in our reckoning. 
 It's all foolishness ; there never were two Fridays in 
 any week. Why, man alive, there would be eight 
 days in it, and that can't be, for the Bible says, ' Six 
 
250 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 days shalt thou labour and do all thou hast to do,' 
 and here we've been working seven and you say it 
 isn't Sunday till to-morrow. Why, vou're ail mad ! ' 
 And away went Phil to meditate over it all his spare 
 time, for every now and again he came to us with a 
 fresh argument which he considered ought to settle 
 the matter. When he did find out that somehow or 
 other we were right, his confusion of mind was 
 perfectly ludicrous. 
 
 By this time I was thoroughly at home with the 
 ship and men, and I really liked the life. Though 
 nothing earthly could induce me to go back to it, 
 that four months' passage home before the mast 
 always remains, in spite of its toil and hardship, as 
 the happiest time in my life. I was absolutely 
 healthy and as strong as a young bull ; I could race 
 up to the royal yard and down again without losing 
 my wind, or even breathing hard ; I could go hand- 
 over-hand sixty feet up a rope, and when I lay down 
 I went so fast asleep, that sometimes all the watch 
 bellowed at me in vain, and had to shake me at last. 
 And, best of all, I never thought for five consecutive 
 seconds, and if I knew the deadly words " intro- 
 spection " and "analysis," I never went through any 
 such process as they imply. I might well be content 
 to sing in the second dogwatch with the heartiest 
 good-will, or to take a good-humoured rough-and- 
 tumble over the hatch, until one of us got his head 
 banged against a ringbolt or the spare-anchor stock, 
 without losing my temper. As long as one is well 
 
IN THE FOCSLE., 251 
 
 and does not think of the future, such a life is really 
 very happy, if the officers do not make their vessel 
 a " hell afloat," as they too often do. 
 
 About two degrees to the north of the line we had 
 a day or two of " doldrums," or calm weather, but 
 the old Wessex managed for the greater part of 
 the time to keep way on her, and slip along at a 
 knot or even more, while half-a-dozen vessels were 
 in sight from the main royal yard with their heads 
 all round the compass. In this weather I almost 
 prayed for a gale, for the chief officer began again to 
 get so exacting with his souji-mouji, paint and tar, 
 that we had no excuse for taking a handful of spun- 
 yarn and a little tobacco aloft to wile away the time 
 as we looked at the blue expanse of sea. I was 
 glad when we ran out of the trades at last and got a 
 gale off the Western Islands (the Azores), for 
 " Hands shorten sail " only kept us busy for a time, 
 and we could sit in idleness afterwards. Yet it blew 
 hard with occasional tremendous squalls, which made 
 everything crack again. We had shortened her 
 down to the reefed foresail and close-reefed topsails, 
 but it blew harder and harder, and when our watch 
 turned out at midnight we found a heavy sea run- 
 ning, while the wind was blowing great guns. The 
 port watch had passed the long gaskets, with which 
 the sail is made fast when it is furled, as preventer 
 rovings, or additional fastenings, to the foresail, 
 which had come away more than six inches from the 
 yard ; but there had been nothing else to do, for all 
 
252 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 the seizings, &c, that Jack and I had worked at in 
 the fine weather did their duty in foul. After 
 answering to our name at the poop in pitchy dark- 
 ness, we went forward to the foc'sle again and sat 
 smoking in silence, as we could barely hear ourselves 
 speak for the roaring of the wind and the groaning 
 of the timbers. At two bells, or one o'clock, the 
 bos'on's mate came to us. He spoke, but at first I 
 could not hear what he said, though I caught the 
 word "foretop-men " which was quite enough to 
 show that whatever had to be done fell to me and 
 Jack Reynolds. After some shouting, I made out 
 that the outer part of the upper foretopsail had 
 blown loose from its lashings and that we were to 
 make it fast again. I called Jack, and we went up 
 aloft in such darkness that I could not see my mate 
 when he was two yards away. Now, as sailors 
 know, when the upper topsail is lowered down on 
 the lifts, and the lifts of the lower yard are hauled 
 taut, the foot-rope of the higher yard is jammed so 
 far underneath it as to be of less than no use at all 
 for standing and working on. So when I saw that 
 any attempt to touch the gasket would result in the 
 whole yardarm getting adrift, I roared to Jack to go 
 down and get some pieces of sinnet, or the plaited stuff 
 of which gaskets are made, which I knew were in 
 the foretop, and then clambered out to the lift, and 
 by its aid got over the upper and stood on the lower 
 yard, in order to be able to go to work when Jack 
 returned. But by the time he had got into the fore- 
 
IN THE FOCSLE. 
 
 253 
 
 top I heard a strange noise, half hiss, half roar, and 
 looking up, and aft, I beheld a squall coming up 
 astern that was seemingly a solid white wall of sea- 
 mist, foam, and cloud. 
 
 I threw my arms round the lift, grasping my coat 
 and arms on each side, and held on. When the 
 squall struck us, the vessel groaned and shivered 
 all over, and 
 seemed to 
 double her 
 speed. I 
 didn't think, 
 indeed I could 
 not, for the 
 roar of the 
 wind and hiss 
 of the beaten 
 seas were too 
 d e a f e n i n g, 
 too over- 
 whelmin g; 
 
 but I felt as if the masts must go over the side, 
 that in the nature of things they ought to, for 
 no work of man could be capable of resisting such 
 tremendous power. And I clung on with despera- 
 tion. Had I been on the weather-side of the 
 yard I should have been in safety, so long as the 
 masts stood ; but as it was, the wind blew me away 
 from it, once lifting my feet off the yard below, 
 trying to tear asunder my gripped hands and locked 
 
254 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 arms with a force that seemed physical, intelligent, 
 and alive, while the level spray struck me, blind and 
 smarting, like stinging hail. It was a wonder that 
 the sail, of which a small part was already loose, did 
 not break its lashings and strike me off the yard 
 like a thread of rejected spun yarn, and had not the 
 gaskets been new on the foremast, this most as- 
 suredly would have happened. I cannot tell how 
 long this squall lasted, I think it was nearly ten 
 minutes ; but if I am ever asked, I can say the 
 longest ten minutes I ever knew were spent up aloft 
 off the Western Islands. When the worst blew 
 over, Jack came up with a bundle of sinnet and a 
 grin on his round face, asking, " How did you like 
 that, old man ? " I passed the new lashing round 
 the bellying sail, and we went down, very contented 
 to descend leisurely, and not in a hurry together 
 with the topmasts. 
 
 From that time forward we had no more bad 
 weather, and we ran for the English Channel with 
 a good westerly breeze until we were in soundings 
 (seventy fathoms, sand and shells), when the wind 
 changed to the east, dead in our teeth, and we 
 had to beat to windward in short tacks. There is 
 nothing more exasperating to a sailor than to have 
 to do this on his homeward run. He is so eager 
 to get ashore, so full of earnestness in desiring to 
 put to the proof his resolution that "this time'' 
 he will not get drunk as usual, that his new virtue 
 finds the delay of temptation too hard to be borne. 
 
IN THE FOCSLE. 255 
 
 There were many such among my shipmates, and 
 though I laughed then, I think now that there was 
 more of pathos than comedy in those resolutions 
 which were so soon to be broken. 
 
 But beating up Channel gave me no time for 
 moralizing, and the chief officer was far too intent 
 on having everything as fresh as a daisy to leave 
 us in idleness for a moment. From " Hands 'bout 
 ship " to the paint-pots and holystones was the per- 
 petual change, and when we picked up a tug off the 
 Wight and made the sails fast for the last time, it 
 was only to leave us more time for scrubbing paint 
 and cleaning brasswork. 
 
 But how glad I was to greet England once more ! 
 Even the long wake of the lights of the Lizard made 
 me feel at home again, and when I saw the coast 
 half covered with cloud, I could have shouted with 
 a joy that none who stay at home can comprehend. 
 But there was one thing that struck me in England 
 as very strange, not to say painful, and that was the 
 vivid colour of the pastures. We are quite proud 
 of our perpetual verdure ; but, to tell the truth, the 
 tint of the grass after the soberer dull greys and 
 greens and browns of Australia was extremely un- 
 pleasant to my eye. I thought the colour glaring, 
 not to say inartistic ; it certainly was not unnatural, 
 and yet it struck me as being as nearly that as if some 
 one had deliberately painted the fields. It took me 
 months to get reconciled to it. 
 
 After the long passage of 104 days, I had some 
 
256 LAND-TRAVEL AND SEA-FARING. 
 
 right to think that I should not be called upon to do 
 anything that I did not have sufficient knowledge of 
 to carry through, but I was nearly reckoning with- 
 out my host. Our " mud pilot," as sailors call the 
 pilots of inland waters, whom we had picked up at 
 the entrance of London River, sent men into the 
 chains to heave the lead, and one of our crew, a 
 half-bred Yankee, who was otherwise a good sea- 
 man, declined to go, as he, in spite of fifteen years 
 at sea, had never done such work before. The 
 second mate accepted his excuse, much to old Jack 
 Shaw's disgust, for it was his next turn. He like- 
 wise refused to do that duty, and his refusal 
 brought the officer into the foc'sle to see what this 
 unexpected insubordination meant. 
 
 " Shaw, go in the chains," he said shortly. 
 
 " Can't heave the lead," answered old Jack 
 sullenly, though every one knew he could. " Why 
 should I be able to do it, when this Yankee able- 
 seaman can't ? " 
 
 " No more jaw," said the officer ; and Jack, who 
 saw he was not to be trifled with, went out grumbling. 
 
 Then Mr. Jackson asked us all in turn whether 
 we could heave the lead. Receiving affirmative 
 answers, he came to me. 
 
 " Mitchell, can you ? " said he. 
 
 Now I knew the " marks " and " deeps " of the 
 hand line, but had never seen it heaved, as far as 
 I remembered. Nevertheless I would tackle it, or 
 anything else, rather than say I could not. 
 
IN THE FOCSLE. 257 
 
 " I guess so," I answered. 
 
 " What do you mean by ' I guess so ' ? " he asked, 
 rather angrily. 
 
 " Well, then, I can, sir," I answered in des- 
 peration, wondering very much if I could all the 
 time. 
 
 I was in a fix, but I determined to carry it 
 through, so I went on deck and watched old Shaw 
 at work, until I perceived that it was not so hard 
 as I had imagined. In another hour I was in the 
 chains myself, singing out, " By the mark, seven," 
 "Quarter, less eight," " By the deep, nine," as bold 
 as brass, until a sudden fog compelled us to anchor. 
 When the " mud -hook " was on the ground, and 
 things made snug, I went into the foc'sle to find the 
 Yankee in low spirits, and old Shaw still grumbling 
 against him. " What kind of a sailor did he call 
 himself, when even a young chap like Mitchell 
 could go in the chains and do his duty ? " That 
 was what old Shaw wanted to know. 
 
 I chuckled and turned away, and nobody, not 
 even Jack Reynolds, knew that it was my first 
 experience of heaving the lead. 
 
 In the morning we hove the anchor up to the 
 most beautiful chanty that sailors sing, " Homeward 
 bound," and by ten o'clock we entered the south- 
 west dock. I was the first on shore with a warp to 
 help to make her fast, and I shall never forget the 
 sensation of feeling the gravel grinding under my 
 
 s 
 
258 LAND-TRAVEL SEA-FARING. 
 
 heels when I sprang from the vessel's side. When 
 the ship is alongside the wharf and secured, the 
 crew are free, and in a few minutes we tumbled 
 down below, shifted our working clothes and donned 
 our best, which in my case I am bound to say were 
 nothing to boast of. Indeed I had a discussion 
 with Reynolds as to whether I was well enough 
 dressed to go home, for I had in nearly three years 
 of rough life almost lost the notion of dress. Finally, 
 in deference to Jack's opinion, I consented to go to 
 the Sailors' Home in Well Street, until we were 
 paid off, by which time I could get a new rig-out. 
 A van from the Home was waiting for those of us 
 who wished to go there, and as I rode off in it 
 I passed Shaw, whose wife had come to meet him. 
 1 called his attention to my coach-and-six, and he 
 chuckled a grim farewell to " Lord Paget," as he 
 still nicknamed me. 
 
 When we reached the Home, there was a crowd 
 of the lowest men and women in East London 
 waiting outside, and they almost stormed the van 
 trying to persuade us from entering it. When the 
 big door opened and we drove in, a wild and savage 
 yell of rage and disappointment rose from the 
 shut-out mob at losing what might be their last 
 chance of getting hold of men with money. For 
 once in the Home, there is much in favour of 
 staying there, and Jack is too busy amusing him- 
 self to shift his "dunnage," as he calls his im- 
 
IN THE FOCSLE. 
 
 259 
 
 pedimenta, after he has once deposited it in safe 
 keeping. 
 
 As for me, I remained there three days, saw some 
 aspects of life which were new to me, and then, 
 just for a change, I went to stay in the West of 
 London. 
 
 July, 1 89 1. 
 
 THE END. 
 
Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, 
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