6 
 
 MISSING 
 
 FRIENDS 
 
 (1871-1880) 
 
 1
 
 
 A SWAGSMAN.
 
 Adventures are to the adventurous." 
 
 BEACONSFIELD. 
 
 THE 
 
 ADVENTURE 
 SERIES.
 
 THE ADVENTURE SERIES. 
 
 Illustrated. Crown 8vo, 53. 
 
 i. 
 
 Adventures of a Younger Son. By E. J. 
 TRELAWNY. With an Introduction by Edward 
 Garnett. Second Edition. 
 
 2. 
 
 Robert Drury's Journal in Madagascar. 
 Edited by Captain S. P. Oliver. 
 
 3- 
 
 Memoirs of the Extraordinary Military 
 Career of John Shipp. With an Introduction 
 by H. Manners Chichester, 
 
 4- 
 
 The Adventures of Thomas Fellow, of 
 Penryn, Mariner. Edited by Dr. Robert Brown. 
 
 5- 
 
 The Buccaneers and Marooners of America. 
 Being an Account of the Notorious Freebooters 
 of the Spanish Main. Edited by Howard Pyle. 
 
 6. 
 
 The Log of a Jack Tar ; or, The Life of James 
 Choyce. With O'Brien's Captivity in France. 
 Edited- by V. Lovett Cameron, R.N. 
 
 7- 
 
 The Voyages and Adventures of Ferdinand 
 Mendez Pinto. With an Introduction by 
 Arminius Vambery. 
 
 The Story of the Filibusters. By JAMES 
 JEFFREY ROCHE. To which is added the Life 
 of Colonel David Crockett. 
 
 9- 
 
 A Master Mariner. Being the Life and Adven- 
 tures of Captain Robert William Eastwick. 
 Edited by Herbert Compton. 
 
 Kolokotrones, Klepht and Warrior. Edited by 
 Mrs. Edmonds. Introduetion by M. Gennadius. 
 
 n. 
 
 Hard Life in the Colonies. Compiled from 
 Private Letters by C. Carlyon Jenkins. 
 
 (OTHERS IN THE PRESS.)
 
 MISSING FRIENDS 
 
 BEING THE ADVENTURES 
 OF A DANISH EMIGRANT 
 IN QUEENSLAND (1871-1880) 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN, 
 PATERNOSTER SQUARE. MDCCCXCII
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 WAS born in Copenhagen in the 
 year 1850. My father was a builder 
 there in moderately good circum- 
 stances. I was the second son of a 
 large family, and it was my parents' 
 great ambition that we all should 
 receive a good education. My eldest brother was 
 intended for a profession, and I was to be, like my 
 father, a builder, and to take up his business when 
 old enough to do so. 
 
 My father ruled us with an iron hand. I am 
 sure he had as much love for us all as most fathers 
 have for their children, but it was considered 
 necessary when I^was twenty years old to treat 
 me as boys of ten are ordinarily treated. During 
 the time I learned my trade in my father's shop 
 I never knew the pleasure of owning a sixpence. 
 After I had learned my trade, it was just the same. 
 I worked for my father and received my food, 
 clothes, and lodging as before, but I never dared 
 to absent myself for a quarter of an hour even 
 without asking permission, and that permission 
 was as often refused as granted. A rebellious 
 
 2057776
 
 vi INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 feeling kept growing up in me ; but I dared not 
 ask my father to relax a little and give me more 
 liberty. To assert my independence before him 
 seemed just as impossible, and yet my position 
 had become to me unbearable. There was but one 
 thing to do, viz., to run away, and I had scarcely 
 conceived this idea before I carried it into execu- 
 tion. 
 
 I was now twenty-one years old. One evening, 
 after saying good-night to my parents in the usual 
 orthodox fashion, I went to my room, and when all 
 was still, crept downstairs again and left the house. 
 I had a bundle of clothes with me and a watch, 
 which I pawned next morning. I forget the exact 
 amount I received for it, but to the best of my 
 recollection it was the first money I ever possessed, 
 and it seemed to me a vast sum to do with just as 
 I liked. I dared not to stay in Copenhagen for 
 fear of meeting my father, or somebody who knew 
 me, so I bought a through ticket for Hamburg the 
 same day, and although the purchase of this ticket 
 nearly exhausted my funds, it was with a feeling 
 of glorious freedom that I left Copenhagen. On 
 arriving in Hamburg I obtained work at my trade 
 without difficulty, and soon saved a little money, 
 so that a few months after I found myself on board 
 an emigrant ship bound for Queensland, where I 
 have been ever since ; but for fourteen years I never 
 wrote home. After that interval I sent a short 
 letter to my eldest brother, telling him that I was 
 in Queensland, married, in good health, my own
 
 INTRODUCTORY. vii 
 
 master, but that I had not made my fortune ; how- 
 ever I owed nobody anything, and was satisfied, 
 -&C., and asked only for news. 
 
 By return of mail came two letters, one from my 
 father and the other from my brother. My brother 
 wrote that our father was now getting to be an old 
 man, and that his one sorrow these many years 
 had been what had become of me, coupled with 
 the fear that I did not remember him as a loving 
 father ; that he had always acted as he thought 
 best for us, and that the greatest joy the earth 
 co.uld offer him would be if he might see me again. 
 My father wrote in the same strain, adding that if 
 I could not come home I must write, and that 
 nothing I had done would seem trivial or uninter- 
 esting for him to read about. 
 
 When I had read these letters my conscience 
 smote me. Not that I had ever felt indifferent to 
 my parents. I had thought of them often. I do 
 not think ever a day went over my head during 
 those fourteen years in which I did not remember 
 them. Yet I had never written. But I was now 
 a married man, had children of my own, and I 
 could fully realize how it is that the parents' love 
 for their children is so inconceivably greater than 
 children's love for their parents. Would it not be 
 a hard day for me if ever I should have to bid good- 
 bye to any of my sons, even if they went out of the 
 front door, so to speak, with my blessing ? Would 
 the least they could do be to write to me circum- 
 stantially and often what they thought, what they
 
 viii INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 did, how they fared ? And here was I who never 
 to that moment had been conscious of having done 
 my parents any wrong ! Yes ; I would write. I 
 began the same evening, and kept writing on 
 about all my wanderings from the day I had left 
 home up to the time of writing, and as I wrote, 
 many things which I thought I had forgotten came 
 clearly to my mind ; and so I grew interested in it 
 myself. I had my writing copied. All this took 
 time ; but at last the manuscript was posted to my 
 father with a large photograph of myself enclosed. 
 It arrived the day after his death, but before the 
 funeral. They buried the manuscript and photo- 
 graph with him. 
 
 These are matters far too sacred to write much 
 about, even anonymously. I only touch upon 
 them to show the origin of the following narrative. 
 The copy I had taken has been lying in my desk 
 now for some years, and when I took it out the 
 other day it occurred to me that as it gives a faith- 
 ful picture of life that thousands of people lead 
 here in Queensland, it might be of general interest. 
 I doubt if ever a book was written with more 
 regard to truth. I have added nothing to the 
 original manuscript, but I have erased such private 
 matters as, of course, would be out of place in a. 
 publication, and I have also considerably shortened 
 the description of the voyage out, as a voyage 
 across the sea is a more than twice-told tale to 
 most Australian people. I have also altered the 
 names of persons and places mentioned wherever
 
 INTRODUCTORY. IK 
 
 I have thought it necessary. It is now several 
 years since the events recorded happened. The 
 incidents themselves are sometimes trifling and 
 always harmless. Should any one who may read 
 this book think they recognize themselves in any 
 part of my descriptions, I must beg them to accept 
 my apology. They will most likely then also 
 recognize the substantial truth of my description 
 and my endeavour not to be too personal. 
 
 Although it will be seen by the reader that I 
 have often acted foolishly and seldom excelled in 
 wisdom, yet I do not wish it to be understood that 
 I consider my life altogether misspent. As I look 
 back, I think of myself as being always cheerful. 
 It is the privilege of youth to be happy under 
 almost any circumstances, and I was young when 
 these things I here set down happened. If the 
 tale has a moral, I think it will be found sufficiently 
 obvious. Queensland is fall of missing friends. 
 Some come to the colony in the hope of making a 
 speedy fortune, that they may go home again and 
 bless the old folks with their good fortune. Others 
 come out with the hope of making a good home, 
 and to bring the old people thither. The success- 
 ful man is generally a dutiful son too, insomuch, 
 at least, that he lets everybody know of his success; 
 but the man who fails, either from lack of perse- 
 verance or from untoward circumstances, too often 
 becomes a "missing friend." It is generally true 
 that a man is valued according to the cut of his 
 coat, but it is not true between parent and son.
 
 x INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 So! write home, you lonely swagsman on the dusty 
 track of the far interior. Do not think yourself 
 forgotten. If you have parents alive you have 
 friends too, who think of you night and day. If 
 you will only let them know that you yet have a 
 thought left for them, they will bless you. 
 
 I have nothing else to add to this introduction, 
 except that possibly the book might have been 
 more interesting if it contained more thrilling 
 adventures, but in my opinion the only merit 
 which it may possess lies in the strict regard paid 
 to truth and the avoidance of all exaggeration from 
 beginning to end.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTEODUCTORY v 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. MY FIRSTJEXPERIENCES ON LEAVING HOME 3 
 
 II. ON THE EMIGRANT SHIP THE JOURNEY TO QUEENSLAND . 19 
 
 III. MY ARRIVAL IN QUEENSLAND 43 
 
 IV. GAINING COLONIAL EXPERIENCE 73 
 
 V. TOWNSVILLE I MORE COLONIAL EXPERIENCES . . . 1 01 
 
 VI. ON THE HERBERT RIVER ....... 131 
 
 VII. LEAVING THE HERBERT RAVENSWOOD . . . . 161 
 
 VIII. SHANTY-KEEPING, PROSPECTING, THORKILL's DEATH . . 185 
 
 IX. GOING TO THE PALMER 211 
 
 X. RETURNING FROM THE PALMER ...... 231 
 
 XI. A LOVE STORY 259 
 
 XII. BRISBANE TRAVELS IN THE " NEVER NEVER " LAND . 271 
 
 XIII. THE END 315
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 (1) A SWAGSMAN Frontispiece 
 
 (2) LANDING OF EMIGRANTS... ... ... To face page 55 
 
 (3) AN ALLIGATOR POOL ,, 145 
 
 (4) THE BAKER'S CART 190 
 
 (5) BREAKFAST IN THE GOLD FIELDS ... ,, 198 
 
 (6) EOCKHAMPTON 232
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 MY FIRST EXPERIENCES ON LEAVING HOME.
 
 CHAPTEE 1. 
 
 MY FIKST EXPEEIENCES ON LEAVING HOME. 
 
 AVINGr left Copenhagen in the way 
 just described and arrived in Ham- 
 burgh, my first care was to get 
 work, which I fortunately obtained 
 the next day. The place I worked 
 in was a large building or series of 
 buildings, four or five stories high, with cabinet- 
 makers' shops from the cellars to the loft. We 
 had to be at work at six o'clock in the morning, 
 and to keep on till eight o'clock at night. Even 
 on Sundays we worked from six o'clock to dinner- 
 time. Some would keep on till it was dark on 
 Sunday evening, and content themselves with 
 knocking off early, as they called it. And such 
 work ! Everybody would work as if the house 
 'were on fire. It was all piecework. The man 
 who stood next myself had made veneered chests 
 of drawers for thirty years, and never had made 
 anything else. He would turn out two veneered 
 chests of drawers in a week, and the work was 
 faultless. These chests would, I am sure, sell 
 readily in Brisbane for from twelve to fifteen
 
 4 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 pounds each. He earned about nine Prussian 
 tbalers per week. On the other side of me stood 
 a man who made German secretaires. There were 
 nine or ten men in the shop. The master was 
 working too. He seemed just as poor as the men. 
 Whenever work was finished, some furniture dealer 
 would come round and buy it. The men seemed 
 all more or less askew in their bodies with over- 
 work. If ever they had an ambition in their lives, 
 it was to instil a proper sense of respect into the 
 two apprentices. I did pity these two boys. They 
 received their board and lodging from the master, 
 but they could, I am sure, easily have made one 
 meal out of their four daily allowances. They 
 slept in a corner of the shop. They had, of course, 
 to be at work at six o'clock in the morning the 
 same as the men, but while we had half an hour 
 for breakfast and " vesperkost," they were supposed 
 to eat and work at the same time. After work- 
 hours at night they had to carry all the shavings 
 out of the shop to the loft above, from which they 
 were occasionally removed ; then they had tea, 
 and finally, if they liked, they were allowed to 
 work a couple of hours for themselves. They 
 would get odd pieces of veneer and wood and 
 make a workbox. When it was finished, they 
 would one evening run round among the furnishers 
 from door to door to sell it. The dealer would 
 know that the materials were not paid for, and of 
 course he did not pay them. A shilling or less is 
 the price a dealer in Hamburg pays for one of
 
 MY FIRST EXPERIENCES ON LEAVING HOME. 5 
 
 those beautiful workboxes which are sold all over 
 the world. I wonder how often the buyers of 
 these boxes think of the lean, ragged youth who 
 has stood late in the night and made it, most often 
 perhaps to buy an extra morsel of bread from the 
 proceeds because, as a matter of fact, that was 
 what these two boys used to do. The master was 
 accustomed to beat them daily, and if he was at 
 any time thought too sparing with the rod, and 
 thereby neglecting their education, the men would 
 themselves beat the lads. It was winter-time, and 
 daylight only about eight o'clock in the morning. 
 But in order to reach the shop at six o'clock, the 
 men, who lived mostly in the suburbs, had to be 
 up at half-past four. I had rented a small room 
 from one of them, and he and I would generally 
 arrive together. As we scrambled our way up the 
 dark staircase, he would caution me to walk softly 
 because, as he said, he wanted to catch these ras- 
 cally boys in bed. Poor fellows ! If we were the 
 first to arrive they would most often lie in a heavy 
 sleep. Then he would rush at them, tear the bed- 
 clothes off them, box their ears, and call them all 
 sorts of endearing names. The master and the 
 other men, with scarcely an exception, approved 
 of this. It was not breakfast-time before eight 
 o'clock, and very often when the apprentices had 
 been hunted to work in this manner they would 
 get another correction before then for neglecting 
 to wash themselves ! Poor fellows, they had no 
 time. But, as is well known, the harder an
 
 6 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 apprenticeship a boy has served, the more cruel 
 does he in his turn become after his time is out. 
 The Prime Minister himself has not, I am sure, 
 half as serene a contempt for an apprentice, as a 
 journeyman only three months out of his appren- 
 ticeship. 
 
 This work in Hamburg certainly did not suit 
 my ideas of liberty. My head would swim of an 
 evening when I came out of the shop. As already 
 stated, I had rented a small room from one of the 
 men for a mere trifle, and I boarded myself, and 
 very frugal fare I had. This self-denial was 
 because I soon made up my mind that I would not 
 stay in Hamburg; and so I saved all that was 
 possible, and it did not take long before I could 
 commence to count a few thalers in my pocket. 
 
 On Sunday evenings I used to go and sit in one of 
 the public gardens, and listen to the music and 
 watch the faces of the people there. Sometimes 
 when there was a free show I would be there too, 
 but I never spent any money. With the din of the 
 shop scarcely out of my ears, and Monday morning 
 looming only a few hours away, I almost fancied 
 myself of a different species from such happy, 
 chattering crowds as would pass and repass seem- 
 ingly without a care in the world. There was not 
 a soul to speak to me. For one thing, I could 
 scarcely make myself understood in German; for 
 another, the men in the shop, who were the only 
 people I knew, if I did go down the street with one 
 of them, conversation had but one subject for
 
 MY FIRST EXPERIENCES ON LEAVING HOME. 7 
 
 which was sure somehow to turn on the quality of 
 the glue we used. They all had a vast reverence 
 for the furniture dealers, and they were just the 
 people I did not like. I was therefore quite 
 alone. I was also wonderfully homesick. Often 
 and often did I wish that I had never run away, but 
 it seemed to me impossible to go home again, and so 
 I used to sit and speculate on what I had better 
 do. I thought when I had saved a little money 
 I would go to Paris, or Yienna. They were nice 
 places I believed ; but of one thing I was certain, 
 and that was that as yet I had not seen any- 
 body I liked as well as myself, or any place I liked 
 so well as my own home ! 
 
 One Sunday evening as I walked about the 
 streets, I saw in a window a large attractive 
 placard on which was printed in red letters, " Free 
 Emigration to Queensland, Australia." I am 
 certain I had never heard the name of Queensland 
 before, and my impression of Australia was that it 
 was the place to which criminals were sent ; I had 
 also read something about gold-diggings in Aus- 
 tralia, but it was in the form of a novel, and I did 
 not believe it. I called to mind what I had read in 
 school in the geography about Australia, and I 
 remembered it well. It was only a short para- 
 graph. It ran thus : " Australia. Travellers who 
 come from this distant continent, bring us very 
 conflicting statements. It seems to be a land in 
 which nature is reversed. The leaves are hanging 
 downwards on the trees instead of upwards.
 
 8 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 Elvers run from the ocean inland. The interior 
 seems to be one vast lake of salt water. It is the 
 home of the kangaroo and the black swan. 
 Altogether but little is known about it. Captain 
 Cook discovered it in the year 1788. It belongs 
 to England. The Dutch have possessions in the 
 North. It has been used as a penal settlement by 
 England, but this is now abolished. Of late years 
 gold has been found in considerable quantities and 
 in several places. Wool, tallow, and hides are ex- 
 ported. Towns, Sydney and Melbourne." 
 
 I can scarcely help laughing to myself now 
 when recalling to mind this piece of informa- 
 tion about Australia. It was really an ignorant 
 and disgraceful morsel of information for one of 
 the best schools in Copenhagen to offer to its 
 pupils, but it was all the knowledge I had or 
 could get, and it was not much assuredly to give 
 one any idea what Queensland was like. But 
 somehow I determined to find out what I could 
 for myself. There was gold there that might be 
 more easily got, perhaps, than by making chests of 
 drawers, so the next day I presented myself at the 
 office, and asked for information. 
 
 Yes, it was right. The ship would sail in a fort- 
 night. " Did I want to go ? Two pounds sterling 
 please. Only three or four tickets left." " Well 
 I would like a little information. " " Information, 
 yes, we have every information. What is it you 
 want to know ? You get, to begin with, all your 
 food,~and splendid food I can tell you is provided
 
 MY FIRST EXPERIENCES ON LEAVING HOME. 9 
 
 for you on the whole journey. You also get bed- 
 clothes, and your own knife, spoon, and fork. 
 This will all become your own property on ar- 
 rival in Queensland. Here is the bill of fare." 
 
 I hesitated. "When you have arrived in 
 Queensland," cried my informant, "the Govern- 
 ment of that country further engages to board you 
 in a first-class hotel for two or three weeks, free of 
 .all cost, while you make up your mind what occu- 
 pation to engage in, and here it is in the pros- 
 pectus, look at this ! they further guarantee to find 
 work for you making roads, for at least two years 
 .after." " Do you yourself know anything much 
 .about Queensland ? " I ventured to ask ; " I suppose 
 you never were there ? " "I, no, I never was there 
 I wish I had been, I should not have to stand here 
 to-day. But we have every information. They 
 Jiave found gold-diggings again. Here are the 
 statistics of exports ; I will read them for you : 
 
 Marks. Marks. 
 
 Hides, 100,000,000,000,000. I Horns, 1,000,000,000,000. 
 
 Wool, 10,000,000,000,000. ! Tallow, 10,000,000,000. 
 
 Cattle, 1,000,000,000,000. Horses, 100,000,000,000,000. 
 
 Gold, 100,000,000,000. Silver, 1,000,000,000,000. 
 
 Copper, 1,000,000,000,000,000. Tin, 1.000,000,000,000. 
 
 What do you think of that now ? " 
 
 What I thought was that it was all Latin to me. 
 I did not know why they exported all this wealth, or 
 why they did not keep it at home. No more did 
 the man in the office, I am sure. I asked, did he
 
 10 DANISH EMIGRANT 
 
 think it probable that I should obtain work as a 
 carpenter and joiner, and did he know what wages 
 were going ? To that he replied that, of course, 
 I could get work as a carpenter and joiner, and 
 that wages were at least one pound per day, but 
 that if I wanted to go he would have to enlist me 
 as an agricultural labourer, because a whole cargo 
 of. carpenters was already engaged, but that un- 
 doubtedly it would pay me better to dig for gold 
 myself. I concluded that Queensland was a sort 
 of vast gold-field. I asked what was the cost of 
 living. He said, " If you like to live in an hotel 
 and be waited on hand and foot, of course you can 
 have it at all prices ; but if you like to cook your 
 own food, it will cost you nothing. Why man ! 
 don't I keep telling you that the cattle are running 
 wild ; if you are wise enough to buy a gun before you 
 go, your meat supply is secured when you get there, 
 and all sorts of game are in equal abundance kan- 
 garoos, parrots, and all sorts." I inquired how much, 
 or rather how little, money did he think it indispen- 
 sable for me to have when I landed. He said as for 
 that, no doubt the less I had, the less chance there 
 was of my being robbed. It would, in his opinion, 
 take some little time for any one to get alongside 
 the people over there, but, once having taken their 
 measure, there was no mistake about the resources 
 of the country. Then, as an afterthought, he 
 added, " In case on your arrival in the country you 
 should decide to establish yourself as a farmer 
 the Government makes you a present of" I think
 
 MY FIE8T EXPERIENCES ON LEAVING HOME. 11 
 
 it was ' i eighty acres of land. This land is the best 
 and richest agricultural land in the colony, and 
 you can pick it out yourself wherever you like best 
 in Queensland. I will give you the order which 
 entitles you to your deeds." 
 
 I felt very undecided. I did not buy any ticket, 
 nor did I go to work again that day. I kept roam- 
 ing about the streets, thinking of Queensland and 
 the information I had received. Wages a pound 
 sterling per day ! if I would only work for it the 
 price of food scarcely anything cattle running 
 wild large gold-fields ! How was it, then, that 
 there were hotels where people would wait on the 
 immigrants, " hand and foot." What silly fellows 
 those publicans must be ; would it not pay them 
 better to work at a trade, or look out for gold ? 
 Truly the order of things seemed to be reversed in 
 that country. And eighty acres of their best land 
 would they give me if only I would go ! Perhaps 
 horses were running wild as well as cattle. I might 
 be able to catch some and break them in to plough 
 the land. But what about the plough ? Surely 
 nobody made ploughs there ; I should have to 
 bring that with me. Perhaps there were saddlers. 
 No doubt it would be a good country for a saddler 
 to go to, as it seemed they had so many hides over 
 there that they had to export them. Probably if 
 a saddler wanted materials, all he had to do was to 
 flay a bullock and carry its hide away. But were 
 there bricklayers to build houses ? Certainly I 
 could do the carpentry myself; on a pinch I could
 
 12 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 do the bricklaying too. Everything seemed so 
 satisfactory. Perhaps I should even find gold 
 enough while I was sinking the foundation for my 
 house to pay for the lot ! It need not he such a 
 large piece either. A couple of nuggets, as large 
 only as one brick each, would go a long way. 
 Perhaps, too, if I found them, it would be as well 
 to go home again at once. Then I began to 
 wonder if the fellow in the office would not, if I 
 had asked him, have told me that houses, by care- 
 ful cultivation, would grow out of the ground 
 themselves in that country. In a word, I gave it 
 up. Perhaps it was all one tissue of falsehood. 
 Perhaps the diggers over there were only trying to 
 get slaves to work for them. That seemed to me 
 more reasonable. Why should the Government of 
 the country make me a present of a large estate ? 
 All bosh ! But I would go, just to see the land in 
 which swans were black and rivers running from 
 the ocean inland. If I should be caught on my 
 arrival, perhaps I might escape to the interior. 
 There would be no cabinet-maker's shops there, 
 of that I felt certain. The prospectus said that 
 the Government would guarantee to every intend- 
 ing emigrant work on the roads of the colony for 
 two years, if he desired it. I could not think it 
 probable that I desired that, but perhaps it was 
 meant to pay our passage, money. Anyhow, I 
 promised myself I should not fail for the want of 
 firearms if I did go, and perhaps we could slay any 
 enemies we found altogether, because undoubtedly
 
 MY FIEST EKPEBIENCES ON LEAVING HOME. 13 
 
 there would be others on board ship who would 
 fight for their liberty. Liberty, delightful liberty ! 
 To be the captain of a gang of warriors, half 
 robbers, half gold-miners, roaming over the con- 
 tinent of Australia, seemed a delightful prospect. 
 
 This is, I am sure, quite a faithful picture of 
 my wild ideas of Queensland after I had elicited 
 all the information I could get. 
 
 The Government of Queensland spends yearly, I 
 do not remember how large a sum, in promoting 
 free emigration. They prepared at great cost, and 
 with elaborate exactness, statistics to show the 
 commercial position of the country. Then they 
 trust all this to the care of some office at home, 
 whose officials know little or nothing about Queens- 
 land. The principal in such an office puts a clerk 
 at the counter who has, perhaps, no other qualifi- 
 cation for the work than a facility for talking. 
 Fancy a home-bred peasant coming into such a 
 place with the care of a family on his shoulders, 
 and a little money in the bank, and think of the 
 clerk talking to him about gold-fields and firearms 
 and statistics, all the time admitting he never was 
 in the colony himself! I think it is quite enough 
 to prevent any one going out. And yet people of 
 that class are the only class of poor men who really 
 can do well in Queensland, and they are almost 
 the only desirable sort of emigrants for the country 
 itself. The reason is that such a man can, after a 
 very short spell of colonial experience, go on to a 
 piece of crown land, and by residing there for five
 
 14 DANISH EMIGBANT. 
 
 years, and making certain improvements thereto, 
 very soon get a living out of the soil, and while 
 keeping his children round him, be independent of 
 everybody. But such people are at a premium in 
 Queensland. On the other hand, the towns out 
 here are crowded with men who seek for light 
 work, and I have no hesitation in asserting that 
 for certain people, such as junior clerks without 
 influence, grocers' and drapers' assistants, second- 
 class tradesmen, &c., it is quite as difficult, if not 
 more so, to obtain a living in Queensland as in 
 Copenhagen. The land order I obtained, and which 
 entitled me to eighty acres of land wherever I 
 chose to take them, I did not consider of any 
 value in fact I threw it away ; so did all the other 
 emigrants on the ship : one might have bought a 
 whole hatful for a dozen biscuits ! 
 
 But all this is digression. Still, it is a matter 
 which excites considerable interest in Queensland, 
 and as I think of that time, these thoughts come 
 uppermost in my mind. No doubt if I, in the 
 office, had met a man who came from the colony, 
 and who could have advised me and spoken with 
 confidence about the country itself, I should have 
 made up my mind to go in a far less reckless way, 
 and probably I should never have acquired, after 
 my arrival in the country, that roving disposition 
 which I contracted, and which did not leave me for 
 many years, if it has even left me now. Well, I 
 made up my mind to go. I also made up my mind 
 that it was unnecessary for me to work any more
 
 ON THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 15 
 
 in Hamburg while waiting for the ship, so I took 
 a holiday and went about town every day, spending 
 my money to the last farthing. I had bought a 
 revolver, ammunition, and a long knife. I had 
 bought my ticket too, and so the day arrived when 
 we were all mustered and put on board the ship.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE EMIGRANT SHIP THE JOURNEY TO 
 QUEENSLAND.
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 ON THE EMIGKANT SHIP THE JOUBNEY TO QUEENSLAND. 
 
 WHAT a motley crew we were : Germans, 
 Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, a Eussian 
 Finn, and an Icelander. There were many 
 nationalities, but in the majority of cases extreme 
 poverty was evident in their dress and stamped 
 upon their faces, and it was easy to see that the 
 same spirit of recklessness which filled me had 
 somehow also been instilled into them. Nearly 
 everybody had guns, revolvers, and knives, which 
 were promptly taken from us as we stepped on 
 board. Then the Germans would sing in their 
 language of the Fatherland they had left, and in 
 overflowing gush, men, women, and children would 
 hang about one another's necks. Everybody acted 
 in such a mad manner as, I am quite sure, he 
 would never have thought of behaving in any time 
 before. Most of the men were drunk, and as it 
 grew dark at night one would seek for the other, 
 and as no one knew the way about, a perfect pande- 
 monium was raging singing, fighting, blubbering 
 in all languages. I do believe if I had had a six- 
 pence left, I should have spent it in schnapps too,
 
 20 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 because my courage had never been tried so hard 
 before. But I had spent my all, and so I made a 
 virtue of necessity, and stood aloof looking round 
 me in silent wonder as to what the end would be. 
 
 The prospectus said that the best and most 
 wholesome food would be served out to us in 
 abundance, and to look at the bill of fare one would 
 think it enough to satisfy any gormandizer. But 
 we got nothing at all the first day, and I was 
 unspeakably hungry. The prospectus said also 
 that bed-clothes were supplied to us, and these 
 were already in the bunks it said mattrass, 
 pillow, sheets, and blanket. The mattrass and 
 pillow were right enough. The sheets it did not 
 matter much about they were no good at all for 
 their purpose. But the blanket, the only thing 
 we had to cover ourselves with at night on a four 
 months' voyage, was smaller than the size of a 
 little dining-table when it was spread out, about 
 the size of a saddle-cloth and much inferior in 
 quality to anything worthy of the name of blanket 
 I have ever seen before or since. As a consequence, 
 those who had like myself put faith in that part of 
 the promises made us, and who had no other bed- 
 clothes, were compelled when we went to bed at 
 night, to put on all the clothes we had and sleep in 
 them. I slept every night for months at a stretch 
 in my overcoat, woollen comforter around my neck, 
 and the blanket, the all sufficient bed-clothes, rolled 
 round my head ! 
 
 I did not, as it may be imagined, sleep at all the
 
 ON THE EMIGEANT SHIP. 21 
 
 first night on board the ship. At break of day the 
 cook came in with a large wooden bowl of hot 
 potatoes, which he put on the table singing out, 
 " Breakfast ! " I was thankful because I was very 
 hungry, and I began at once to get out of the bunk 
 so as to lose no time, but I was not half way to the 
 table before a dozen Germans had rushed the dish 
 and stuffed all the hot potatoes into their pockets, 
 their shirts, anywhere. There was not a taste left ! 
 We were twenty-six men in that compartment, and 
 now the row of last night began again with renewed 
 vigour. I looked upon it as a lesson in smartness 
 which I should have to learn, and I thought that if 
 I did not learn it soon it would be a bad job. Half 
 of the twenty-six men were Danes in fact we were 
 fourteen Danes in the compartment against twelve 
 Germans, because I, who hailed from Hamburg, 
 had been classified as a German although I am not. 
 I believe it was a premeditated assault on the 
 potatoes by the Germans, because they were all in 
 it, and not one of the Danes had got a morsel to 
 eat. The twelve Germans gave nothing up. They 
 ate the potatoes intended for us all with great 
 composure while we others were storming at them. 
 Didn't I feel wild ! 
 
 While the dissatisfaction was at its highest point, 
 somebody we had not yet seen came into the cabin. 
 He was a person with a decided military air about 
 him, and he was also dressed in a gorgeous uniform. 
 Two of the passengers who had already been sworn 
 in to act as police constables during the voyage
 
 22 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 came behind him, and in one of his uplifted hands 
 he held a document which he was waving at us. 
 "Halt," cried he. "Halt, Donnerwetter, I say, 
 halt, while I read this paper." All the Germans 
 without an exception had just come from the 
 Franco-German war, and the sight of the uniform 
 and the determined military air about the doctor, 
 as we soon discovered him to be, had the effect of 
 shutting them up in an instant. Some of the 
 Danes were also old soldiers ; anyhow, you might 
 have heard a pin drop while the doctor, who also 
 came straight from the war, where he had been 
 army surgeon, read a proclamation, the exact words 
 of which I forget, but which was to the purpose 
 that he had supreme command over us all, and 
 " Donnerwetter," cried he, " Donnerwetter, I will 
 have order. If you are not amenable to discipline 
 I will handcuff every one of you. What sort of 
 Knechte are you?" This last remark was ad- 
 dressed to a big strapping-looking German who 
 happened to stand close to him. The German 
 stood as stiff as a statute, saluting with the one 
 hand, while with the other he made a slight move- 
 ment which threw his overcoat a little to one side 
 and displayed a silver cross which he wore on his 
 vest. " Ha ! " cried the doctor, greatly mollified, 
 " I see you have served the Kaiser to some purpose. 
 Don't forget you are not outside the Kaiser's law 
 yet. I hope we shall be friends." Then he 
 marched off to read his proclamation in other parts 
 of the ship. These Germans, I found out by degrees,
 
 ON THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 28 
 
 were not at all bad fellows, but we did not for a 
 long time forgive them the assault on the potatoes, 
 and I have often thought what a peculiar sign of 
 German thrift it was. They had simply taken in 
 the situation more quickly than we ; indeed it has 
 become nearly a proverb in Queensland to say that 
 a German will grow fat where other men will starve. 
 After that time order was restored, and no dis- 
 turbance worth mention occurred on the whole 
 voyage. 
 
 Nothing can well be more tedious than a 
 sea voyage of four months under our circum- 
 stances. The food was wretched and insufficient, 
 and, as I have already mentioned, most of us had 
 to sleep with all our clothes on us. We did not 
 undress ; we rather dressed to go to bed ! 
 
 There was not a single individual among the 
 passengers who understood English. It is true I 
 had learned English for seven years in school, but 
 when we came ashore it proved that I could scarcely 
 make myself understood in a single sentence. 
 None of us knew anything about Queensland, and 
 many were the surmises and guesses at what the 
 country was like and what we were going to do 
 there, I remember distinctly once a number of us 
 were sitting talking about the colony, and that one 
 ventured to say that he had heard how in Queens- 
 land, when journeymen tradesmen were travelling 
 about looking for work, they needed no " wander- 
 book," and travelled about on horseback; where- 
 upon another got up much offended, and said that he
 
 24 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 had heard many lies about Queensland, but this 
 last beat all. He did not know so much about the 
 " wander-book," although he had taken good care 
 to have his own in order, but if any one tried to 
 make him believe that beggars went about on 
 horseback over there, then it was time to cry stop. 
 " No," said he, " he knew we should have to walk." 
 We others concurred. 
 
 One of my companions, I remember, was a shoe- 
 maker, and a religious maniac besides. He would 
 lie in his bunk and pray aloud night and day. It 
 was quite startling sometimes in the middle of the 
 night when all were asleep to hear him in a sacti- 
 monious voice chanting a hymn. If the spirit 
 moved him that way, then it was good-bye to sleep 
 for us for a long time after. He would be quite 
 irresistible. Most of us in the cabin were a phleg- 
 matic set who did not mind, but one, a Swiss, 
 was of a very excitable temperament. He was 
 " down " on the shoemaker. When the hymns 
 began in the night one might be quite sure to hear 
 after a minute, from the bunk in which the Swiss 
 lay, a smothered whispered little oath like '' Gott- 
 ferdam." Then ten seconds after he would exclaim 
 in an everyday voice, with, however, an affected 
 resignation, " Gottferdam " ; and as the full burden 
 of the sacred song kept rolling on, he would start 
 screaming out of his bunk with a real big "Gott- 
 ferdam." But the others did not allow him to 
 hurt his enemy. They seemed to agree that even 
 if it was not very nice, yet it must be wicked to
 
 ON THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 25 
 
 hurt any one for practising his religion ; but I 
 believe that their motives were not quite so pure, 
 because this shoemaker had an inexhaustible fund 
 of anecdote, and if anything were allowed to annoy 
 him in the night, he would tell them no stories 
 during the day. When all went smooth, it was the 
 practice for him to gather a score or two around, 
 the numbers swelling as he proceeded, and then 
 tell a story, something of a sensational sort about 
 love and murder. His whole soul would then be in 
 it, and he gesticulated as if he felt and believed it 
 all. Every Sunday he was always more or less 
 ready to cry out for hunger, and would at such 
 times sit and look right before him straight out into 
 space. Then he would say, " I wish I had a dish 
 of German dumplings. With cherry- sauce, with 
 cherry-sauce. Not the way one gets in the steam- 
 kitchens, but the way my mother used to make it." 
 Then we would get a long description of his 
 mother's recipe for German dumplings. There is 
 no mistake about it, too, we did fast on that ship. 
 In reading over to myself some of these last 
 pages, I am afraid I have given my readers the 
 impression that the people on board, taken as a 
 whole, were a bad lot. If I have done so, it is 
 erroneous. It is true that my first impression of 
 the emigrants was not a good one, and perhaps 
 few among us excelled or were remarkable for 
 anything in particular, but taken as a whole 
 they were honest, hard-working people, and as 
 I became acquainted with them one after another
 
 '26 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 I found that men of whom I had a very low opinion 
 when we first came on board, were in reaKty 
 entitled to very much higher estimation. 
 
 We did not know anything about the country to 
 which we were going. We had an idea that we 
 were to begin a new life somewhat freer than in 
 the old world, and, simpleminded as we were 
 because I was just as bad as anybody thought 
 that when we came on board ship we could dis- 
 pense with such formalities as those the old world 
 had taught us. That is, I am sure, the true 
 reason why so many emigrants, when they leave 
 home as well as when they arrive in a colony, behave 
 so foolishly as to make one think that they never 
 had known the decencies of life before. It is the 
 same with the English emigrants, only they are 
 more quickly absorbed into the general population. 
 Still the word " New Chum " has in Australia 
 much the same meaning as the word "fool." I 
 never felt more bitterly ashamed than once, 
 several years after I came to Queensland, when I 
 saw a number of Danish immigrants just arrived. 
 It was in Toowoomba, and I had come down there 
 from up country on some business, when one of 
 the first things I was told was that there were a 
 lot of my countrymen in the depot waiting for en- 
 gagements. Toowoomba is about a hundred miles 
 inland, and they had been sent up from Brisbane. 
 Well, I felt quite pleased, and decided at once to 
 go and see them and to speak a kind word to some 
 of them, if I could not do them any other service.
 
 ON THE EMIGEANT SHIP. 27 
 
 But I came away a great deal less pleased than I 
 had gone. There were some long forms outside the 
 building, and on those forms sat as close as they 
 could find room a score or so of men. Each man 
 had wooden clogs on his feet and a long pipe in his 
 mouth. On his knees sat his girl with her arm 
 round his neck, and there they sat smoking and 
 kissing perfectly regardless of ladies and gentle- 
 men who would walk about looking at them and 
 going on again. One I stood glaring at seemed to 
 me the worst. He was a big ugly fellow, dressed 
 in a blue calico blouse, black trousers and wooden 
 clogs. In his hand he had a pipe five feet long, 
 but on his head he had a sugar-bag. These sugar- 
 bags are of straw and about two feet six inches in 
 length. He had tied in the corners to fit his head. 
 This gentleman would rush about and look in at 
 the doors of houses, throwing side glances in all 
 directions with the evident desire to attract atten- 
 tion. At last he stood in the middle of the street 
 singing an old Danish song and jerking his body 
 about like a maniac. I could not contain myself, 
 so I went up to him and asked him if he did not 
 think he was ugly enough already without trying 
 to make himself still more so, and what did he 
 mean by sticking that sugar-bag on his head ? 
 
 " Oh," cried he, quite unconcerned, " here we 
 are right up on the top of these blue mountains, 
 that does not matter. It is a first-rate straw-hat. 
 Does it not look nice ? Why ! this is a free 
 country," &c.
 
 28 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 One very conspicuous figure on board trie emi- 
 grant ship was the Icelander, Thorkill ; he was so 
 unlike anybody else that I would like to describe 
 him, especially as he became my mate in Queens- 
 land and we became close friends. His eyes were 
 bluer and his complexion clearer than that of any 
 one else I ever saw. He had long yellow curly 
 hair, and a big yellow beard. He was himself also 
 big and strong, and about twenty-eight years of 
 age altogether I should say, as far as appearance 
 went, the beau ideal of a man. But as no one is 
 perfect, so had he also a grievous fault, viz., a cer- 
 tain softness, like a woman. He always spoke as 
 with a comma between each w r ord, and although he 
 had plenty of good sense and was, like all Ice- 
 landers, well educated, yet he would, I believe, 
 give most people the impression that he was not 
 fit to battle with a wicked world. I often wondered 
 what might have brought him on board that ship, 
 but he was very reticent about his own affairs. 
 Meanwhile I have never known anybody whose 
 mind was so pure, whose thoughts were so lofty as 
 his. But he was unpractical, to a degree. He 
 claimed to know all his ancestors from the twelfth 
 century, when they had emigrated from Norway to 
 Iceland, and he said his father still farmed the 
 same land. Unless as a professor in ancient 
 folklore, I do not know what Thorkill was good 
 for. I had, in school, learned much Icelandic 
 folklore, and to see his eyes sparkle with joy when 
 he discovered this and knew that I was interested
 
 ON THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 29 
 
 in it besides, did me real good, and so we agreed 
 that during the voyage we would refresh each 
 other's memory in " Sagamaal." He arranged to 
 teach me the whole complete " Eiimi Kronike." 
 So we bribed the fellow who lay next to me (we 
 had double bunks) to exchange berths with Thor- 
 kill, and he and I then lay together, and there we 
 were telling " Sagamaal " from morning to night 
 and sometimes the whole night through. He 
 would make me tell him one of the " Sagas " I 
 knew, although he knew it far better himself, just 
 to see if I had mastered it properly. He would 
 listen with all his might, then he would say : 
 " Excuse me for interrupting you but are 
 you sure that you are correct in describ- 
 ing Sharp edin the son of Hakon as a 
 longbearded man. The Riimi Kronike does 
 not say so on the contrary." Then we 
 would have a long argument about that, Thorkill 
 insisting upon the importance of being exact. 
 
 He wrote a splendid hand, but from the pedantic 
 ungainly way in which he took hold of anything, 
 I made sure he was not a good worker. He had 
 studied scientific farming at the agricultural college 
 in Copenhagen, and afterwards had been, he said, a 
 sort of overseer on a large farm on the island of 
 Als. Whether he had given satisfaction at that or 
 not, I did not know, but what was the good of all 
 his knowledge, supposing he had any, when he did 
 not understand English, had no friend nor money, 
 and was a bad worker ? One day I said to him :
 
 30 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 " Thorkill, do you ever try to draw a real picture 
 to yourself of liow we shall get on when we come 
 to Queensland ? I am thinking of this, there are, 
 according to what we have been told, no more 
 people in all Queensland than there is in a good- 
 sized street in Copenhagen, and here are all these 
 people on board ship who will be, the moment they 
 land, ravenous in their competition for something 
 to do, and another ship has sailed from Hamburg 
 a week after us. How will they fare ? I cannot 
 solve it. But it strikes me very forcibly that if 
 the sail of this ship were set for Copenhagen har- 
 bour instead of Queensland, the only solution to 
 the problem there would be for the police to have 
 some large vans in readiness and to give us a drive 
 in them straight out to the workohuse." " Oh 
 say not so," cried Thorkill, " say not so. God will 
 protect us. You and I will never part." " No," 
 cried I, in the fulness of my heart, " we will stick 
 together, and we will get something to do too, you 
 will see." And then, with a new sense of respon- 
 sibility on me, I would talk to him cheerfully about 
 Queensland, and the opportunities there would be 
 to do well for both of us, which could not fail, but 
 meanwhile I would rack my brain with thinking 
 about how to make a few shillings to land with. I 
 had not got a cent, and I knew very well that 
 Thorkill had nothing either. It was a bad place 
 I was in for making money, for there was not much 
 of it on the ship, but I now very much regretted 
 that I had spent all that I had before I came on
 
 ON THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 31 
 
 board. Here were all these empty bottles lying 
 about the ship which nobody seemed to claim. 
 Why, thought I, they must be worth a little 
 fortune in Queensland. Good idea ! We will 
 collect them all. I communicated with Thorkill. 
 " Oh," said he, " you will make your fortune 
 in Queensland. They must be worth a mint 
 of money. But is it right to take them ? What 
 a business ability you have got. Nobody 
 seems to want them. I think we might have 
 them." 
 
 So then we went about begging and borrowing 
 empty bottles everywhere, without letting any- 
 body know for what we wanted them, and we piled 
 them, up in our bunks so that we could scarcely get 
 into them ; then people, when they saw what 
 we were after, put a price on the bottles and came 
 to us to sell. So Thorkill bought five shillings' 
 worth on my recommendation, all the money he 
 had, and still they came with bottles, but the firm 
 was compelled to suspend payment. Then I, who 
 was understood to know a little English, opened a 
 class for teaching that language. My pupils had 
 no money, but I took it out in empty bottles, and 
 by and by we had them stacked by the hundred 
 all round about ready for market. 
 
 The food we got was so wretched and insufficient 
 that it was scarcely possible to keep body and soul 
 together upon it. I have asked many people since 
 how they fared in other ships, and I have come to 
 the conclusion that our ship was the worst pro-
 
 32 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 yided of any in that respect. Indeed, the emi- 
 grant ships which leave England are well supplied 
 with everything, even luxuries, for their passengers. 
 But in this ship we were sometimes on the point 
 of despair with hunger. We got our week's supply 
 of biscuits served out once a week. Those w r ho 
 were unable to practise self-restraint, generally ate 
 them in a couple of days, and for the rest of the 
 week subsisted on the so-called dinner which con- 
 sisted of a couple of mouthfuls of salt pork or 
 mutton, with a little sauer-krout to keep it com- 
 pany. Our ration of sugar was a small table- 
 spoonful per week to each man. The tea and 
 coffee we got morning and evening was served in 
 the same wooden trough in which we fetched our 
 dinner, and as the sugar ration was, as already 
 stated, served separately once a week and quickly 
 consumed, our beverage was void of any sweeten- 
 ing. But as for me, I never fooled about all the 
 week with my spoonful of sugar ; I always put it 
 into the first pint of tea I got. We also got some 
 butter, and we never troubled much either about 
 the quantity or quality of that article. The 
 trouble was that we had seldom a biscuit to spread 
 it on. The prospectus had said that cordials were 
 served out, and in conformity with that every 
 sixteen men received one bottle of lime-juice per 
 week. These were our rations. There was on 
 that account an amount of dissatisfaction on board 
 verging sometimes on open mutiny. The water 
 was also fearfully bad, with inches of froth on it,
 
 ON THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 38 
 
 but bad as it was, we would drink it as soon as we 
 got it and then feel like dying of thirst sometimes 
 before the time came to serve out the next rations. 
 As a sort of proof of the correctness of this state- 
 ment, I might mention that one of the passengers 
 had a canary bird which died of thirst because 
 some of us would steal the drop of water in its 
 glass ! 
 
 I have already written that no disturbance worth 
 mentioning occurred on the voyage. When I 
 wrote that, I forgot an incident which happened 
 when we had been out to sea about a couple of 
 months. The doctor, as I have already stated, 
 was also in command of us. He had been an 
 army doctor in the German army during the 
 Franco-German war, and came straight thence. 
 Whether he made the mistake of thinking he was 
 in command of a convict ship full of criminals, or 
 whether it was that his military training was the 
 cause of it, I cannot say, but in one word, he was 
 boss of that ship. Every now and then somebody 
 would be handcuffed and shut up during his plea- 
 sure, without anybody taking much notice ; but 
 one day he went a good deal too far. One of the 
 single girls had been accused by the woman in 
 charge of them of some fault, upon which I need 
 not farther enlarge more than to say that it was 
 trifling, and that the culprit was a very respectable 
 girl, who shortly after her arrival in Queensland 
 got married to a good husband, and that both she 
 and her husband are, and always were, pre-emi- 
 
 4
 
 34 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 nently respectable people. The girl was tied with 
 ropes to the rnast, with her hands fastened behind 
 her in such a way that she was exposed to the full 
 view of all the six hundred people on board. I 
 was lying in my bunk when a fellow came in very 
 excited, and said, " Look here, chaps, is not this 
 getting red hot ? There is that poor girl, so and 
 so, chained to the mast and crying as if her heart 
 would break. What are we coming to ? " 
 
 The moment I heard there was a girl chained to 
 the mast and crying, I jumped up and registered 
 an oath aloud that she should not stand there one 
 second longer than it would take me to reach the 
 mast. So did every other man who was in the 
 cabin ; even meek Thorkill cried out, "It is too 
 bad, too bad." Then I grabbed the wooden trough 
 in which the concoction of roasted peas that passed 
 for coffee was served out in the morning. So did 
 every other man grab at something to strike with 
 one would take a wooden clog, one a long stick, 
 another a boot, and all something, and in less time 
 than it takes to read this we were all on deck. 
 But to reach the mast was then impossible. The 
 girl had not stood there yet for five minutes, but 
 there was already a surging, impenetrable crowd 
 on the scene of action. As I could not see, and 
 could not content myself to stand still, I jumped 
 up in the rigging, and from there, right enough, I 
 saw the girl and four German constables (passen- 
 gers who had been sworn in as police) watching 
 her. How shall I describe the scene. It all
 
 ON THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 35 
 
 seemed to me to happen in one instant. Hun- 
 dreds of men were yelling from behind at the top 
 of their voices, " Throw them in the sea. Cut her 
 down ! Where is the doctor ? He shall not live 
 another hour." A dozen men were struggling 
 round the girl, some with the constables, and some 
 of the more moderate among the passengers with 
 the aggressors. One towering fellow, a Dane, had 
 one of the constables by the throat, and the 
 wooden bowl swinging over his head, and held 
 back by another man, who implored him to give 
 the doctor a chance to order the girl's instant 
 removal. The doctor was not on deck, but he 
 came running on now, with a revolver in each 
 hand. He kept on the quarter-deck, but he sang 
 out to the constables to cut her down and take her 
 into the hospital. Somehow that was done, and 
 the doctor walked down the steps from the quarter- 
 deck, turned the key in the lock, put it in his 
 pocket, and faced the crowd. 
 
 Did you ever notice two dogs when they meet, 
 and before they begin to fight ? How unconcerned 
 they try to look. They will look at anything, any- 
 where but at one another. So looked the doctor 
 as he stood there with a cigar in his mouth, 
 smoking away and looking at anything but the sea 
 of faces around him. Around him like a solid wall 
 had the men closed, armed with knives, wooden 
 bowls, sticks, &c., and the howl, " Throw him in 
 the sea," kept on from the rear. No doubt the 
 doctor realized that he had gone too far, and he
 
 36 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 tried all he could while he stood there not to give 
 further offence, but I watched him particularly 
 from my seat in the rigging. Fear was not in that 
 man. Not a muscle in his face shook, and yet I 
 am certain that his attention was strained to the 
 uttermost, and that the fingers which closed 011 the 
 triggers of the two revolvers would have caused 
 them to blaze away the moment he had felt any 
 one touch him ever so gently. Behind him again, 
 but up on the quarter-deck, stood the captain and 
 the first mate, with large overcoats on, and their 
 hands in their pockets. I had a suspicion that 
 they also had revolvers who knows how many 
 within easy distance. 
 
 But it was one thing to see a young woman tied 
 to the mast and crying, and it was (the doctor and 
 his revolver apart) quite another thing to look at a 
 closed door and know that she was there and that 
 no further harm would befall her. But most of 
 the men had a few minutes ago been so excited, 
 that it was not in human nature for them to cool 
 down at once. The man who had when I came on 
 the scene taken the most prominent part, was still 
 the foremost person. He stood within three feet 
 of the doctor, and, as I said already, like a solid 
 wall stood the others armed with divers things ; but 
 no one touched the doctor, and no one spoke to 
 him, and there was a sort of undecided silence. 
 Then the leader cried, "Well, what are you 
 waiting for ? You said throw him in the sea ; just 
 give the word and he shall be overboard in a
 
 ON THE EMIGRANT SHIP. 87 
 
 second." My heart beat violently. I thought 
 murder would be committed in an instant, and not 
 a single life either, but perhaps scores would be 
 sacrificed. There was a dead silence. The wind 
 whistled through the rigging, but it was the only 
 sound heard. The doctor did not move ; the 
 captain did not move ; the mate did not move ; and 
 none of the men moved. None dared to give the 
 aggressive sign, and each seemed to feel it just as 
 impossible to beat a retreat. It might have lasted 
 a couple of minutes, perhaps less. It seemed an 
 age to me. Then we all heard Thorkill's voice, he 
 was somewhere in the rigging too, and he cried, 
 " Countrymen listen to me ! hear what I 
 say ! Disperse ! Disperse ! quietly. Let us 
 complain when we come ashore ! He will 
 shoot the first ten or twelve men who 
 touch him and those who escape now 
 might be hung when we come ashore. 
 Let us complain when we come ashore 
 and we will get justice." Thorkill still kept 
 on talking, but the outburst of relief from all sides 
 completely drowned his voice. There was an 
 honourable way to get out of it. " We will com- 
 plain when we come ashore," " Disperse," " Let 
 it be enough," and similar expressions, were heard 
 on all sides, and the doctor, I suppose nothing 
 loth, had quite a pleased appearance as he stepped 
 tip on the quarter-deck again as soon as the road 
 was clear, and disappeared out of sight simul- 
 taneously with the dispersion of the men.
 
 38 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 That day the doctor did not show up again, but 
 on the next, I suppose just to show that he did not 
 consider himself beaten, all the single men were 
 ordered below at sundown as a punishment for 
 insubordination, and with that the matter ended. 
 But now the men were pressing Thorkill to write 
 out a complaint which should embody all we had 
 suffered, and all our supposed wrongs. Thorkill, 
 however, would do no such thing, It was not in 
 his line, he said. Many a talk he and I had about 
 it, but he could not see his way. "All these poor 
 people," said he, " are treated with contempt 
 because they are poor, and I cannot help them for 
 I am just as poor. We do not know to whom to 
 complain ; we cannot write English, and what we 
 do will rebound on our own heads. Still," said 
 he, " it is a shame that they should be 
 allowed to treat people like this." Then 
 I wrote out a complaint in Danish addressed to 
 the Danish Consul, Australia. The exact contents 
 of it I have long since forgotten, but it was to the 
 effect that we had been starved, ill-treated, had 
 had no sick accommodation, insufficient bed- 
 clothes, &c., and from that day I looked upon 
 myself as an important personage on board ship. 
 All the single and married men, with about a 
 dozen exceptions, signed the statement. All the 
 single girls wanted also to sign it, but I feared the 
 woman in charge might confiscate the document 
 (the matron in charge of the girls on our ship was 
 only an ordinary emigrant selected by the doctor,
 
 ON THE EMIGBANT SHIP. 39 
 
 and in my opinion scarcely the best that might 
 have been selected. In English emigrant ships 
 an educated lady is engaged as matron. Thus I 
 could not bring myself to go among them for the 
 purpose of getting signatures, and so the females 
 were not represented in the complaint. (It might, 
 however, be interesting to English readers, as 
 showing the standard of education on the con- 
 tinent of Europe, that of all the people on board 
 only one, an elderly man, had to sign his name 
 with a cross.) 
 
 One day while I was getting these signatures, 
 and the men were coming to where I held my 
 levee as fast as they could, the doctor stormed the 
 cabin with two constables behind him and ordered 
 me to give up the document to him. Then the 
 doctor and I talked, I in Danish and he in German, 
 and we had a wordy war. I liked the doctor in 
 my heart, because he was about as brave a man as 
 one could wish to see, and very likely, too, some 
 of the severe discipline on board was not altogether 
 uncalled for ; yet he was not going to have it all his 
 own way, and to this day I maintain that whatever 
 else might have been right or wrong, to starve as 
 we starved was scandalous. I write about these 
 things, and I do not know whether my readers 
 may think them of much interest, but all these 
 little incidents seem engraven upon my memory. 
 On board ship there is nothing to think about or 
 to talk about but the same old things. One is 
 cross, perhaps, and everybody talks much about
 
 40 DANISH EMIGBANT. 
 
 the same thing. "Where are we, I wonder?" 
 "I wonder how many knots we are running?" 
 " I wonder how it will go when we come to 
 Queensland ? " "I wonder if any one ever was so 
 hungry as I ? " So it goes on, day out and day in, 
 and one has to discuss and answer these questions 
 about five hundred times every day. 
 
 But now we are nearing Australia, and high 
 time I dare say the reader probably thinks it is; but 
 if my readers are tired out, so were we. Yet there 
 is another of the passengers I must describe, as I 
 intend to mention him again. I will do so in a 
 few words. He was a quiet, gentlemanly man, 
 about thirty years old. He told me he had been a 
 lieutenant in the Danish army, but had been dis- 
 missed for insubordination. He managed, without 
 giving offence to anybody, to keep himself com- 
 pletely in the shadow in the ship, and one seemed 
 not to know he was there. I will call him " A." 
 A. understood and spoke English fluently, but 
 nobody knew it. Indeed, when the complaint- 
 fever was on, he denied all knowledge of the 
 language. A young lady was travelling with him 
 that is, she went as a single girl, but they got 
 married as soon as we came ashore. They had 
 quite a number of things with them to set up 
 house with, and lived for a short time very com- 
 fortably on their means ; when they went away 
 again I lost sight of them.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 MY ARRIVAL IN QUEENSLAND.
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 MY AEEIVAL IN QUEENSLAND. 
 
 NEVEE can I forget the joy I felt, a joy uni- 
 versal to all on board the ship, the first day 
 we saw Australia. It was Sunday. The whole 
 night before the ship had cruised about outside 
 Bass's Straits, and at break of day we ran in. We 
 did not know at all we were so near. We had not 
 seen land for three months when we had made out 
 the island of Madeira. Since then, as far as I 
 remember, we had not even passed another ship. 
 In the Indian Ocean, storm, sleet, rain and cold 
 had been the order of the day. This day, the first 
 time for months, the sun was shining brightly, and 
 a crisp, altogether different air fanned our cheeks. 
 It was blowing very strongly, but every sail the 
 ship could carry was spread, so that the ship lay 
 over very much, and we seemed to fly past the 
 land at lightning speed. 
 
 This, then, was Australia, our future home and 
 beautiful it seemed. Land lay on both sides. 
 That on the Australian side was flat, seemingly, 
 but Tasmania showed up with a majestic chain of 
 mountains. I had never seen a mountain before,
 
 44 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 nor had any of the other Danes, and we wondered 
 whether anything could grow on them, or whether 
 they were all solid stone. People were so glad, 
 that they ran about and shook one another's 
 hands. Three or four of the passengers had 
 telescopes, and we were all dying to have a long 
 look at the coast. It is amusing to myself to think 
 of the amount of ignorance which really existed 
 among us about the land to which we were going. 
 
 "Do you make out anything over there? " one 
 would ask of the man with the telescope. " Yes," 
 came the answer, "it seems all big trees." 
 " Trees, did" you say ? I am glad of that. I will 
 lay a wager where all those trees will grow, some- 
 thing else will grow." " This is not Queensland, 
 though." " Oh, well, only let me see plenty of 
 big trees when we come to Queensland, then I am 
 satisfied." " Do you think we shall be allowed to 
 cut the trees down ? " u I do ! they must be glad 
 to get rid of them. Why, it is self-evident that 
 you can take as much land here as you want; here 
 is so much of it and nobody to use it." 
 
 " Do you know, I do not believe there is any 
 desert in that land at all ! " " No more do I. I 
 am sure there is not. Why should there? " "I 
 am glad I went, now I have seen the land." 
 "So am I." 
 
 In another part of the ship, as I walked about, 
 I heard a very dogmatic fellow laying down the 
 law to a lot of married men who were discussing 
 their chances of obtaining employment.
 
 MY AEEIVAL IN QUEENSLAND. 45 
 
 "Why," cried he, "anyone with a spark of 
 common sense can see at a glance that there must 
 be plenty of work in Queensland. Look around 
 you here on the ship. All these people must have 
 shelter, and food, and clothes; I say they must. 
 That gives work does it not ? " 
 
 The others did not seem quite convinced by the 
 argument. They appeared to know that there 
 was a missing link somewhere, but, like the Italian 
 smuggler in Charles Dickens' " Little Dorrit," 
 they kept saying, " Altro, altro, altro ! " 
 
 With such hopeful conversation the day wore 
 away, but before night we were out again in open 
 sea, and for another fortnight we saw no more of 
 Australia. Then we made the coast again and 
 sailed along in sight of land. Once more we were 
 out to sea again. At last one morning before 
 daybreak we dropped anchor, and when daylight 
 came found that we were quite close to land, and 
 right in front of a large flagpole and some neat 
 wooden cottages which stood on the shore. This, 
 then, was Queensland Moreton Bay, and Bris- 
 bane, the capital, lay some miles up the river. A 
 man came from one of the houses and hoisted a flag, 
 then another, and another. Our company thought 
 he did it to do us honour, or in joy for our 
 safe arrival, and in the wildest excitement they 
 screamed hurrah ! until they were hoarse. Of 
 course, the man was merely making signals to the 
 town, and a few hours after a small steamer came 
 out, and some live sheep were put on board, also
 
 46 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 fruit for the children, and potatoes sweet potatoes 
 they are called, different from our potatoes at 
 home and much larger. 
 
 Kind people ! Good Queensland ! Happy 
 country ! No starvation here or smell of poverty. 
 Look at these potatoes, five, six, ten times as large 
 as those we have at home ! Who said Australia 
 was a desert ? So thought and spoke we while we 
 scanned, with a sort of reverent awe, some ladies 
 and gentlemen who were on board the little 
 steamer, and the pilot who had come on board 
 our own ship. Much to our regret, we found we 
 were not to land here. We were now informed, 
 for the first time on the whole voyage, that our 
 destination was a place called Port Denison, which 
 lies about half way between Brisbane and Cape 
 Somerset, and which was at that time the farthest 
 northern port opened up of any importance. 
 
 So now we were off again on our interminable 
 voyage. Only our troubles were over. Alas ! for 
 the complaint which I carried in my pocket, 
 we were all as healthy and strong a set of people 
 as any one could wish to see, for since we arrived 
 in Bass's Strait we had been served with plenty of 
 food. Just now we lived on roast meat, potatoes, 
 and pudding every day. I could feel my cheeks 
 grow redder and sleeker day by day. Alas ! what 
 should I do ? As a public man I was, of course, 
 not allowed to change my opinions, but when I 
 looked at all these fellows gormandizing from 
 morning to night, it seemed to me a sort of treason
 
 MY AEEIVAL IN QUEENSLAND. 47 
 
 to our cause. And what was worse, I bore no ill- 
 will to anybody. Surely the Danish consul, if 
 there was one, would expect to see a lot of ema- 
 ciated objects when we had been starved so cruelly, 
 and I myself so anxious to get something to do. 
 I might be hindered, and have to travel about 
 more yet, and, if I could not prove the truth, be 
 cast into prison ! I often wish the complaint was 
 as nearly forgotten as our troubles seemed to be. 
 Yet, after all the talk there had been, it was too 
 late to draw back. The ship was now for a whole 
 week longer sailing northwards, always in sight of 
 land often, indeed, so close that we could almost 
 have thrown biscuits ashore. The whole way 
 along was dotted with small islands, which be- 
 came more numerous the further north we sailed. 
 There must be some thousands of them if they 
 were all counted, but with the exception of a few 
 of the largest which lie near Brisbane, they are 
 nearly all uninhabited. 
 
 To look at the coast on the mainland, one would 
 think that the man who said he would be satisfied 
 if he only saw plenty of trees in Queensland, ought 
 to feel contented. It seemed to us one vast forest. 
 Occasionally we saw smoke curling up from among 
 the trees, and at night we could see large fires. 
 This was the dry grass burning among the trees, a 
 very common thing in Queensland, but to us it 
 was a most startling and awe-inspiring sight. We 
 thought that it was the aboriginals who were 
 trying to get on to the ship, and that these were
 
 48 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 their fires. One night the fires extended for many 
 miles, and a most beautiful sight it was, but no 
 one gave a thought to its being a bush-fire. We 
 simply said, " What a lot of them there must be ? 
 Why, there must be more niggers here than there 
 were Frenchmen at Sedan. Look at their fires ! " 
 And then we thought it strange that we did not 
 get our weapons back again that they had taken 
 from us when we came on board. I do not think 
 any one was afraid. I myself rather liked the 
 novelty of being so near the "enemy." We 
 would sit and discuss how many we thought we 
 could keep out, supposing, for argument's sake, 
 that they dared to come and altogether we felt 
 ourselves great heroes. 
 
 I have a suspicion that the Queensland pilot 
 who was now in charge of the ship, along with the 
 other quality up on the quarter-deck, were having 
 a laugh at our expense. Anyhow, one evening I 
 happened to come near him I pointed round me 
 and towards the sun, which was just going down, 
 and summoning to my aid all my stock of English 
 I said, " Very nice, Queensland." "Yes," cried 
 he, "it looks beautiful. All that red glow in the 
 sky you see there is the reflection from the gold 
 on the gold-fields." 
 
 I could not understand the meaning of what he 
 said, but I looked deferential and thankful for the 
 information all the same, and for fear I had not 
 taken it all in he called the mate and asked him 
 to explain it to me. Probably he thought I be-
 
 MY ARRIVAL IN QUEENSLAND. 49 
 
 lieved it ! That same night we sailed in between 
 a mountainous island and the coast, and one of the 
 guns was loaded and fired off. The echo reverbe- 
 rated far and near in a most startling fashion, and 
 perhaps it was for the echo they fired it off, but 
 we were certain that it must have frightened the 
 natives out of their wits. We were even positive 
 we could see them round their fires trying to put 
 them out. Poor harmless aboriginals of Queens- 
 land ! They little know what respect they are held 
 in by new arrivals ! It is only familiarity which 
 breeds contempt in their case. In a few more 
 years the last of them will have joined the great 
 majority. After that event has happened, no 
 doubt the bard will sing their praises and descant 
 about their matchless beauty, their enormous 
 strength, and their bloodthirsty cruelty. 
 
 We had very little wind in the sails as we came 
 along, and nothing can be thought more beautiful 
 than the climate we now enjoyed. I am now so 
 used to the Queensland climate that I take it as a 
 matter of course, but how can I give the reader an 
 adequate idea of the joy I then felt in the very fact 
 of my existence : the beautiful sun in the day, the 
 glorious sunset in the evening, the full moon, and 
 the sparkling rippling silent water ! Then all 
 these islands we passed were so full of mysterious 
 interest, while the vast unknown mainland lay 
 beyond. The reckless spirit of which I spoke as 
 universal when we came on board in Hamburg, 
 seemed now to have taken wings and fled. In- 
 
 5
 
 50 DANISH EMIGBANT. 
 
 deed, the main trouble on board just now was how 
 we should make a good impression when we landed. 
 It was looked upon as a matter of honour that each 
 should be on his very best behaviour when we 
 came ashore, and I know of several of whom it 
 was thought by the rest that their clothes were 
 scarcely good enough, and who were lent by the 
 others sumcient to appear in better trim and 
 circumstances. The ship was now so clean that 
 one might have eaten his dinner off the decks 
 anywhere. Altogether there was a decided change 
 for the better since the day we first saw Australia. 
 At last, one day after having sailed along the 
 apparently uninhabited coast for eight or nine 
 days, we suddenly rounded a cliff, sailed into a 
 little bay, and dropped anchor. There lay Bowen 
 in full sight of us, and this was Port Denison. 
 How strange it seemed that these few scattered 
 wooden cottages we saw lying there on the beach 
 in appalling loneliness should be the spot that we, 
 through storm and trouble, had all been trying to 
 reach. For some time not a human being was to 
 be seen. There was a long jetty running out into 
 the water for a great distance, but we did not go 
 alongside. We lay, I think, half a mile out, and 
 we were given to understand that we were not to 
 go ashore before the morrow, and that on landing 
 all our wants would be attended to until we 
 obtained employment. Now it began to look 
 lively on the beach. A lot of people came out on 
 the jetty, and at last a boat, with a dozen gentle-
 
 MY ARRIVAL IN QUEENSLAND. 51 
 
 men in it, got under way and pulled straight for 
 the ship. These are Queenslanders, thought I, 
 men who had fought with the Blacks and been on 
 the gold-diggings. Eich, no doubt they were. 
 Oh, how we screamed hurrah ! for them, and how 
 kind they looked as they came nearer, waving 
 their handkerchiefs and smiling in response to our 
 greeting. They were not at all ferocious looking ; 
 really much the same sort of people we had seen 
 before. Yet what adventures must they not have 
 gone through ; what stories could they not tell if 
 they liked? But, of course, that would be beneath 
 their dignity. At last they were on board. Most 
 of them greeted the doctor and captain in German, 
 being, in fact, Germans. After a short interval, one 
 of the Queenslanders, who proved to be the agent 
 and interpreter employed by the Government to 
 attend to us when we came ashore, got up on a 
 big box and made a long speech in German, 
 exhorting us to do well, and gesticulating with 
 much gusto and great force. He advised us to 
 take the first work we could get, and while we 
 were accommodating ourselves to the new habits 
 of life and customs existing in this country, to try 
 to feel contented. :c Where," cried he, "will all 
 of you be in twenty years ? Some will be dead ; 
 others perhaps alive. Some rich and honoured ; 
 others perhaps only servants to those among you 
 who are more pushing or lucky. These little 
 children who are now running about us fighting 
 for an orange, may become members of Paiiia-
 
 62 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 ment in time. To-day you start with an equal 
 chance, but from to-morrow your fortunes will 
 begin to alter, and for certain not one of you will 
 for ever forget this day ; and no doubt in after years 
 you will look back on to-day often, and as you 
 recall to your mind how your time has been 
 employed, wish you had it over again, that you 
 might act more wisely or become better." 
 
 All this was good advice, and very well and kindly 
 spoken. He said much more to the same purpose, 
 but as good advice is everywhere cheap and plentiful, 
 I will not inflict the whole of his carefully prepared 
 speech upon my readers. He spoke for nearly an 
 hour. At last he congratulated us on our clean 
 appearance, wiped his perspiring brow, and the 
 performance was at an end. We were not sorry, to 
 tell the truth at least I was not, because this was 
 the day on which our best dinner, grey peas stewed 
 with pork, was served out ; and as it was past the 
 usual dinner hour when the sermon was over, not 
 only did I stand right in the tempting smell from 
 the kitchen, but I had also noticed how, gradually, 
 as the speech proceeded, the " skaffers," or men 
 whose duty it was to fetch the food from the cook's 
 galley, had one by one crept away, and now they 
 stood in a long row ready with their wooden troughs 
 while the cook began to dish up the peas. 
 
 After dinner, when we came on deck again, I 
 heard some one cry out, " Are there any carpenters 
 on board ? Carpenters any carpenters who want 
 employment? "
 
 MY AEEIVAL IN QUEENSLAND. 53 
 
 " Yes ! " I was one. Five more came forward. 
 One of the Queenslanders said he wished to engage 
 one or two carpenters. Of course some one acted 
 as interpreter. Well, he would give thirty pounds 
 sterling per annum to a good man. He would also 
 give him his board and lodging. We all thought it 
 a fair offer, although scarcely up to our expectations. 
 But then, again, what were our expectations ? Half 
 the time we were afraid we should get nothing at 
 all to do, and the other half we thought we were to 
 pick up bucketsful of gold. Anyhow, we were all 
 anxious to engage, and I, with a full regard to the 
 fact that my only property was a partnership in two 
 hundred and odd empty bottles, was not at all 
 sorry to see that I seemed to find favour in his eyes. 
 I was offered an engagement on the above-named 
 terms. Would I kindly step this way to sign the 
 agreement ? A document written in English was 
 placed before me for signature. I could pretty well 
 understand the meaning of it, and an interpreter was 
 there ready enough to explain matters, but there were 
 certain very important features in it which never 
 were explained to me, and which I myself totally 
 overlooked, and if I had seen these I should only 
 have agreed to them as a last resource from starva- 
 tion. As the agreement was just like those signed 
 by thousands every year all over Queensland to 
 this present day, I will give it here. It ran thus: 
 
 promised to serve for the term of twelve 
 
 calendar months and to obey all his lawful com- 
 mands. In return for which, would pay the
 
 54 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 sum of sterling and rations. Then followed . 
 
 the signatures. I understood that the word "ra- 
 tions " meant my board and lodging, and so it 
 proved in iny case, and as it was explained to me ; 
 but most of my unfortunate shipmates who signed 
 similar agreements in the same good faith as I 
 found out in a practical manner that to them it had 
 another meaning. It will be noticed that the 
 agreement says nothing whatever about lodging. 
 Legally, a Queensland employer who engages a 
 man for wages and " rations " might let his employe 
 camp under the gum-trees without giving him any 
 sleeping accommodation whatever, and that is very 
 often done. If a man gets a shed or a corner of a 
 stable to live in, it is more than he is entitled to 
 under these agreements. So far as the food is con- 
 cerned, the word " ration " as used in these agree- 
 ments means a fixed quantity of certain things, 
 which, therefore, again is all an employe can expect 
 from his master. These consist of twelve pounds 
 of raw beef or mutton, eight pounds of flour, two 
 pounds of sugar and a quarter of a pound of tea. 
 As long as these eatables are tea and sugar, flour 
 and beef, nothing is said as to quality, and the most 
 inferior goods which are in the market are called 
 ration-tea and ration-sugar. But what is an unfor- 
 tunate new arrival, who never made a cup of tea in 
 his life before, to do, when on his arrival at some out- 
 of-the-way place in the bush his "boss," as the em- 
 ployer in Queenslandis called, hands him theserations 
 instead of giving him three square meals a day ?
 
 -
 
 MY ARRIVAL IN QUEENSLAND. 55 
 
 But what was happening now ? The constables 
 were running about among the people telling them 
 to stand here and to stand there. All the single 
 girls were packed together up by the wheel as close 
 as they could stand. Then the married men with 
 their families were told to stand as near them as 
 they could, and the single men were again packed as 
 close to them as possible. All of us were now on 
 the quarter-deck. Then came the Queenslanders, 
 the doctor, the captain, and the first mate, and took 
 up a position in front of us down on the deck. One 
 of our own constables with a very sanctimonious 
 face was also there. What did it mean ? The 
 Immigration Agent read out of a large protocol, 
 " Anna Frederica Johnston, come forward." " Anna 
 Frederica Johnston, Anna Anna, Anna Frederica 
 Johnston. They want you you are wanted ; you 
 have to go." The unfortunate girl was half para- 
 lyzed with terror, as she came forward. She was 
 a Norwegian. The immigration agent asked her, 
 " Had she been well and kindly treated on the 
 voyage, and was she satisfied?" This had to be 
 translated from German into Norwegian before she 
 understood it. But scarcely did she understand what 
 they said before she cried, " Oh yes, oh yes, I am 
 thankful and satisfied. " " Good, ' ' she might pass for- 
 ward. Then another was called who also testified 
 to her kind treatment, and so on until all the girls, 
 even the one who had been tied to the mast, had 
 said they were satisfied and had been well treated. 
 While this was going on, some of the men who stood
 
 56 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 nearest to ine told me to erase their names from the 
 written complaint which I carried. Others advised 
 me that it was now too late altogether to complain ; 
 others again said, " Now is the time." I felt myself 
 surprised beyond measure that the Queensland 
 Government should take the trouble to cause such 
 a question to be put to each individual immigrant, 
 and I felt certain that it could not have been 
 Queensland's fault if we had been badly treated. 
 Anyhow, I saw no reason to tell any falsehoods, and 
 my mind was soon made up how to act. As soon as 
 the last girl had declared herself satisfied, the ques- 
 tion began with the single men. The first who 
 happened to be called was rather a dense sort of a 
 fellow, and although he had signed the complaint, 
 still he said he was " well satisfied." So then I 
 thought the time had arrived for me to act. I went 
 forward and presented my document written in Dan- 
 ish and addressed to the Danish Consul, Australia ; 
 it was translated from Danish to German and from 
 German to English. Meanwhile I glared at the 
 doctor and the doctor glared at me. I felt in rare 
 good humour, the observed of all observers. As a 
 Queenslander would say on such an occasion, it was 
 the proudest moment in my life. I was asked to stand 
 alongside the doctor and captain, and watch my case, 
 The fellow who had already declared himself satis- 
 fied was called back and asked had he signed the 
 complaint, and only passed forward after admitting 
 that he had. Then the question to the remainder 
 became, "Have you signed the complaint ?" to
 
 MY AEEIVAL IN QUEENSLAND. 57 
 
 which each of them, evidently pleased, replied in the 
 affirmative. Those who had not signed, on saying 
 "no" were then asked "did they wish to sign?" 
 Every one of them signed it then right before the 
 eyes of the doctor. I would as soon that they had 
 not, because it was easily seen that they signed it 
 more because they were asked to do so and did not 
 want to cause trouble, than because they had 
 changed their minds since they had been requested 
 to do the same thing on the voyage. From that 
 time to now I never heard any more about the 
 complaint. Very likely it was forwarded to the 
 proper authorities, and they perhaps took notice of 
 it although unknown to us. The ship was clean 
 when we landed, so were the emigrants, and we had 
 all a healthy, well-fed appearance I am sure, and 
 that must have been greatly in the doctor's favour. 
 But let me say here at once, that if there had been 
 one amongst us who had known the proper way to 
 punish whoever was responsible for our ill-treat- 
 ment, I believe it would have been a simple matter 
 to have ruined the owners of the ship. If instead 
 of writing our complaint to the Danish Consul, one 
 of us had been able to issue a writ against the 
 doctor upon some definite matter, he could have 
 had as many witnesses as he chose, ready to hand, 
 to prove what the fare of the ship had been. He 
 might have produced his rag of a blanket in court 
 too, and then have claimed damages. I am certain 
 that no Queensland judge or jury would have said, 
 after seeing it, that such a rag, two feet six inches
 
 58 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 by three feet, was a sufficient covering on a four 
 months' sea voyage, or that the food we received 
 was either sufficient or that it in any way tallied 
 with what we were promised. Such damages as 
 would then have been awarded to the first plaintiff, 
 could indisputably have been claimed by any 
 other emigrant, and that would have meant more 
 than the ship and all that was in it was worth. 
 
 My boss told me before the Queenslaiiders left 
 the ship again that I might, as soon as we landed, 
 come to his house for my food and lodging, and 
 that he would not expect me to go to work for a 
 few days, so that I was well provided for already. 
 Three or four dozen other immigrants had also 
 been engaged by the other Queenslanders, all for 
 thirty pounds a year and rations, on exactly the 
 same agreements as mine. But Thorkill was not 
 among them, and I felt a little ashamed and sorry 
 that it was so, as we had agreed not to part, and I 
 had in this way taken my first chance regardless 
 of him ; but he was earnest in his gratulations and 
 certain, he said, he would be right too, somehow. 
 We had all these empty bottles, and we expected 
 nothing less than sixpence, or perhaps a shilling, 
 apiece for them. At least I felt greatly consoled to 
 think of them, and I made up my mind that he 
 should have the whole return from them if he 
 needed it. The next day arrived, when we should 
 go ashore, and, full of excitement and expectations, 
 we sailed up to the jetty. Slow work that ; it took 
 us some hours to do it. Every one was hanging
 
 MY ARRIVAL IN QUEENSLAND. 59 
 
 over the side of the ship looking to see what the 
 place was like, and watching a number of people 
 who stood there. Now we were alongside, so close 
 that we might have jumped ashore, but still we 
 were forbidden to leave the ship before the doctor, 
 who was ashore, arrived. A man stood on the 
 jetty with a large basketful of bananas, which he 
 offered for sale at sixpence per dozen, and handed 
 them over the side of the ship to any one who 
 would buy. He sold them readily, and my mouth 
 watered to taste them ; but I had no money. 
 Thorkill stood alongside me, so he said, "1 should 
 like so to taste some of those bananas." 
 
 " So should I." 
 
 " He charges sixpence per dozen." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " I wonder if he would take a bottle for a 
 dozen?" 
 
 " We will try." 
 
 I dived into the cabin as fast as I could for a 
 bottle, because the man had only a few bananas 
 left. We had all the bottles, or most of them, 
 wrapped up in paper, and I took one which looked 
 nice and clean, and came out again just in time to 
 secure his attention. Now I had to try to make 
 myself understood. " I give you bottle," said I, 
 " if you give me bananas." 
 
 " Are you going to shout ? " cried he. " What 
 have you got ? " 
 
 I did not know what that meant, but as he had 
 a pleased sort of appearance, I nodded and smiled,
 
 60 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 and caressed the bottle, saying, " Very good, very 
 good bottle." 
 
 " All right," said he, " let us see what you have- 
 got. I give you some bananas ; here you are, hand 
 down your bottle." 
 
 So I took the bananas with the one hand, and 
 handed him the bottle with the other. 
 
 He took it, smelt it, shook it, pulled off the 
 wrapper, held it up towards the sun, and cried,. 
 " Dead mariner, by Jove." 
 
 Then every one on the jetty laughed like fun,, 
 but I was totally ignorant where the joke came in,, 
 and asked, " Is it not a very good bottle ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes," said he, " splendid bottle," and they 
 all kept on laughing and talking at me, assuring 
 me that I would do well in Queensland ! I 
 understood that much. 
 
 Thorkill and I now retired into the cabin to eat- 
 the bananas, and while we ate them we had some 
 conversation. 
 
 " I wonder what they all were laughing at ? " 
 
 "Who shall say? Is it not a nuisance- 
 that we do not understand English 
 better ? I cannot talk to them at all. 
 You seemed to do fine though. My word 
 you did. I never would have believed 
 it. I will study that language." 
 
 " Did you notice that he said, ' Dead mariner,' 
 when he held the bottle up towards the sun ? " 
 
 "Yes; now I should translate that as a dead 
 sailor. I wonder what he meant ? "
 
 MY AEBIVAL IN QUEENSLAND. 61 
 
 11 Perhaps it is a slang name for a bottle." 
 
 "I do not think you will find that a correct 
 explanation. It was a dark bottle ; now, I am 
 inclined to think that that sort of bottle may be 
 used for some liquor peculiar to this country called 
 ' Dead Mariner ; ' the same as in Denmark you 
 have so many different names for nearly the same 
 thing. In that way you might be right in saying 
 it is a slang name ; but anyhow, we will find out the 
 true meaning of it some day." 
 
 " Yes," I replied to Thorkill, " and the sooner 
 we find it out the better. Don't you see, the 
 bottles may have a different value, and I should 
 like to have full value for them. We are now in 
 Queensland, Thorkill, and I do not intend to let 
 any one fool me. So, before we sell to any one, I 
 will find out exactly what they are worth. They 
 did not not laugh at nothing down there on the 
 jetty. I am afraid he had too good a bargain." 
 
 " They seemed to say we would do well with the 
 bottles," remarked Thorkill. 
 
 " I hope we shall. But see ! They are at last 
 going ashore. Now, if you take my advice, one 
 of us will stay on board for another hour or two 
 watching the bottles, while the other goes up to the 
 town to find out their true value, and a customer 
 for them." 
 
 Thorkill replied to this : " Ah, yes ; you go up 
 to the town. I will stay and watch the bottles. 
 I am sure you can sell them to far better advan- 
 tage than I."
 
 62 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 Meanwhile, a number of the immigrants had 
 gone ashore, and Thorkill and I were getting the 
 bottles out of their hiding-places and putting them 
 on the table. Some Queenslanders came in. They 
 looked on a little. I said, " How much money you 
 pay me for one bottle ? ' 
 
 " Have you got all these bottles for sale ? " 
 inquired one. 
 
 " Of course," said I. 
 
 He did not answer, but went outside and called 
 out " Mick." 
 
 In came the man who had sold me the 
 bananas. 
 
 "Do you want to buy any more 'dead mari- 
 ner ' ? " asked the first. 
 
 " Has he got all these bottles for sale ? " inquired 
 the banana man. 
 
 " Certainly,' 4 cried I. (Of course, I did not 
 make myself quite so easily understood as might 
 appear from this conversation, but still I managed 
 both to understand and to make myself understood 
 on this occasion.) 
 
 "No," cried he; "he did not think he wanted 
 any more just now." 
 
 " How much money you think I receive for one 
 bottle ? " inquired I. 
 
 " Oh, plenty money," cried he, " my word ready ; 
 market, any one buys them." 
 
 " What do they say ? " asked Thorkill of me. 
 " They say the bottles are worth a lot of 
 money."
 
 MY AEEIVAL IN QUEENSLAND. 63 
 
 " See if you can find out what ' dead mariner' 
 is." 
 
 I took a porter bottle up, and then said, " You 
 name that one ' dead mariner ' ? ' : 
 
 Queenslander : "Yes, certainly; that is one 
 1 dead mariner.' ' 
 
 I took up a clear bottle and inquired, " This 
 clear thing, you call that empty bottle ? " 
 
 Queenslander : "To be sure that is an empty 
 bottle. But if you are willing to sell, you take 
 them all up to that large hotel you see there. 
 They give you half-a-crown apiece for them." 
 
 I then asked, " Which one is most costly, ' dead 
 mariner ' bottle or clear bottle ? '' 
 
 Queenslander: "Oh, that fellow 'dead mari- 
 ner ' very dear ; three shillings, I think." 
 
 " Heavens ! here, we have made our fortune 
 already, Thorkill," cried I. " Three shillings 
 apiece for these bottles and two-and-sixpence 
 for those. And it appears any one will buy. 
 Are we not lucky ? " 
 
 "Oh, but," said Thorkill, "I shall never feel 
 justified in taking half of all that money. It was 
 your idea. I should never have thought of it. I 
 shall be very thankful to receive just a pound 
 or two." 
 
 " Oh, no," cried I, "you shall share half with 
 me whatever I get. But, excuse me for saying it, 
 you are so unpractical. Why are we not up and 
 stirring ? W T hy are we sitting here yet ? Kemem- 
 ber time is money in this country." Then I ven-
 
 64 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 tured to ask the Queenslanders if in the town 
 there was any one whom I might ask to assist us 
 in carrying the bottles ashore. 
 
 " Oh, yes," they all cried, as if with one mouth. 
 " You go up in town and get hold of a couple of 
 black fellows, and then you take them all up that 
 street you see there. Any one will buy them 
 there." 
 
 Thorkill remained on board keeping watch over 
 the bottles, while I went ashore to see what I 
 should see. 
 
 Just as I came to the end of the long jetty I 
 saw standing there an aboriginal and three Gins. 
 They were about as ugly a set of blacks as I have 
 ever since seen in Queensland, and I was quite hor- 
 rified at their appearance. The man had on a pair of 
 white breeches, but nothing else. The Gins were 
 also so scantily dressed that I am afraid of going into 
 details of their wearing apparel. All of them had 
 dirty old clay pipes in their mouths, which they 
 were sucking, but there was no tobacco in them. 
 The gentleman of the party saved me the trouble 
 of accosting him, as he came towards me and in- 
 quired my name. Then he informed me that his 
 name was Jack. He next introduced me to the 
 ladies, who, it appeared, all had the same name 
 Mary. Of course I fell in with the humour of this 
 arrangement at once. It seemed to me a delight- 
 fully free and easy way of making acquaintance. 
 They all spoke a lot to me, which I did not in the 
 least understand, and I did the same to them no
 
 MY ARRIVAL IN QUEENSLAND. 65 
 
 doubt. They asked me for tobacco, which I had 
 not got ; but it appeared that all was grist that 
 came to their mill, for they asked in succession for 
 matches, pipe, "sixpence," and I do not know 
 what else, and even wanted to feel my pockets ! 
 Of course I did not like this familiarity, so I 
 began to explain to them that I wanted them to 
 work to carry burdens from the ship. That was 
 soon made clear to them. Then the " gentleman " 
 of the party was very particular to know what I 
 would pay him. I had thought to get them to 
 carry the bottles up, and, having sold them, to 
 pay them out of the proceeds ; but as he seemed 
 anxious to make a fixed bargain, I said, " I give 
 you one bottle." In case he should have refused 
 that, I intended to have gone on further, and to 
 have offered a " dead mariner," but to my joy he 
 accepted the offer with evident satisfaction, which 
 again more thoroughly convinced me of the value 
 of my bottles. I and the black fellow with his 
 three Gins accordingly went back to the ship, 
 where Thorkill sat keeping watch over our 
 treasure. 
 
 I loaded the four blacks with four bags, in each 
 of which were two dozen assorted bottles, and now 
 we started for town in earnest. I thought it 
 beneath my dignity to carry any bottles myself. I 
 had exhorted so many of the immigrants that it 
 was our duty to one another to try to make a good 
 impression when we first landed, that the least I 
 could do I thought would be to set a good example
 
 66 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 Therefore I was faultlessly got up, in my own 
 opinion, or at least as well as the circumstances of 
 my wardrobe would permit. Still, my attire was 
 not very suitable to this country, and indeed, when 
 I think of it now, I must have cut a strange figure. 
 I had on my black evening-dress suit, which so far 
 would have been good enough to have gone to a 
 ball in, but my white shirt, I know, was of a very 
 doubtful colour, for I had been my own washer- 
 woman, and it was neither starched nor ironed. 
 Then my tall black hat, of which I was so proud 
 when I got it, had suffered great damage on the 
 voyage, and brush it as I would, any one might 
 easily have seen that it had been used as a foot- 
 stool. My big overcoat, I, according to the most 
 approved fashion in Copenhagen, carried over my 
 arm. In one hand I had my handkerchief, with 
 which I had to constantly wipe the perspiration off 
 my face, because it was very hot. Still, I felt 
 myself a tip-top dignitary as I stalked along in 
 front of the four blacks, who came, chattering 
 their strange lingo, behind me. 
 
 We marched up to the main street, and I saw 
 at once a hotel, that pointed out to me from the 
 ship as the place in which to sell my bottles. In 
 the bar were two or three gentlemen, of whom I 
 took no notice. Behind the bar stood the barmaid, 
 whom I profoundly saluted, also in Copenhagen 
 fashion. I had what to say on the tip of my 
 tongue, and indeed I have never forgotten it since. 
 So I spoke to the barmaid thus : " I have bottles
 
 MY ARRIVAL IN QUEENSLAND. 67 
 
 I will sell to you. Will you buy ? Three shillings 
 every one." She looked bewildered, not at me 
 but at the gentlemen in the bar, as if she appealed 
 to them for assistance, and they began to talk to 
 me, but I did not understand them at all. I could 
 feel myself getting red in the face, too, but I man- 
 fully made another effort. I called in the blacks 
 and ordered them to deposit their load inside the 
 door. Then I said with great exactness, "I do 
 not ferstan thee thou ferstan me. I 
 sell this clear bottles to thee for three shil- 
 lings every one. This dead mariner I sell 
 three shillings and sixpence every one. Will 
 thou buy ?" Meanwhile I had taken out of the 
 bags two samples, a clear and a dark bottle, and 
 placed them on the counter, and I now looked 
 inquiringly around me. 
 
 Oh, the mortification which became my portion ! 
 The girl seemed to faint behind the bar, and the 
 gentlemen made not the slightest excuse for laugh- 
 ing right out in my face. What they said I do 
 not know, but it was clear they did not want my 
 bottles. I felt insulted, and I determined to pay 
 the blacks off and to leave the bottles here until 
 I could find a German Queenslander to whom I 
 might explain my business, and who might help 
 me to sell them. So I took the clear bottle which 
 stood on the counter, and handed it to the black 
 as payment for his service. He looked viciously 
 at me and said, " That fellow no good bottle." 
 
 I said, " Very dear bottle that." Then I decided
 
 68 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 to satisfy him at any cost, and gave him the other 
 one, too, and said, " Very dear bottle this, dead 
 
 mariner." 
 
 Now began a scene as good as a play. The 
 blacks appealed to the gentlemen, and the gentle- 
 men howled with laughter, and I wished myself a 
 thousand miles away. What did they laugh at ? 
 Why did these scampish blacks not feel satisfied 
 after having received double payment ? What 
 did it all mean ? More people came in and seemed 
 amused and happy, but I was not in the swim. 
 Something was wrong. But what was it ? I 
 began to suspect that my bottles could not be so 
 very valuable, as the blacks had thrown both the 
 bottles out into the gutter. Anyhow, for me to 
 stand here to be made a fool of would not do, so I 
 went out of the bar and down the street. But to 
 get away was no easy matter. In fact I found it 
 impossible. The coloured gentleman with his 
 three ladies were in front of me, behind me, and 
 on both sides, crying, howling, yelling, cursing, 
 and appealing to every one who passed, or to those 
 who came to their doors, " That fellow big rogue. 
 
 That fellow no b good. He b new chum. 
 
 He say he give me bottle, he give me no good 
 
 b bottle ; dead mariner no b good." This 
 
 was more than human nature could stand. I threw 
 my overcoat and bell-topper into the gutter, and 
 went for the black fellow straight. I got on the 
 top of him in a minute, but the battle was not 
 nearly won by that, because the black ladies were
 
 MI AEE1VAL IN QUEENSLAND. 69 
 
 tearing at my coat-tails, which just formed two 
 fine handles for them. They split my coat right 
 up to the shoulders, pulled my hair, and belaboured 
 me in a general way. Now came a policeman and 
 grabbed me by the neck. All the " ladies " ran for 
 their lives out of sight, but I suspect their spouse 
 was too bruised to follow their example. Anyhow, 
 he stuck to his guns yet, and while the policeman 
 tried to march us both down the street, he kept 
 appealing to him, declaring his innocence, and my 
 villainy. That I should have spent the next few 
 days in the watch-house I am sure enough, had 
 not an elderly man stepped out of the crowd of 
 onlookers and spoken to the policeman. Then he 
 addressed me in German. I learned then, through 
 much merriment on his part and heartburning on 
 my own, that empty bottles are in Queensland just 
 so much rubbish. Indeed, after the policeman 
 let me go, he took me round to the backyard of 
 the hotel, and there I saw bottles lying by the 
 thousands, some broken and others sound, ready to 
 cart away. But how was I to have known that ? 
 Was it easy to guess that a bottle, which might 
 pass for twopence English money in Copenhagen 
 nearly as readily as cash, would here in Queens- 
 land have absolutely no value ? It is like all 
 other things one knows, easily explained : here 
 there being no distilleries or breweries for making 
 liquors of any kind, they are all imported, hence 
 empty bottles become a drug in the market. 
 But I was not out of trouble yet. The German
 
 70 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 who had in so timely a manner come to my rescue, 
 seeing the state of mind I was in, tried to console 
 me by offering me a glass of spirits. I accepted 
 his offer very readily, I admit, and coming into the 
 bar again, which so vividly reminded me of my 
 former shame and all the indignities heaped upon 
 me, I poured out a whole tumblerful of raw brandy 
 which I should not have done, considering that I 
 came from a ship on which nothing of that sort 
 was served out. But I will draw a veil over the 
 rest of this miserable day. Not but that the worst 
 is told. Intemperance was never my weakness, 
 but I will leave the reader to fill out the picture, 
 and to think of me as I returned to the ship, 
 bleeding, torn, and battered, and there I had to 
 face poor Thorkill, who, in his mild surprise and 
 disapproval, was to me more terrible than if he had 
 stormed and raged ever so much.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPERIENCE.
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPERIENCE. 
 
 HAYING returned to the ship after the inci- 
 dents related in the last chapter, and having 
 somewhat soothed my agitated feelings, and 
 changed my apparel, Thorkill and I were under the 
 necessity again of returning on shore ; which we 
 did, and had no difficulty in finding the depot or 
 place prepared for the reception of the immigrants. 
 I had yet scarcely noticed anything on land, but 
 we saw now at a glance that the town was very 
 small, or perhaps it would be more correct to say 
 that the town was large but thinly inhabited. In 
 Queensland we generally estimate the size of a 
 place by the number of public-houses which it 
 contains, and in Bowen there were three of these 
 institutions. Grass was growing luxuriantly 
 enough in the main street, and altogether it did 
 not, as we came along, strike us that people here 
 seemed remarkably busy. But when we came 
 down to the depot, the scene was changed. 
 
 The depot was a large building, or series of 
 buildings, without particularly good accommo-
 
 74 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 dation, but it had the advantage that there was 
 plenty of room for everybody. I felt quite glad to 
 again see the familiar faces of the other immi- 
 grants, although we had only been separated a few 
 hours. There was a large kitchen attached to the 
 place, and a vast quantity of bread and beef and 
 potatoes had been left there, more than could 
 possibly be eaten by those preseot. Two or three 
 butchers among the immigrants, too, were quite 
 in their element here, cutting up the bullocks, and 
 all the girls seemed to have formed themselves 
 into a committee in order to dress the meat in 
 various appetizing ways. But what seemed the 
 most encouraging feature of all was to see thirty 
 or forty saddle-horses " hung up " outside the fence 
 and their owners walking about among the men 
 offering them engagements. The girls were also 
 in great request. A number of English ladies 
 stood about the yard, or went in and out of the 
 kitchen. They all seemed to want the girls who 
 were doing the cooking, and what between the 
 English ladies who kept trying to attract their 
 attention, their own sweethearts who had now 
 the first opportunity since they left Hamburg to 
 speak to them and the preparation of food for six 
 hundred and odd people, they certainly had enough 
 to do. It was comical to watch them. Among 
 the men the scene was but one degree less ani- 
 mated. They might, I am sure, all have been 
 engaged that first day if they had liked. A 
 number were engaged, and over and over again
 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPERIENCE. 75 
 
 were offers made to them of further engagements, 
 until at last they turned their backs to the English- 
 men who seemed almost to implore some of them 
 to sign agreements. They were all offered the 
 same terras thirty pounds for twelve months, 
 and rations. The girls got only twenty or twenty- 
 five pounds a year, but there seemed to be very 
 little difference between the agreements. The 
 Queenslanders would go for the biggest and most 
 able looking of the men first, and when they had 
 secured them, engage the others with the same 
 terms. I saw my " boss " down there, and went 
 home with him for supper. I was received with 
 the greatest kindness by his family, and he himself 
 could not have looked more friendly if I had been 
 a long-lost relation. He proved to be a contractor, 
 and had also a carpenter's shop and showroom 
 attached to his place. He took me into the shop 
 and showed me several things, and asked me could 
 I make this or that ? There was nothing in the 
 shop that a boy who had served two years of his 
 life in Copenhagen could not make, but when I 
 said "yes," he seemed greatly pleased with me, 
 and patted me on the back. We could not under- 
 stand each other very much. After tea, I was 
 shown into a neat room, where stood a nice bed, a 
 chest of drawers, table, chair, &c. This was to be 
 my abode. 
 
 My " boss," however, returned at once and gave 
 me to understand that he wished me to go with 
 him up to town, and have a general look round.
 
 76 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 He gave me first of all a pound sterling, which had 
 the effect of greatly raising my spirits. Then he 
 took me from the one public-house to the other, 
 and that made me still more hilarious, especially 
 as he would not allow me to change my pound ; 
 and at last he took me to a store, where a German 
 presided behind the counter over a lot of ready- 
 made clothes. Through the German as interpreter, 
 he told me that he would advise me to buy some 
 new clothes after the Queensland pattern, and that 
 he would advance sufficient of my wages to cover 
 the cost. I bought then white trousers, a Crimean 
 shirt, a 'big slouch hat, and a red belt, and put all 
 on at once. This is the orthodox Queensland 
 costume in the bush, but in my own eyes I looked 
 a regular masquerader, as I now swaggered down 
 among the immigrants in my new transformation. 
 I was quite a hero among them at once, being able 
 to boast of my splendid appointment, and I believe 
 I had to relate twenty times that evening what I 
 had had for my supper at my master's place. I 
 might, perhaps, tell it to the reader, because it 
 seemed to me at that time most astonishing, 
 although it really with very little variation is 
 the ordinary food everybody eats all over the 
 country, as soon as one comes away from the 
 single man's hut in the bush. 
 
 In the morning we generally had fried steak, 
 white bread, and butter. No beer or schnapps are 
 ever put on the table in this country, but instead 
 of that one drinks tea by the quart at every meal.
 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPEEIENCE. 77 
 
 At dinner-time the ordinary menu will be some 
 sort of roast meat and vegetables, with a pudding 
 after. At supper one will get more meat and 
 vegetables, and more bread and butter and tea. 
 It is all very good, but there is a frightful sameness 
 about it. I used at first to long for one of those 
 plain yet delicious dishes which the Danish house- 
 wives make at home. But I do not believe English 
 people would eat it, if it were put before them. 
 They seem to think that anything which is not a 
 solid junk of roast beef must -be un-English. I 
 have almost come to the same way of thinking 
 myself. But that evening in the depot we did not 
 criticise the bill of fare. The immigrants all 
 thought they were going to fare in the same 
 sumptuous way. Poor fellows, they did not, as a 
 rule. 
 
 Next day, Thorkill came to me with sparkling 
 eyes, and told me he had been so fortunate. A 
 gentleman from Port Mackay, a sugar planter, 
 had engaged him and twenty-five others, all for 
 thirty pounds a year, and they were to sail again 
 for the plantation next day. He understood it 
 was not far away. We might be able to see one 
 another occasionally. He had told the planter 
 that he had studied agriculture, and the planter 
 had said he was a good fellow. 
 
 " These Englishmen are so kind, I am 
 sure he is a nice man. Perhaps he will 
 make something of me by and by, when I can 
 talk English."
 
 78 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 Poor Thorkill ; I see him in a single man's hut 
 on a plantation among twenty-five others, or with 
 his hoe on his shoulder coming and going to the 
 fields. He went away the next day, and I fully 
 expected he would have written to me, but he did 
 not. I did not know his address, and I did not 
 hear of him again until three years after, when I 
 met him on the diggings. 
 
 As many of the immigrants were going away 
 they did not themselves know where in another 
 day or two, it was suggested by some one that 
 there should be a theatrical display at the depot in 
 the evening ; and the idea was taken up with en- 
 thusiasm by some of the leading spirits among us. 
 It had, before I arrived that morning, been agreed 
 that the play should be a French pantomime. For 
 the information of any one who might never have 
 seen anything of the kind, let me say that it was 
 a one act farce, in which the persons act by pan- 
 tomime alone. Cassander is an old man ; his 
 daughter Columbine loves Harlequin, a young 
 man who always dances about Columbine when 
 Cassander does not see them. Then there was 
 Pierrot, the foolish but funny man- of- all- work, 
 who is set to catch Harlequin, but is always 
 " bested " ; and the staid old lover whom Cas- 
 sander wishes Columbine to marry. Not much 
 rehearsal was needed to play the piece, and the 
 dresses were also easily made up on short notice. 
 It had further been decided in my absence that I 
 was to play Harlequin, but I objected very much.
 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPERIENCE. 79 
 
 At last I was forced into it in a manner, because I 
 was a pretty fair dancer at that time, and they had 
 nobody else. What consoled me greatly was, that 
 I was to wear a black mask, so that I knew that if 
 my feelings should get the better of me while on 
 the stage, that I might make as many faces behind 
 the mask as I liked. The whole town was to be 
 invited, and we gave five shillings to the bell-crier 
 to announce through the streets that some re- 
 nowned artists had arrived at the depot, and were 
 going to give a grand performance that night at 
 seven o'clock. 
 
 We worked away hard that day in rehearsals, 
 fitting of dresses, stage making, quarrelling, and in 
 a few other things which are indispensable on such 
 occasions. In the evening the whole building was 
 crammed full of English people ; there were even 
 some ladies. Our own people had all back seats. 
 Everything went well. Our orchestra consisted 
 of three violinists. There were scores of musicians 
 among us, but these were the best, and were used 
 to play together. Then the blanket which served 
 for a curtain went up, and we began to act our 
 parts. Everything went well excepting that Pier- 
 rot, whose face was chalked over, began to perspire 
 very much, and the chalk came off; but that was 
 nothing. It was reserved for me to spoil the 
 whole proceeding. It came about this way : the 
 fellow who played Columbine was a big, flabby- 
 looking chap, and he looked very nasty indeed in 
 women's clothes. As it was my part to dance
 
 80 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 about Columbine and make love to him or her 
 as you please, I had also to snatch kisses from 
 him about a dozen times during the evening, but 
 of course I understood he knew sufficient of acting 
 not to inflict the punishment of real kissing on me. 
 The first time, however, when my turn came, he 
 turned his face full upon me, and the osculation 
 could be heard all over the room. This happened 
 two or three times, and every time people laughed 
 and applauded ; but it made me regularly wild. 
 So as he tried it again I tore the mask off my face 
 before I had time to think, and cried : " Look here, 
 if you do that again I won't play." That brought 
 the house down with great applause and homeric 
 laughter ; but I got so upset over it that it was 
 impossible for me to go on the stage again, and the 
 play came to an abrupt end. 
 
 The only one of all the immigrants that remained 
 at the depot after a fortnight was over, was a sickly 
 little individual whom everybody on board had 
 been in the habit of pitying or jeering at, as the 
 case may be, and who now seemed quite unable to 
 obtain employment. He was then sent up to 
 Townsville, to try there, and as I happen to 
 know what became of him, and as his short career 
 affords a striking instance of what perseverance 
 will do for a man in Queensland, I will state how 
 he fared. It appears that he at last obtained 
 
 employment in the Hotel in Kavenswood, to 
 
 help the girls in the kitchen at cleaning knives, 
 plucking fowls, and the like. He had to sign an
 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPERIENCE. 81 
 
 agreement whereby he bound himself to remain 
 for three years. The wages for the first year were 
 ten pounds, for the second fifteen, and for the third 
 twenty pounds. These are the smallest wages I 
 have ever heard of in this country for a white man, 
 but our friend thought nothing of that, and stuck 
 to his work. He could cut hair and shave; I 
 think he had been in a barber's shop at home. 
 When he brought the guest's shaving-water in the 
 morning, he would always offer his tonsorial ser- 
 vices at the same time. Of course he would be 
 paid. When he was paid, he would generally say, 
 " You have not got a few old clothes you do not 
 want ? }: Then most people, as he looked so poor 
 and insignificant, would either give him a lot of 
 clothes, or some money to buy with ; and it was 
 pretty well known in that town where one might 
 buy second-hand clothing for cash. If a guest went 
 away from the hotel, he would always be there hat 
 in hand, holding the horse. If one said to him, 
 "Will you come and have a drink?" he would 
 answer, "No, thank you, sir; please, I would 
 rather have the money." In that way, while 
 everybody called him " poor fellow," he was scoop- 
 ing in sixpences, shillings, and even half-crowns 
 every day. As he gave satisfaction to his master, 
 he was promised, as a make-up for his small wages, 
 that if he stayed the three years out, he should 
 have as a present permission to build a barber's shop 
 alongside the hotel, and be charged no rent. He 
 did stay the three years out, and although I was in 
 
 7
 
 82 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 his confidence as little as anybody else, I ani very 
 sure he had then his three years' wages in his 
 pocket and a good deal more besides. Then he 
 had built a small shop alongside the hotel. It 
 was very small, but it was in the proper place for 
 doing business ; and he began at once a roaring 
 trade. Sixpence for a shave, a shilling for hair- 
 cutting, and half a crown for shampooing ! He 
 had also ready-made clothes for sale, hop beer, 
 ginger beer, fruit, saddlery, and much more. 
 People who had anything for sale might go to him 
 and be certain that he would offer them a cash 
 price for whatever it was. He opened his shop at 
 seven o'clock in the morning and shut it at twelve 
 o'clock at night. On Sundays, indeed, he was 
 supposed to shut for three or four hours ; but one 
 had only to knock at his door to bring him forward. 
 Meanwhile, I do not believe his old master, or any 
 one else, could have obtained credit from him for 
 a sixpence. The usual thing in his shop was to 
 see half a dozen men sitting in his back room 
 waiting to be shaved or shampooed, and half a 
 dozen standing by the counter in the front room, 
 while he would jump like a cat among them trying 
 to serve them all at once. But now I see I have 
 made a mistake. I have written that " his short 
 career affords a striking instance of what perseve- 
 rance might do for a man in this country." That 
 might be true if the story ended here, but it does 
 not. He was a great miser. His principal food, 
 as he himself assured me, was the rotten fruit in
 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPERIENCE. 83 
 
 the shop. When a banana or an apple became 
 quite unsaleable, he would eat it. He had no 
 assistant in the shop, and could, therefore, never 
 possibly take any outdoor exercise. At last he 
 fell sick, and the doctor told him he must go out 
 on horseback every day, and have plenty of nourish- 
 ing food. He never bought a horse, and he never 
 altered his way of living. At last, when it was too 
 late, he got somebody to stand in the shop for him, 
 for he was then too weak to stand there himself; 
 and he died in the back room a week after. But 
 even the day before he died I saw him sitting in the 
 shop trying to direct the assistant and keeping 
 control over the money-box. I heard how much 
 he had made, but I forget. Anyhow, it was 
 thousands, and all made in a few years ! 
 
 Now I will relate what happened to me the first 
 Sunday I passed in Queensland, and to do that I 
 must recall to the reader's memory another of my 
 shipmates, the naval Lieutenant A. He had got 
 married as soon as we came ashore, to the young 
 lady who I always understood was his intended 
 wife, and they had already rented a little house 
 and made themselves very comfortable. On the 
 Saturday, he came to me and told me that he had 
 carried a letter of introduction from home to a 
 gentleman who was one of the first civil servants 
 in Bo wen. This gentleman he had seen, and as 
 an outcome of the interview, he had been invited 
 to come with his wife to the Englishman's place 
 on Sunday forenoon to be introduced to his family,
 
 84 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 and that Mr. and Mrs. , as well as A. and his 
 
 wife, were all then to walk to a large garden which 
 lay a mile or so outside the town. He promised 
 himself great pleasure and much advantage from 
 the acquaintance, and as a special favour to me, 
 
 he said : " Now Mr. said to me that I might 
 
 invite one of our shipmates to come with us, and I 
 shall invite you." I thanked him very much for 
 the honour he did me. 
 
 "You understand," said he, " that I would like 
 very much to make a good impression, not only for 
 myself, but for our country too. I am not in the 
 least afraid to invite you, still excuse me for re- 
 minding you that this man has much influence 
 in Brisbane, and I have no doubt he could make 
 it worth your while too to be on your best be- 
 haviour." 
 
 When he was gone, I began to look over my 
 wardrobe, and found that I could yet make a brave 
 show. Still, I had a great doubt in my mind 
 whether it would not be the more correct thing to 
 dress myself in my Queensland clothes that is, the 
 slouch hat and the moleskins. But as I did not 
 seem to know myself in them at all, I decided that 
 it was best to make the most of the clothes I had 
 with me from home, although it was not without 
 some misgivings that I came to this conclusion. 
 My swallowtail coat had been torn, and although it 
 was mended by a tailor, it was not good enough to 
 wear again on such an occasion, but I had a nice 
 new jacket I had bought in Hamburg, also a
 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPERIENCE. 85 
 
 beautifully got-up white shirt and white waistcoat. 
 As to the belltopper, it was done for. No more 
 should I go into society in that belltopper, and the 
 Queensland hat seemed only fit company for the 
 Crimean shirt and the moleskins. I therefore 
 went and borrowed a tall hat for the purpose from 
 among the immigrants, and as I came back with 
 it, I bought a pair of gloves for half a guinea in a 
 shop. 
 
 The next forenoon, punctually at eleven o'clock, 
 was outside of A.'s house in all my glory. A. and 
 his wife were gone, however, and I then bent my 
 steps towards the house to which I had been 
 directed. As soon as I came near, I saw A. 
 standing outside the house talking to a gentleman, 
 whom I at once understood to be the man who had 
 invited us. He looked a gentleman all over. Yet 
 the same indescribable sort of swagger which I 
 had noticed in everybody else I had yet met in the 
 country seemed also to hover about him. I might 
 here observe that this swagger is not exactly native 
 to this colony. It is only put on for the benefit of 
 new arrivals. As I came up A.'s friend stood with 
 his feet wide apart, and was in the act of lighting 
 a meerschaum pipe. A massive gold chain hung 
 across his well-nourished stomach. I could see 
 that if I had not dressed myself to my best ability, 
 I should have made a grave mistake. Although I 
 had scarcely lifted my eyes to him yet, I noticed 
 these details as A. introduced me to him, while I 
 saluted him as we always salute one another in
 
 86 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 Copenhagen. Perhaps I was just a little more 
 than usually polite. My hat was at my knee as A. 
 
 said, " Mr. , Mr. ." But the Englishman 
 
 did not seem remarkable for his politeness. On 
 the contrary, I felt very angry at his behaviour. 
 He never changed his position in the slightest 
 degree ; he seemed only to give a sort of self- 
 satisfied grunt, " How de do, how de do." 
 
 There is no mistake about it, I began to wish I 
 had not come. It was not as though I had not 
 been polite enough ; I felt certain both that I 
 could make a bow with anybody, and that I had 
 saluted and been saluted by greater dignitaries 
 before than he. Why then should he slight me ? 
 thought I. Was it the custom in this country to 
 invite people on purpose to insult them ? They 
 began to speak to me, and I understood that the 
 ladies who were to take part in the excursion were 
 inside finishing their toilet, and would be out 
 directly. A. could see, no doubt, that I was not 
 pleased, and of course- he could also guess the 
 reason. He had been in England too, and was 
 well versed in English customs, so he said to me, 
 "It is foolish of you to feel offended because Mr. 
 - did not take his hat off to you. Indeed, 
 it was you who looked ridiculous. I am sure you 
 never yet saw any one take off his hat to another 
 in this country. It is not an English custom. 
 Indeed it is specially distasteful to English people. 
 So do not do it again. Of course it did not 
 matter."
 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPEBIENCE. 87 
 
 When I heard that I was in humour again. I 
 could forgive every one so long as they did not 
 offer me a wilful insult. But was it not strange, 
 thought I ? And there he stood, as easy as could 
 be, smoking his pipe in the street. Well, there is 
 nothing like it, after all. What is a man without 
 his pipe ? I had mine in rny pocket, but I 
 had never dreamed of taking it out till now. I 
 did not know what to make of things, but I 
 thought that if such training as I had received 
 was at fault, perhaps it would be well to imitate 
 those whose training was correct. So I took my 
 pipe out of my pocket and borrowed a match from 
 
 Mr. to light it with. Mine was only a clay 
 
 pipe, and I could scarcely help laughing to myself 
 meanwhile, because it seemed to me very strange. 
 But I was determined now to show I knew English 
 
 manners, and so I puffed away. Just now Mr. 's 
 
 wife came out of the glass doors on the verandah. 
 She had also dressed to make a good impression, 
 because she was rustling with silk and satin, and 
 shining with gold brooches and chains all over. 
 The doors were opened for her by a servant, and 
 Mrs. A. was also there. As Mrs. A. told me 
 afterwards, they had watched me through the 
 glass doors while I was saluting the husband, and 
 probably the Englishwoman was at that moment 
 under the impression that I intended to go down 
 on my knees before her. But if she thought that, 
 all I can say is that she was mistaken. I was not 
 going to look ridiculous this time. She made a
 
 88 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 bow to me something of the sort, as I take it, that 
 one of the Queen's maids of honour have to 
 practise before her majesty a most profound 
 obeisance. But I stood brave. With my feet 
 apart, in English fashion, I puffed away at my 
 pipe, and nodded at her, saying, " How de do? How 
 dedo?" 
 
 At this juncture of affairs, I became aware that 
 nobody seemed pleased. The lady drew herself up 
 and seemed surprised. Her husband appeared to 
 regard me with a lively interest. So did two 
 women in a house opposite. A., in a sort of con- 
 sternation, repeated the formula of introduction. I 
 felt the blood surging to my face, and my courage 
 fast forsaking me. Then it occurred to me that as 
 I myself had not the least idea what the words 
 " how de do " meant which I had employed in 
 saluting her, that perhaps it was not a proper ex- 
 pression before a lady, and that it would have been 
 better if I had said something of which I did 
 understand the meaning. So as A. repeated 
 
 the form of introduction, Mr. and Mrs. , I 
 
 said with great desperation, " Good day, missis." 
 
 Then I swallowed a whole mouthful of tobacco 
 smoke (it is such strong tobacco one smokes here, 
 and I had not been used to more than a cigar on 
 rare occasions), and then I must expectorate. 
 For the life of me I could not avoid it, but where 
 to do it, whether in front of me or behind me, I 
 did not know, and so I compromised and spat to 
 the side. While all this occurred I felt as guilty
 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPERIENCE. 89 
 
 as any criminal condemned before a judge, and 
 still where it came in I did not know, because had 
 not A., on whose English experience I wholly 
 relied, told me scarcely ten minutes before, that 
 "to take the hat off to one another was not an 
 English custom that it was, indeed, specially 
 distasteful to English people " ? What then could 
 I think ? You may judge of my feelings when 
 A., now shaking with rage and entirely for- 
 getting himself, exclaimed to me in Danish, 
 " You are an unmannerly dog. Has no one ever 
 taught you yet to take your hat off to a lady ? 
 There he stands, smoking a stinking pipe right in 
 her face." 
 
 Oh, yes ! oh, yes, indeed, my humiliation was 
 at its highest point. Quarrelling in our own 
 
 language, and ready almost to fight ! Mrs. 
 
 disappeared indoors again. Mrs. A. dared not 
 follow her, but walked down the street a little, 
 
 not knowing where to put herself, and Mr. 
 
 becoming more and more boisterous with me for 
 an explanation. It did not last long, but long 
 enough quite. Then I went and sat, regardless 
 of all appearance, on the verandah, while A., with 
 much humility, tried to explain the matter to our 
 
 host. Mr. did not quite seem to relish the 
 
 joke. He came up to me and informed me with 
 much gravity that A. had explained the matter to 
 his satisfaction. " But," said he, "you will cer- 
 tainly find that in this country it is the custom to 
 salute a lady with a great deal more politeness
 
 90 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 than you used just now towards my wife. It is a 
 lesson, I assure you, sir, you cannot learn too 
 quickly." 
 
 Half of this I understood and half I guessed. 
 He did not know, however, that his own mode 
 of salutation would in Copenhagen have been 
 thought just about as bearish as what he was now 
 correcting me for. I rose to bid him good-bye, 
 because I was determined to go home as the right 
 course now to pursue ; but as I took off my hat to 
 him again my crestfallen appearance seemed to 
 amuse him, because he began to laugh, and when 
 I had reached the corner of the house he came 
 after me, insisting that I should come back. I 
 declined, until I could see that by remaining 
 stubborn I should only give still greater offence, 
 and so we returned and went into the drawing- 
 room to have a glass of wine. Mrs. came 
 
 now into the room, and with well-bred kindness 
 tried to put me at my ease again. But although 
 they now seemed to have forgiven me, and were 
 preparing to start for their walk, I felt that I could 
 not go with them, and after asking A. in my pre- 
 sence to offer my apology to the lady herself, I 
 took up my hat, and, bowing profusely to all, went 
 away. 
 
 The reader may guess that I was not very proud 
 of myself when I came home and flung myself on 
 my bed. My career in Queensland had indeed 
 opened in a very unpropitious manner. I had not 
 been a week in the country yet, and it appeared I
 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPERIENCE. 91 
 
 had made myself look more foolish wherever I had 
 been than I had thought it possible to do. First 
 the bottles what disgrace was not that, fighting 
 with the blacks in the street scarcely an hour after 
 coming ashore ; and poor Thorkill, who had in- 
 vested his last sixpence, on my recommendation, 
 in buying empty bottles ! Then at the depot the 
 evening after, when I somehow again had been 
 the laughing-stock of them all a regular " Handy 
 Andy " ; and now to-day, when I had started out 
 with the best intentions, and had only succeeded 
 in making a never-to-be-forgotten picture of my- 
 self and that after having borrowed a " bell- 
 topper" to look grand in! Now I had to return 
 that piece of furniture to the owner, and when he 
 asked me how I had enjoyed the company of my 
 grand acquaintances, probably I should have to 
 tell a falsehood about it in order to hide my shame. 
 One consolation was that I had yet the gloves 
 they were my own to do with as I liked. I had 
 paid ten and sixpence for them, more than half 
 my fortune. Faugh ! was ever any one like me ? 
 Was that all I had come to Queensland for ? But 
 at all events this should not happen again. If I 
 could find an ass bigger than myself, thought I, 
 I should be satisfied, but never again as long as 
 I lived would I seek the acquaintance of people 
 who by any stretch of imagination might think 
 themselves my superiors. 
 
 Then I called in from the backyard a whole 
 troup of dirty, lazy blacks, who were lying there
 
 92 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 basking in the sun in an almost naked condition r 
 and made them understand that I would give them 
 all my home clothes if they would perform a war 
 dance in them for my instruction and pleasure. 
 One of them put on my swallow-tail coat and bell- 
 topper (he had no breeches), another got my over- 
 coat, one of the ladies put on my jacket (she had 
 nothing else), another put on my woollen com- 
 forter, not round her neck but round her waist,, 
 where it was of more use. At last I took my flute, 
 and the whole troup kept screaming and dancing 
 about in the backyard while I played, until my 
 " boss " came and interrupted the proceedings. I 
 felt a grim sort of satisfaction. Alas ! there is no- 
 saying what is to become of any of us before the 
 end is over. Clothes are lifeless things, yet how 
 often had I not brushed them and thought it im- 
 portant that they should look well ! I really felt 
 a kind of remorse when I saw these filthy blacks. 
 lie wallowing in them amid a flock of yelping 
 curs. 
 
 And now I fell to work at my trade in earnest. 
 The houses in Bowen are all built of wood, and a. 
 very easy affair it is for any one to build them. 
 Indeed housebuilding in the small Queensland 
 towns can scarcely be called a trade, insomuch 
 that any practical man who can use carpenter's 
 tools could easily build his own house. A hammer 
 and a coarse saw was about a complete set of tools 
 on many jobs we did up there. Still, large wooden 
 houses filled with all the most modern comforts-
 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPERIENCE. 93 
 
 are also constructed, and in such none but the best 
 workmanship is tolerated, so there, of course, a 
 tradesman is indispensable. At all housebuilding, 
 too, a man who is constantly at it acquires a quick- 
 ness which would altogether outdistance the 
 novice, but one may learn as he goes in that 
 trade, and the best men I have met in the car- 
 penter trade out here are men who never served 
 their time to it. 
 
 There were no saw-mills in the town, nor was 
 there any suitable timber to saw in the bush, so 
 that we depended for a supply on an occasional 
 schooner, or on what the steamers sometimes 
 would bring. At times we had no timber at all. 
 Then we had to make furniture out of the packing- 
 cases in the stores, or the " boss " would buy an 
 old humpy and pull it down, and we had to try to 
 make a new one out of it. My employer had 
 engaged another carpenter besides myself from 
 among the immigrants. This man had got married 
 at the depot to one of the girls, and they lived in a 
 small house. He had thirty shillings a week, of 
 which, of course, most went to keep house. But 
 Bowen is one of the very few non-progressive 
 towns on the coast, and houses stood empty in all 
 directions, so that he only had to pay a nominal 
 rent. Our " boss " seemed to have plenty of work 
 always, and, besides ourselves, there were two and 
 sometimes three English carpenters employed. 
 We had to work like boys for them, because we 
 could not very well be sent anywhere by ourselves,
 
 94 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 as we could not speak to people about the work to 
 be done. One thing I might mention here, and 
 which I think very unfair, is this, that nobody took 
 the trouble to speak English to us, but they 
 seemed even to go out of their way to teach us a 
 sort of pigeon English, which, of course, would 
 demonstrate our inferiority to the individual who 
 addressed us. Although I do not dislike either 
 English, Scottish, or Irish people, I think it a 
 great delusion of theirs that they are more hospit- 
 able to foreigners, or cosmopolitan in their way of 
 thinking, than other nationalities, but that they are 
 under the impression that they are the salt of the 
 earth is certain. Meanwhile my mate and I did 
 the best we could to vindicate the honour of our 
 country. I felt myself daily getting stronger and 
 more active ; the change of air did wonders, and 
 so was it with my mate. After a while, we found 
 we could fully hold our own. The English trades- 
 men were very fond of showing how much they 
 could do, but as we both began to get up to their 
 standard they would, as we worked under them, 
 knock us off what we were doing and put us to 
 something else, often with the evident intention of 
 making the " boss," when he came, think we had 
 not done much, or did not understand our work. 
 So one day I had a terrible quarrel with the man 
 with whom I was working on that account, and 
 then he began to denounce us all for cutting the 
 wages down. I had no intention of cutting down 
 his wages, and I did not know in the least what
 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPERIENCE. 95 
 
 wages he got, but when he told me that he 
 received three pounds sterling every week I 
 thought that the " boss " had treated me very 
 badly. I learned then that three pounds are the 
 ordinary weekly wages for carpenters in Queens- 
 land, and I told the English carpenter that I 
 would immediately ask the " boss " for an increase 
 in my wages to that amount, and that if he would 
 not give it to me I would not do more work than I 
 got paid for. I had been there six months at that 
 time, and had never taken any money of my wages 
 beyond what I received when I started, but when 
 I asked for three pounds per week my employer 
 was very dissatisfied. I wanted him to cancel the 
 agreement. He refused, and I accused him of 
 haviDg taken an unfair advantage of me. He 
 assured me that as he had got me he would keep 
 me. " Yery well," said I, " do your best to obtain 
 your pound of flesh, but do not charge too high a 
 day's wages when you send me away after this ; I 
 might not suit." 
 
 From that day there was war between us, war 
 to the knife. Still I was, and had been, well 
 treated there, and so far I had done my best to 
 deserve it. When I think of it now, I am glad 
 that before this occurred I had an opportunity to 
 show my willingness. What my master's profit on 
 me was I do not know, but it cannot have been 
 large. What with my inability to speak the 
 language, the learning how to handle the different 
 tools used here, and one thing and another, it was
 
 96 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 unreasonable for me to expect the full wages at 
 once. When I compare my fate with that which 
 befell some of the other immigrants, I ought to 
 have thought myself very fortunate. Some of 
 these were sent out in the bush around the town, 
 and among those who were a few miles distant, I 
 heard much dissatisfaction existed. I will here 
 relate how some, at least, were treated. One man 
 and his wife, and four single men, were engaged at 
 a station fifty miles away. Their agreements were 
 all the same, thirty pounds per annum and rations. 
 The woman, however, was not engaged. When 
 they arrived at the place they found a small house 
 in the middle of the bush. When they asked 
 where were their rooms or place to camp in, their 
 ^mployer told them they might camp anywhere 
 they liked as long as they did not come inside his 
 house. They had then got some bags and branches 
 of trees put together and slept under them, but 
 there was no protection from rain, and the poor 
 woman, who was not well at the time, thought she 
 was going to die. Instead of food, they were 
 served, as I have before stated, with raw beef and 
 flour. The reader may imagine what sort of 
 doughboys they were making. This was strictly 
 and correctly the truth, although these poor people 
 certainly never knew the true intent of the agree- 
 ment. They would not work, they said, unless 
 they got proper food, but their employer was 
 abusing them every day. They had to fell trees 
 and split timber for fences. Of course such hard
 
 GAINING COLONIAL EXPERIENCE. 97 
 
 work, with no cooked food to eat and no bed to 
 sleep in, was an unreasonable thing to expect from 
 them. After six or seven weeks of this one of 
 them went away, empowered by the others to go to 
 town and complain for the others. He came into 
 town, where he told me what I now relate ; but 
 his " boss " was after him quickly, and instead of 
 obtaining redress, he was put in the lock-up four- 
 teen days for absconding from his hired service, 
 and then compelled to go back again ! While he 
 was in the lock-up, my "boss " used to send him 
 up three good meals every day. People who may 
 read this at home will no doubt think that there 
 must be great brutality somewhere for people to be 
 treated like this. I agree with them. Yet the 
 same treatment and fare comes light to an old 
 hand. He knows what to expect, and is prepared 
 for it. As men travel about from place to place in 
 search of work, it is absolutely necessary for them 
 to carry everything with them and to be their own 
 cooks too. They have their tent, blanket, food, 
 billy, sometimes a frying-pan, all bundled together 
 with their clothes and strapped on their backs, or, if 
 they are well-to-do, they have a horse to carry the 
 "swag" for them, or even two horses, one being 
 to ride on. There is really no reason why a man 
 should not possess a couple of horses here, but 
 still they as often do not. The billy serves all 
 purposes : in it the meat is cooked, the tea is 
 boiled, and on extra occasions the plumduff too. 
 It is only just to say that the custom of forcing
 
 98 DANISH EM1GEANT. 
 
 men to camp out in their own tents and to cook 
 their own rations is growing more and more out of 
 use. In most places in the bush the employer now 
 provides at least shelter for his men : in many 
 places they have the food cooked as well ; yet there 
 are to this day thousands of people in Queensland 
 who live as I have just described, and who never 
 see vegetables from one year's end to another. 
 
 The reader will, therefore, see that I was com- 
 paratively fortunate in this, that I had both shelter 
 and food while I was learning the language and 
 accustoming myself to the country. But after my 
 request for more wages had been refused, I did as 
 little work as possible, indeed I may say I did 
 scarcely anything. I played quite the gamin with 
 the old gentleman, until one day he offered to let 
 me go, and then free once more I promised myself 
 never again to sign away my liberty.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 TOWNSVILLE: MORE COLONIAL 
 EXPERIENCES.
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 TOWNSVILLE : MORE COLONIAL EXPERIENCES. 
 
 I HAD now paid out to me twelve pounds sterling 
 as the balance of wages due, so it will be per- 
 ceived that I had not been extravagant. Yet I am 
 afraid that if I had been taking my wages up 
 weekly I should not have had so much, if, indeed, 
 anything. Yet here were the twelve pounds now, 
 and that was the main thing. It made over a 
 hundred Danish dollars, quite a large sum to me. 
 Then I considered where I should go next. There 
 were some gold mines inland within one or two 
 hundred miles, but I did not know the road, or else 
 I should have gone there; Just then there had been 
 opened another port north of Port Denison, viz., 
 Townsville. I understood that if a man wanted to 
 make money, he should go there ; or rather I 
 understood the further north I went the more pay 
 I should get, on account of its being hotter there, 
 but that down south, were the climate was supposed 
 to be better, carpenters where not in demand. So, 
 " Northwards, ho ! " was my cry. The steamer left 
 Port Denison the next day for Townsville, and I 
 was among the passengers. It is on leaving one of
 
 102 DANISH EMIGBANT. 
 
 these small ports on the Queensland coast that I 
 have always more than at any other time heen 
 impressed with the utter loneliness in which they 
 lie. One sees the few houses and appurtenances 
 like a speck on the coast, and north and south the 
 long vast coastline. We steamed along all the 
 evening, night, and next morning, and towards noon 
 my attention was directed to some small white 
 specks on the beach. That was Townsville, the 
 new settlement where money was to be made. The 
 steamer I was in could not run close, but lay out in 
 the bay until another very small steamer came out 
 and took us all on board. Then in another half- 
 hour we ran into a small creek, past three or four 
 galvanized iron sheds, and here we were at the 
 wharf in the middle of the main street of the 
 town. 
 
 Townsville lies on the bank of a small river or 
 creek called Eoss Creek, which when I was there was 
 remarkable for being stocked with alligators. One 
 could not very well, therefore, cross the creek with- 
 out some danger, and at that time all the people 
 and all the houses without a single exception, lay 
 on the south side of the creek. Ross Creek formed, 
 I might say, one side of the main street. Facing 
 it lay a number of small shanties, some made of 
 packing cases and old tin ; others again, built with a 
 view to permanency, of nicely dressed sawn timber, 
 and looking like rich relations in contrast to their 
 poor neighbours. This was Flinders Street, or 
 Townsville proper. For about ten chains this row
 
 TOWNSVILLE : MORE COLONIAL EXPEEIENCES. 103 
 
 of houses ran, and facing it, on the other side of the 
 creek, was one vast wilderness of swamp, long grass 
 and trees. When one had passed the row of 
 houses composing the street there were turns off to 
 the bush in all directions, and tents, huts, or sheets 
 of galvanized iron stood all about the street. Up 
 behind the street were some tremendous-looking 
 mountains, and here such people as the doctors, 
 civil servants, &c. seemed to have fixed their abode. 
 The most splendid views could be obtained up there 
 right over the sea and the numerous small islands. 
 Then the climate, which at least at that time was 
 supposed to be somewhat unhealthy down below, 
 was very much better on the highlands. 
 
 While I was in Townsville my greatest pleasure 
 was to take my lunch with me in a morning and 
 then scramble up there to some place from which 
 the best view could be had, and sit there all day. 
 That was a cheap and harmless pleasure, but to do 
 so at the present time would be trespass, because 
 all the land about there is now sold at so much per 
 foot, and no one but the owners have a right either 
 to the soil or the air, or even the view. It seems 
 wrong to me that it should be so. I wonder what 
 will become of poor people when the day arrives 
 when all the world is thus cut up into freehold 
 property ! If I had at that time invested the ten 
 pounds I carried in my pocket in a piece of land, 
 it would certainly have been worth thousands of 
 pounds to-day, and I believe I might even have 
 been worth tens of thousands. Then I might
 
 104 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 without further trouble have been myself a " leading 
 Colonist " to-day ! 
 
 On looking around one would scarcely think that 
 this place and Bowen were in the same country. 
 In Bowen everybody seemed to have plenty of 
 time. The shopkeepers there would stand in their 
 doorways most of their time, or go visiting one 
 another. Then, although Bowen was so much 
 larger than Townsville, there seemed to be no 
 people in it. But here there were crowds every- 
 where, and seemingly not an idle man. People 
 appeared rather to run than to walk. I walked up the 
 street and looked into a half-finished building where 
 half a dozen carpenters were at work. I watched 
 them well. They were all men in their prime, and 
 if they did not work above their strength they 
 were good men assuredly ! There was quite a din 
 of hammers and saws. It was terrible ! I felt very 
 much afraid that I should not be able to match 
 myself against any 'one of them, but on the prin- 
 ciple of not leaving until to-morrow what might be 
 done to-day, I asked one where the "boss" was? 
 He pointed to a man alongside who also was 
 working terribly hard, and this gentleman saug out 
 to me from the scaffold, " What do you want, young 
 fellow ? " So I said that I wanted work. 
 
 " All right," cried he, "I'll give you a job, but 
 I have no time to talk before five o'clock ; you can 
 wait." Then I stood waiting, and feeling half 
 afraid to tackle the work, until the " boss " sang out 
 " five o'clock."
 
 TOWNSVILLE : MORE COLONIAL EXPEEIENCES. 105 
 
 What a relief every man must have felt. Each 
 seemed to drop his tool like a hot potato. I 
 .remember well my feelings. I knew before the 
 -contractor spoke to me that he was a bully, from 
 the way he spoke to the other man. He came up 
 to me. 
 
 " Well, what is it you can do ? " 
 
 " I am a carpenter and joiner." 
 
 " Oh, you are a German." 
 
 "No, I am not." 
 
 " What sort of a new chum are you then ? " 
 
 " I asked you if you wanted a carpenter." 
 
 41 Where were you working before ? " 
 
 " In Bowen." 
 
 " What wages did you get there ? " 
 
 " Thirty pounds a year." 
 
 "Do you know that I expect my men to earn 
 fourteen shillings a day ? " 
 
 " I will do as much work as I can, and I do not 
 <expect you to pay me more than I can earn." 
 
 " Got any tools ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " I do not want you then ! " 
 
 Did ever any one get such an unprovoked insult ? 
 I felt as if I could never ask another man for work 
 again. Although I had learned a little English, it 
 was far from sufficient to allow me to set up and 
 work on my own account. I knew that very well, 
 and although I kept telling myself that most likely 
 (here there would be plenty of other contractors to 
 .go to, yet I was in very low spirits as I went off
 
 106 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 looking for a suitable boarding-house. The place I 
 came to did not impress me as being either clean 
 or comfortable. I went in at the door only because 
 I saw on the signboard the words " Diggers' home," 
 or "Bushman's home." I forget exactly what it 
 was, but I understood there was " home " about it, 
 and as I was just then longing very much for such 
 comforts as the word "home " is associated with, 
 I went in. It was just tea-time and about thirty 
 men were sitting on two wooden forms around the 
 one table, eating. The uncouth way in which they 
 were gormandizing was terrible to witness. English 
 working people show, I think, greater anxiety to 
 possess what are popularly called " table manners " 
 than does the same class where I came from. The 
 former hold their knives and forks in faultless 
 style, but they seem never to have learned what is 
 the great point in table manners. This is a point 
 on which I was very strictly brought up, and as one 
 cannot very well criticise another's manner of 
 eating while sitting alongside him at table, I 
 think I might without offence give valuable advice 
 here. It is this. Close your lips while you are 
 eating, gentlemen. It does not matter half so 
 much to some people how you hold your fork. 
 
 There were among the others at the table two 
 of my shipmates, who, as they told me, were 
 working at their trade for four pounds a week. 
 They were dressed in the height of fashion, and 
 would not speak Danish at all to me. One of 
 them informed me in a sort of language that I am
 
 TOWNSVILLE : MORE COLONIAL EXPERIENCES. 107 
 
 sure no Englishman could have understood, that 
 he had almost quite forgotten Danish. As I had 
 a craving just then for sympathy, I told them how 
 I had fared when I had asked for work, but all the 
 sympathy I received was the remark that it was 
 smart fellows only who were needed in Townsville. 
 They agreed thoroughly about that, and then 
 whenever they could repeat the formula "I get 
 four pounds per week," they did it ore rotunda. 
 Evidently they had a heartfelt contempt for one 
 like me, who had been working for only a few 
 shillings a week. After tea, I was, on stating that 
 
 I wanted to stay for a week, shown into a small 
 room wherein stood six stretchers, or beds, as close 
 as could be. One had scarcely room to squeeze 
 about among them. The middle of the room 
 seemed to be a sort of main passage two feet wide 
 between the beds on each side, leading to rooms 
 beyond, and there the rest of the thirty boarders 
 would tramp in and out. The landlord, on showing 
 me one of these beds as mine, demanded a pound 
 sterling of me in advance as one week's payment. 
 
 II Beautiful home." " Comfortable abode." I re- 
 gretted that I had left Bowen, as I thought of my 
 clean private room there. I did not, however, pay 
 for a week beforehand. I paid only for my supper 
 and a shilling for the use of the bed or "home " 
 for that night. I sat there on the bed for a quarter 
 of an hour, listening to all the noises around me. 
 Then I felt that I could not suffer it any 
 longer, so I went out. It was a beautiful moon-
 
 108 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 light night. To get out past the houses was 
 only the work of five minutes, and I kept walking 
 on along a road I came to until I was well past all 
 signs of civilization. I had taken my flute with 
 me as the best means which yet remained to 
 soothe my troubles, and then I sat down to play. 
 How much better I felt out there under the gum- 
 trees ! That foul-smelling boarding-house seemed 
 to trouble me no longer. I would not return to it. 
 Better by far to sleep out there under the open 
 sky ! I sang and played and worked myself into 
 quite a romantic feeling. At last I fell soundly 
 asleep. 
 
 The next day I began more carefully to look out 
 for a boarding-house, but it was all one. There 
 were enough of them indeed, but in all there was 
 not one which did not to my mind look more like a 
 rabbit warren than a "home" or a " rest," or 
 whatever the name might be that was put over the 
 door. A couple of places were kept by Chinamen. 
 They at least seemed more honest, because they 
 made no pretence of offering their guests what 
 they had not got. All the accommodation they 
 offered was a shelf for each man, and there seemed 
 to be an air of " take it or leave it alone " about 
 them which I liked. But none of these suited 
 me, and so I went to the hotels, and for one pound 
 ten shillings per week I got white man's accom- 
 modation : a room for myself and every civility. 
 How anybody like my two grandly-dressed coun- 
 trymen could, if they earned four pounds a week,
 
 TOWNSVILLE: MORE COLONIAL EXPEBIENCES. 109 
 
 prefer the other place to this, I did not under- 
 stand. 
 
 I might now with much satisfaction have finished 
 my writing here by telling the reader how I ob- 
 tained work the next day for fourteen shillings per 
 day, and how I saved and persevered until I myself 
 became a contractor if such had been the case. 
 But the truth must be told, and that is that I kept 
 delaying day by day to ask any one for a job. 
 Every day I would walk about the town, and passed 
 and re-passed houses under erection, but I could 
 not bring myself to go and speak to any one for 
 fear of meeting the same fate that befell me the 
 day I arrived. When I came home to the hotel 
 from such an expedition, I would console myself 
 by recounting my money and reckoning up how 
 many Danish dollars it was. That seemed to re- 
 assure me. Certainly it went fast, but on the 
 whole I was in no way alarmed over myself, 
 because I knew very well that when the necessity 
 came a little nearer I should easily get something 
 to do. Meanwhile I could go out every day 
 shooting, fishing, and enjoying myself as best I 
 could. 
 
 One of the first days I was in Townsville, I went 
 out in the main road leading to the gold diggings, 
 and when I was about a mile or two out of town 
 I came to a house which attracted my attention. 
 It was very small, the walls were built of saplings, 
 the roof was covered with bark, tin, and all sorts 
 of odd materials. The door was made of a sapling
 
 110 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 frame with bagging stretched across it. Yet the 
 place had a cool, clean sort of appearance, and 
 under the verandah in a home-made squatter's 
 chair sat a man smoking a long pipe. Yet I should 
 probably have passed by without taking notice of 
 any of these details if it had not been that in front 
 of the house, but close to the road, was erected a 
 sort of frame like a gallows, and from it dangled in 
 a most conspicuous way an empty bottle. Under- 
 neath was a piece of board nailed to a tree, and on 
 it was written with chalk the one word thrice 
 repeated: "Bier. Bier. Bier." That caused me 
 to look at the man, and I perceived it was one 
 of my shipmates. This man was between fifty 
 and sixty years old when he landed nine months 
 before with his wife and eight children. I am very 
 certain that he did not then own more than I did 
 myself, but he had on the voyage exhibited such a 
 cheerful disposition, and had such a happy knack 
 of always trying to explain things in a way that 
 would make one think that any misfortune that 
 might happen would have been just the very thing 
 wanted, that he had been a general favourite. But 
 when we came to Bowen nobody had engaged him 
 and his eight children, and so he had been sent 
 here, and now I saw him sitting smoking his pipe 
 under the verandah with great gusto. He seemed 
 as glad to see me as I was to see him, and asked 
 me to come and sit on a box which stood alongside 
 him, and to have a smoke out of his long pipe. 
 Then he began to spin his yarn. His girls were at
 
 TOWNSVILLE : MORE COLONIAL EXPERIENCES. Ill 
 
 service, the two of them, and had each ten shillings 
 per week, and they brought it all home, for they 
 were good girls. He had got somebody to apply 
 for this land for him on his land order, " and here," 
 he said, " right and left is all mine. Me and 
 mother built the house ourselves ; come inside 
 and see." 
 
 "But," said I, "what is the meaning of that 
 empty bottle you have hung up there ? " 
 
 " Oh," cried he, " did you not see my signboard. 
 I sell beer. I cannot understand their blessed 
 language, but I thought if I showed them the 
 bottle they would know what it meant, and Annie 
 drew that signboard herself last Sunday she 
 was home ; she is a splendid scholar, you know 
 you should only hear her talk English. It fetches 
 them right enough. You will see nearly every- 
 body who comes along the road must be in here 
 and have his beer." 
 
 Then we went inside, and there were the old 
 lady and her children, as happy as could be. Now 
 I had to tell my history, and after much argument 
 my friend made me believe that the reason the 
 contractor had not given me a job was because I 
 had told him the truth. " You should have said 
 you earned fifteen shillings a day in Bowen, that 
 you would not work under sixteen shillings now ; 
 that is the way. Always tell them you can do 
 anything." 
 
 Good old fellow ! How cheerful I felt when at 
 last I went away. I laughed to myself, too, at his
 
 112 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 important self-confident air. If lie has kept his 
 land and sold beer to this day, I am sure he can 
 smoke his pipe now with great complacency 
 unless, indeed, riches, a circumstance over which 
 he had no control, have spoiled him. 
 
 In the hotel in which I stayed were several other 
 lodgers, among them an elderly man with a long 
 beard and a most fatherly air. He became daily 
 more friendly to me, and at the end of the first 
 week he told me he was himself a Dane, and that he 
 had been in the Colonies a great many years. He 
 said he had watched me with growing interest ; 
 that he generally was chary of offering his friend- 
 ship to anybody, but that he now was satisfied that 
 I was a respectable, well-meaning youth, and that 
 his heart went out towards me. Of course the 
 least I, under the circumstances, could do was to 
 accept his proffered friendship in the same spirit 
 in which it was oifered, and I told him frankly all 
 my business, and how I was still smarting under 
 the insult I had received on my first arrival in 
 Townsville to such a degree that from day to day 
 I could not bring myself to ask for work again, and 
 how, I added, my bit of money was going fast. 
 He, on his part, gave me to understand that he 
 was not a rich man, although several times he had 
 made his fortune. "But," said he, "I never let 
 the left hand know what the right hand is doing. 
 Sometimes, as for instance now, I run myself 
 quite short ; it does not matter, I can always make 
 enough for myself as long as God gives me strength."
 
 TOWNSVILLE : MORE COLONIAL EXPESIENCES. 113 
 
 I went with him to church on the Sunday, 
 although I did not understand a word of what the 
 parson said, but my ancient friend had already 
 acquired a sort of proprietorship over me, and as 
 he seemed to be intensely religious, it imparted a 
 kind of holy feeling to me to sit near him. After 
 church, he lectured me on religion very severely, 
 and all the time I knew him he prayed devoutly 
 both morning and evening. A few days after, he 
 told me he had taken a contract from one of the 
 storekeepers in town to cut hay. He said that a 
 man could cut a load of hay in a day, and that he 
 was to get thirty shillings a load for it. He would 
 now, said he, have to buy a horse and dray, and 
 would also have to look out for a partner. I 
 asked him if he thought I might do, and said that 
 if I could not work as much as he I should not 
 expect the same pay, but that I was confident that 
 I would not be far behind. 
 
 " Well, I might do ; " he would like to have me 
 for a partner, but he understood that I had very 
 little money. It would be necessary for his 
 partner to have at least thirty pounds, as the 
 horse and dray alone would cost forty pounds, and 
 we should have to buy tools and to keep ourselves 
 in rations for some time. I was very sorry that I 
 had got only something like eight pounds. " All 
 right ; " he would take me if I would do the best I 
 could. He had already an offer for a horse and 
 dray. Then we set about buying a tent and a lot 
 of rations in a store, also scythes and one thing 
 
 9
 
 114 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 and another necessary for the job. My partner 
 advised me that we should not pay for it just then, 
 as we were to deliver hay for the money. The 
 same day we left with all our things packed in our 
 swags, and went into the bush about four miles, 
 where there was plenty of long grass suitable for 
 haymaking, and there we pitched our tent. 
 
 Here I worked for a couple of months with the 
 utmost eagerness. It was a time of long summer 
 days, and from daylight to dark was I at it, doing 
 my level best. My partner had bought a horse 
 and a dray, and was taking hay into town every 
 day, but he did not work much at home. Of 
 course, as he said, he was getting to be old, and 
 could not work as formerly ; but then he did all 
 the business, and, according to his estimate, we 
 earned a couple of pounds every day. As for me, 
 I worked contented and happy, although we had 
 not yet taken any money for the hay and I had 
 given iny partner every sixpence I possessed to 
 help in buying the horse and dray. We lived very 
 frugally, too at least, I did ; my partner had his 
 dinner in town, but that was only a necessity when 
 he was bringing hay in because, as he said, he did 
 not believe in all this gorging and over-feeding 
 which was customary in these latter days. As for 
 smoking tobacco, he was much against it, and 
 declared it to be not only a wicked but a dirty 
 habit ; so, to please him, I had given up the pipe. 
 I made breakfast for him in the morning, and was 
 at work before he rose. I had supper ready for
 
 TOWNSVILLE : MORE COLONIAL EXPERIENCES. 115 
 
 him when he came home at night, and I never 
 spared myself or gave a thought to the unequal 
 distribution of work between us. 
 
 One evening my partner did not come home. I 
 was very anxious, picturing to myself all sorts of 
 dreadful calamities which might have happened to 
 him. In the morning I went into the town to the 
 storekeeper, whom I understood bought the hay, 
 but I could get no satisfaction there. They had 
 not seen him for a week, they said, and only bought 
 hay occasionally. I thought they did not under- 
 stand me, and I went to another storekeeper, and 
 got a similar answer. As I stood quite bewildered 
 in the street, I saw the horse and dray coming 
 past, and a stranger driving. On inquiry, I learnt 
 that the man who was driving had bought the 
 whole concern the day before for thirty-five 
 pounds. While we were yet talking one of my 
 countrymen came up and wanted to know about 
 the horse and cart too, and, to make a long story 
 short, it appeared that my mate had borrowed, on 
 one pretext and another, from the Danes in town 
 nearly a hundred pounds in small sums. He had 
 also bought the horse and dray with a very small 
 cash deposit, and sold them for cash, got paid for 
 all the hay we had cut, and owing for our rations 
 in one of the stores besides, he had cleared out. 
 Benevolent-looking old hypocrite, when I found it 
 
 all out, I felt as if I could have never mind 
 
 what is the good ? say no more. I had not got a 
 copper. I went up to the hotel where I had been
 
 116 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 staying before I had started haymaking, and began 
 to pour out my tale of woe to the publican, 
 with no other object than to get sympathy. The 
 publican looked absent-minded, then he smiled : he 
 
 always thought old had a " smart look " about 
 
 him. " And so he has done all of you new chums, 
 eh ! Say it again. How was it he did it ? You are 
 too soft for this country." 
 
 I was on the point of leaving, when a man came 
 
 in and asked me if I was old 's partner. I said 
 
 " yes." Would I be so good as to pay this bill for 
 two pounds odd shillings at once, or if I did not 
 lie would make me into sausages. This was too 
 much. I know myself to be good-natured, and I 
 told him so, but if he had any evil designs on me, 
 why I would pull his nose. We had a long con- 
 versation on this matter, and at last he agreed not 
 to annihilate me there and then, and I on my part 
 declared myself satisfied if he would give me his 
 pipe and tobacco and let me have a good long 
 smoke as a sort of proof to me that he bore me 
 no ill-will. When peace was thus restored, he be- 
 came very triendly, and explained to me that he had 
 misunderstood the matter before, and that he was 
 very sorry for me, but that he would yet make my 
 partner pay us all if I would only leave it to him 
 and go home. " Only leave it to him"? I had 
 nothing else to do but to go home, because in the 
 camp there was at least a bit to eat. So home I 
 went. But what a change had now come about in 
 my fortune ! Not only the loss of the money
 
 TOWNSVILLE : MORE COLONIAL EXPERIENCES. 117 
 
 although that was serious enough, but there was 
 the shock to my faith in human nature ! Who 
 could I put faith in after this ? I began in a sort 
 of mechanical way to cut hay again just to get away 
 from my thoughts. Then I threw the tools as far as 
 I could, and went to lie down in the tent with my 
 mind in a state of blank. Where would I go, and 
 what should I do next ? After a while, the man 
 who had wanted me to pay a bill came and posted 
 a bill on a tree. He inquired of me if I had a horse, 
 and seemed very sorry for me when I told him 
 "no." He informed me also that I must not remove 
 anything, as to do so would be stealing. I under- 
 stood sufficient of the proceedings to know that 
 he also would be very " smart " if he could, and he 
 was scarcely gone, before a man came with another 
 summons, which was pasted underneath the first. 
 This would never do, thought I. Was I to allow 
 myself to be made a cricket-ball of by every one who 
 chose to play with me. I must be " smart " too r 
 and as soon as I got the idea, it struck me as an 
 immense joke. Would it have been wicked, thought 
 .1, if I had been able to work a double game on the 
 old swindler who had taken me in ? They seemed 
 to show respect for the swindler, and contempt for 
 the dupe ; but then there was the risk of cheating 
 honest people, and that I could never do. No, that 
 must not be. But talking about cheating and 
 stealing, as the fellows who had posted the sum- 
 monses on the trees had done, now they were 
 trying to get paid their score out of the few things
 
 118 DANISH EM1GEANT. 
 
 which were left in the camp without regard to me, 
 and had the impudence to tell me that I must not 
 remove anything. Bosh ! Was it not paid for 
 with my own money ? Certainly all there might 
 not fetch ten shillings, but who had a better right 
 or more need of it than I ? So, as the first step 
 in " smartness," I remembered that possession 
 amounts to nine points of the law, and for the rest 
 I would in my mind keep a sort of profit and loss 
 account, and I began at once by writing down my 
 present score and leaving open the opposite page 
 for such circumstances as the future might have 
 in store. Dangerous thoughts, I admit, but this 
 is the truth, and having found a weapon in this 
 determination, it did not take me ten minutes to 
 make up my mind what to do. 
 
 There was a settler living not far away from 
 where we had been cutting hay. This man always 
 seemed to me to have a friendly air about him as 
 he would come past occasionally, and he had always 
 made a point of stopping to speak to me at such 
 times. He had several times invited me to come 
 and visit him, but I had never yet done so. I now 
 thought I would go and see him and ask him his 
 advice, whether he thought that I had a right 
 to claim what there was in the camp, and if so, 
 try to induce him to buy what there was. I ac- 
 cordingly went over to his place and told him all 
 about my trouble. He was an Irishman. "Bad 
 luck to the ould offinder ! " cried he, "and so he 
 has run away. This is an awful wurld. Ah, me
 
 TOWNSVILLE: MORE COLONIAL EXPERIENCES. 119 
 
 lad, take my advice, never have anything to do 
 with them Germans. Well, never mind, you are 
 a German too, but that one was worse than a 
 native dog anyhow, and so he was." 
 
 I asked him what he thought about the things in 
 the camp, whether I might have them : there was an 
 axe, besides two scythes, a bucket, billy, frying-pan, 
 some old blankets and other articles, and then 
 there was the tent. " Oh, that was all right." I 
 could bring it all over to his place, and he would 
 swear to any one that it was his, and he would like 
 to see the man who would dispute it. I might 
 come too, he said, and live with him until I got 
 something to do. He would do much more than 
 that, only that he had no money. This seemed to 
 suit me in every respect, and I began at once 
 carrying over all that was in the tent to my new 
 friend's place ; but the tent itself I let stand for 
 any one to fight about as they thought fit, or for the 
 Government to inherit I did not care which. The 
 next few days I passed with the Irishman. He 
 was not married, and lived quite alone on this 
 piece of land which he had taken up as a selection. 
 The hut had only one room, and the absence of that 
 refining influence which is generally supposed to 
 pervade a place where women live, was painfully 
 apparent. The Irishman knew this very well, for 
 he had always a way of excusing the rampant dis- 
 order in the hut by saying " that the Missis was 
 not at home, bad luck." 
 
 Under the bunk were two bags of corn piled up
 
 120 DANISH EMIGBANT. 
 
 in the cobs, in another comer lay some turnips and 
 seed-potatoes ; we boiled the corned beef and the 
 tea in the one billy, and if the billy was full of meat 
 or potatoes, when we wanted to make tea, it was 
 only the work of a second to topple it all out into 
 the bunk and fill the billy up with water for the tea. 
 I am sure I now ask my friend's pardon for re- 
 paying his hospitality by describing these matters, 
 but as I hope this history of my life will be pub- 
 lished, it may possibly be read by young ladies, and 
 I cannot resist the temptation to show them the 
 faithful picture of a bachelor's den in the Queens- 
 land bush. If it were a singular instance I should 
 not think it worth relating, but it is not ; it would 
 bo more correct to say it is the general rule. 
 
 Every day I went into town and looked out for 
 something to do, but I found great difficulty. 
 Work was plentiful, but wherever I inquired if they 
 wanted a carpenter, their first question was about 
 my tools. I had no tools, and they would not 
 engage me. One evening I was in town on pur- 
 pose to speak to a contractor who had told me to 
 call at his private residence at nine o'clock with a 
 view to engaging me. As I was walking about 
 trying to kill the time, I found myself standing 
 down on the wharf, where I had come ashore the 
 first day I landed in Townsville. I was watching 
 the little steamer that used to run between the 
 town and the bay, and which now seemed to be 
 getting steam up, and in a vague sort of way I 
 wondered whether the steamer out in the bay was
 
 TOWNS VILLE: MORE COLONIAL EXPERIENCES. 121 
 
 going north or south, so I asked one of the sailors. 
 " North," said he ; " they go to Batavia, but they 
 call at the pearl fisheries at Cape Somerset. Are 
 you going?" 
 
 I had, of course, never thought of it till that 
 moment, but as he said " pearl fisheries" it struck 
 me that it must be a delightful occupation to sit 
 fishing for pearls, and that it would be worth 
 running a risk to try to get to that place. Besides, 
 it would be a splendid adventure. So I said, 
 " Yes, I am going." "Have you been there 
 before ? " said he ; " perhaps you are a diver ? " 
 
 " Yes, I was a diver." I found out next that I 
 should just have time to go out to my camp in the 
 bush, to collect my swag and be back in time for 
 the steamer. I ran all the way there and back, 
 laughing to myself all the time, because there 
 seemed to myself such a splendid uncertainty about 
 how the adventure would turn out. I had got no 
 money, but it only troubled me so far as perhaps it 
 might make it impracticable to get on board. Any- 
 how, I meant to have a hard try for it. When I 
 came back I stood watching the little steamer 
 until the moment they were about to cast off. Then 
 with a hue and cry I rushed on board. 
 
 As we sailed down the river the captain said to 
 me, " Are you the diver?" "No savey." "Are you 
 going up to the pearl fisheries?" "No savey." 
 " Have you got a ticket ? " " No savey." " Dang 
 
 that fellow ! Are you Deutcher ?" "No savey." 
 
 "Well, if you 'no savey,' all I can tell you is
 
 122 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 that you shall not get on board the steamer with- 
 out a ticket. You savey swim ? " 
 
 " Oh yes, I savey swim belong de pearl all de 
 time ? " " Oh, well, I think you had better go 
 back with us again, because they will only give you 
 to the sharks up there, if you try any tricks on 
 them." 
 
 Here the conversation was interrupted by the 
 captain having to attend to the ship, and I 
 scrambled out of his way. It did not take long 
 before we were out alongside the large steamer, 
 and so as it was very close I watched my oppor- 
 tunity and climbed up the side and on board. 
 There was a large coil of rope lying on the deck, 
 and into that I crept without a thought for the 
 morrow. I heard the ship getting under weigh and 
 then I slept, if not the sleep of the just, at least 
 without dreams. 
 
 Next day was Sunday. I only woke up as the 
 sun was shining in my face, and then I got up 
 and looked around me. We were steaming along 
 the coast ; there seemed to be nobody about but the 
 sailors. I had a walk about the deck and a wash 
 at the pump. Nobody spoke to me for some time, 
 until the steward came and in a most natural way 
 told me breakfast was ready. " Good ! " He is 
 a sensible man, thought I, and I went below and 
 had a good meal. As soon as I had well finished, 
 the mate came in and asked me for my ticket. I 
 had formed no particular plan of campaign, but I 
 felt so self-confident and happy, that I was perfectly
 
 TOWNSVILLE : MOEE COLONIAL EXPERIENCES. 123 
 
 convinced within myself that it would be impossible 
 for any one to be out of temper with me. It is 
 necessary to bear this in mind to believe what 
 follows. Mirth is catching, and is irresistible when 
 natural, but nothing but the genuine article will do 
 here. So now the mate came up to me and said, 
 " Ticket." I laughed and cried " No tide." He 
 looked rather surprised at me, and held out his 
 hand saying, "Ticket." " Oh," cried I, laughing, 
 while I grasped his hand, " Ticket oh I savey 
 you give me ticket ? " 
 
 " Oh, this won't do," said he, although I could 
 perceive my mirth was working on him. " Money, 
 money or ticket " at the same time he took out 
 half a crown and showed it me. I tried to take 
 the half-crown from him and patted him on the 
 shoulder, saying, " Good fellow you," and when he 
 would not give it me, I told him he was too much 
 gammon for me altogether. At last I got him to 
 laugh properly, and then he said I was too much 
 gammon for him too, but that now I should have 
 to go off with him to the captain, because he could 
 not give me a free passage and could make neither 
 head nor tail of me in the bargain. 
 
 " Come on," cried he ; " to the captain you go." 
 My whole frame shook with laughter. I do not 
 know why, I simply relate the fact. It seemed to 
 me so strange and comical that I was now here, a 
 regular loafer, a sort of criminal, and unemployed, 
 a what not, not knowing where I was going and 
 not caring ; and what would this blessed captain
 
 124 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 do with me, or think of me ? On we came, the- 
 mate and I, up to the quarter-deck. There was a. 
 good-looking man of thirty odd years of age re- 
 clining at his ease in a sort of chair, more in a 
 lying than a sitting posture. He was playing with 
 the hand of a lady who was sitting alongside of 
 him, and they looked so affectionately at one 
 another that I made sure at once they were not 
 husband and wife ! Besides these, the only other 
 person on deck was the man at the wheel. On we 
 came, and the mate presented me as a stowaway.. 
 I saluted the lady and the captain airily, and he 
 spoke to me, hut I paid no attention to what he 
 was saying. I was looking at the lady and thinking 
 of my adventure in Bowen, the first time I saluted 
 a lady in Queensland. My sides shook with laughter 
 until I saw the lady in the same condition ; then 
 I exploded. The lady, the captain, the mate, and 
 the man at the wheel all followed suit ! I beat, 
 my chest and called on all the saints to give me 
 strength to stop, but I could not, and we all kept, 
 laughing until, from utter exhaustion, the lady and 
 the captain were lying back in their chairs with 
 averted faces, the mate was hanging over the 
 gunwale, and I was lying on my elbow on the deck, 
 regularly sick. Every time the captain or any of 
 them were looking at me they made me laugh 
 again. At last the captain, after several attempts- 
 to speak to me cried, " Go away, go away ; I speak 
 to you by and by." 
 
 I had not been gone half an hour before I was.
 
 TOWNSVILLE : MOEE COLONIAL EXPERIENCES. 125 
 
 called back again. The lady was this time sitting 
 with her back to me. The captain said, " What 
 liave you got to say for yourself? " 
 
 I somehow felt sure that it was all right, and 
 that the lady was going to say a good word for me, 
 or had done so already. Anyhow I altered my 
 tactics, and told them how it was that I had no 
 money, and how I somehow, perhaps recklessly, 
 hut on the spur of the moment, had got on board. 
 "When I had finished speaking I felt very foolish, 
 and as the lady turned round and looked at me, I 
 blushed up to the roots of my hair, and felt very 
 much ashamed. Then the captain said, "And 
 what do you want to do at Cape Somerset ? " 
 
 I did not know. " Have you no money ? " "No." 
 " No friends there ? " " No." " You have been 
 Tery foolish." 
 
 After a while he said : " There will be nothing 
 for you to do at Cape Somerset and as little at 
 Batavia. The only thing I can do for you is to 
 put you ashore at Cardwell, here, on the coast. 
 There is a settlement there and some sugar planta- 
 tions up the river. I will do that for you, if you 
 like." 
 
 I thanked him very much, and said I did not 
 know what to do with myself. " All right, you can 
 hold yourself in readiness to go ashore." 
 
 A couple of hours afterwards, the steamer was 
 very close to land, and I saw some houses on the 
 beach. A boat was lowered and manned by sailors, 
 and I was told to get in. But so benevolent did
 
 126 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 the captain prove, that they bundled in after me a. 
 lot of flour, tea, sugar, and meat, also a tent. I 
 felt completely crushed : I sat in the hoat and dared 
 not look around ; only after they put me ashore I 
 waved my handkerchief, and there, yes, they were 
 waving their handkerchiefs back to me. There 
 seemed to be a big lump in my throat. Was I in 
 love ? Perhaps I was, I do not know, but I felt 
 very sure that if just then I had thought that I 
 could have obliged either the captain or the lady 
 on board by drowning myself, I would have done 
 it. They had put me ashore in a place where the 
 houses which formed the settlement were hidden 
 from my view, and I was glad of it, because I did 
 not want to see everybody. I found a little stream 
 of water close by, then I pitched the tent and laid 
 myself down outside, looking after the smoke of 
 the steamer as long as I could see the slightest 
 sign of it. An unspeakable longing for home, a 
 craving for sympathy, was all over me. I suppose 
 most people have felt the same emotion. I did 
 not go up to town for two or three days after ; 
 I remained lying on the beach all day looking out 
 over the sea, and half the night I would walk up 
 and down thinking, or, perhaps it would be more 
 correct to say, feeling all sorts of things. 
 
 If we would all only always remember the value 
 of a kind word, or a little genuine sympathy, how 
 much better the world would be ! Who shall say 
 what I might have been to-day, or into what 
 channels my mind might have been led, if the
 
 TOWNSVILLE: MOEE COLONIAL EXPERIENCES. 127 
 
 captain had acted towards me as he would have 
 been quite justified in doing that is, if he had 
 given me in charge of the police when we came to 
 a shore, and if I had been just a week or two in the 
 lock-up ? I had been wronged in Townsville, and 
 afterwards I had received the impression that it 
 was a case of each man for himself without fear or 
 favour. What this impression would have led to 
 if it had not been in this happy way checked in 
 the very beginning, is hard to say, but when at last 
 I bent my steps towards the dozen or two of houses 
 which formed the township of Cardwell, it was with 
 a resolution to do my best, but not to sail again 
 under false colours.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 ON THE HERBERT RIVER. 
 
 10
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 ON THE HEEBEET EIVEB. 
 
 T^ROM the glimpses I already had of the settle- 
 A ment, I came to the conclusion that it was of 
 no use looking for carpenter's work here, so I went 
 into the most conspicuous house I could see, viz., 
 the hotel, and asked for a job of any kind. There 
 were three or four men in the bar, dried-up looking 
 mummies they seemed to me, but very friendly, 
 for they began at once to mix in the conversation, 
 and after I had told everybody all round where I 
 came from, how old I was, what I could do, how 
 long I had been in the country, and a lot more 
 besides, they held a consultation among them- 
 selves, and agreed that my best plan was to go up 
 on the sugar plantations on the Herbert River. 
 It appeared that the mail for the plantation was 
 taken up the river once a fortnight from Cardwell 
 in a common boat, and my new friends, after 
 standing drinks all round, unsolicited went to the 
 captain about letting me go with him, and pull an 
 oar in lieu of passage money. They asked me 
 into dinner, as a matter of course ; and who should 
 I see waiting at the table but a German girl, one
 
 132 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 of my shipmates. " Happy meeting." Then for 
 two or three more days I was breaking firewood 
 for a living, and meanwhile it seemed as if I was 
 the admiration of the whole community, because 
 Cardwell is, and was then, as well as the Herbert 
 Eiver, a fearful place for fever, and the whole 
 population was in a constant state of disease. As 
 for me, Queensland had so far, I believe, rather 
 improved my appearance than otherwise. Any- 
 how, it was a case all the day through to answer 
 people how long I had been in the country ; then 
 they would say, " Hah ! Europe, the old country 
 that must be the best place, after all. Look at 
 his cheeks ! " Then I would be advised to clear 
 out again as fast as I came, or else in three months 
 I should look like everybody around me. It used 
 to surprise me very much, but I could not under- 
 stand it, because the climate seemed to me excel- 
 lent ; and as everybody seemed so kind, and I was 
 in the best of health, I only laughed at their 
 sayings. Meanwhile I had spoken to the man in 
 charge of the mail-boat, and one day at noon I 
 embarked for the plantations. It was an ordinary 
 rowing boat, and besides myself it had two other 
 occupants the captain, who was a Frenchman ; 
 the other an American. They both, on ordinary 
 occasions, each pulled an oar; but this time, as 
 I was there, the captain took the helm and I the 
 oar. I pulled away as hard as I could, and did 
 not see much of where we were going, but by the 
 time it grew dark we were past the mouth of the
 
 OJV THE HERBERT RIVER. 133 
 
 river, and in smooth water. We dropped anchor 
 in the middle of the river, because, as the captain 
 explained to me, if we were to run ashore an alli- 
 gator would be sure to try and crawl into the boat. 
 They had appliances in the boat for boiling water, 
 and after tea they both sat for a couple of hours 
 spinning alligator yarns. I listened with great 
 interest and not without fear, because the river 
 was swarming with the reptiles. The blacks were 
 also at that time so bad that no one dared to go 
 overland to the plantations, unless in a large com- 
 pany. Here in the boat we had two loaded rifles 
 and two revolvers, and before we reached the plan- 
 tations I saw enough to convince me that it was 
 necessary to be very careful when we had occasion 
 to go ashore. It was also considered always neces- 
 sary for one to keep watch the whole night, and as 
 I was not sleepy I took the first watch, while the 
 other two laid themselves down and soon snored 
 lustily. Put there staring out into the darkness, 
 with the loaded rifle over my knee, could it really 
 be true, as my two shipmates had just assured 
 me, that I was bound to catch the fever before 
 three months were over ? How did people here 
 do when they were sick ? I had asked that 
 question also, and they had answered it by asking 
 me if I thought anybody here was running about 
 with a hospital on his back. And when any one 
 died, it appeared that they rolled the body in a 
 blanket and threw it in the river for the alligators 
 to do the rest ! These alligators, too, which might
 
 134 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 at any time upset the boat and eat us ! Would it 
 be my fate to serve as food for one of them ? 
 Horrible thought. But I had heard that evening 
 so much about alligators ; how, if I were at any 
 time to be caught by one I should try to stick my 
 finger into its eye, and that it would then eject 
 me again ; the whole thing being just as if it 
 were a most natural and common occurrence here 
 for people to be eaten by these monsters. Then 
 there were the blacks ; they were both savage and 
 numerous, and I had got strict orders to listen 
 with all my ears for any surprise from them. I 
 had taken great notice that when boiling the tea 
 my shipmates had been very careful to conceal 
 the fire. 
 
 Bang ! crack ! went the rifle. Up rushed the 
 Frenchman and the American, revolvers in hand. 
 I stared at them. They stared at me. 
 
 " What is the matter? " whispered the captain. 
 
 "I don't know," whispered I; "the gun went 
 off." 
 
 It was well for me, perhaps, that I was not 
 familiar with the French language, or else who 
 knows but the Franco-German war might not have 
 been renewed between myself and the captain. 
 He screamed and laughed and swore both " Mon 
 Dieu" and " Sacre bleu," and then he assured me 
 that it was only because I was a German that I 
 was afraid ! 
 
 The Yankee sat and smoked his pipe, and 
 laughed in a peculiar way ; and, wild and ashamed
 
 ON THE HEBBERT BIVEB. 135 
 
 of myself, I could not help feeling amused at him, 
 because he laughed, although the grimaces in his 
 face were exactly those another man would make 
 if he were going to cry. By and by the captain 
 began to feel calmer, and as I was disposed only 
 to feel angry with myself for the fear which had 
 caused me to press on the trigger of the rifle until 
 it went off, we were soon friends again. My watch 
 was over, and I laid down to sleep, while the 
 two others took their turn to watch the rest of the 
 night. At break of day we hoisted the anchor and 
 began to propel the boat again. I never remember 
 anything in nature making the same impression on 
 me as the scenery around us. The broad river, or 
 inlet, was dotted all over with beautiful small 
 islands, then on the mainland the hills seemed to 
 rise to immense heights, covered with the primeval 
 forest. The sun rose and shone with that splen- 
 dour that those who have been in the tropics can 
 alone imagine. Parrots and all other birds flew 
 about in great numbers, screaming as if with joy. 
 
 At sunrise we went ashore on a small island 
 about half an acre in extent, but verdant with 
 tropical plants, quite a home of summer ! Here 
 we had breakfast and a rest before we started 
 again. How inconceivable did it seem to me that 
 this climate should be so unhealthy as they said 
 it was. Anyhow, it seemed to me that to have 
 seen this place would be justification for saying 
 one had not lived in vain, and if the worst 
 was to come, death seemed to me to have no
 
 136 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 terror if one might be buried on that island. We 
 now started off again, pulling the boat. Shortly 
 after, the sky became overcast and rain began to 
 pour down. First, we had taken all our clothes 
 off and covered them up with a piece of canvas. 
 The rain descended in sheets of water all day, and 
 we had a rare bath all the time ; one was always 
 baling the boat and the other pulling. I can 
 never forget that weary day. We could not make 
 a fire, we had no shelter, and scarcely five 
 minutes' rest or interval from pulling. A sort of 
 morose silence seemed to settle over us all. Long 
 after dark in the evening did it keep on raining, 
 and I began to wonder where we should put our- 
 selves that night. As the others said nothing, I 
 did not intend to be the first to knock under. 
 Still, I was ready to drop as I pulled along in the 
 pitch darkness, and it made it much worse that I 
 did not know but that I might have to do it all 
 night. At last the captain took up a horn and 
 blew a tune on it, and a few minutes later we 
 heard a fearful barking as of a score of big dogs. 
 We had arrived at the place where the township 
 of Ingham stands to-day. At that time there was 
 only one solitary house built on high posts, with 
 plenty of room to walk about underneath. I 
 understood the house was the joint property of the 
 planters further up the river, and the place was 
 used as a sort of depot. There was an old man in 
 charge, the only inhabitant ; he lived there all 
 alone, protected by a score of dogs, the most
 
 ON THE HERBERT RIVER. 137 
 
 ferocious-looking beasts I ever saw. It was also 
 part of his duty to receive and be hospitable to 
 such travellers as might find their way there. I 
 was told these details while in the boat, and 
 cautioned not to run the boat ashore before we 
 were invited, as the dogs for certain would tear 
 roe to pieces. We heard the old fellow cooeing, 
 and shortly after he came down to us. He had a 
 lantern hung around his neck, and two ferocious- 
 looking dogs were held in chains by him, striving 
 and tearing to get at us. Some more dogs, which 
 he said were quiet, but which did not look so, 
 were barking and straining after us at the landing- 
 place. My shipmates had been there before, and 
 at last the dogs seemed to know them ; but poor I 
 had to remain by myself in the boat until the old 
 man had got all the dogs chained again. At last 
 I came ashore. Oh, the joy now of a fire, dry 
 clothes, a good supper, a glass of grog, and a good 
 bed ! A good bed in the Queensland bush means 
 two saplings stuck through a couple of flour-bags, 
 with two sticks nailed across at the head and the 
 foot to keep them apart. 
 
 The next evening, after another hard day's 
 pulling, we came to the first plantation. This 
 seemed quite a large place. I cannot now after 
 so many years state how many people there were 
 or what they were doing, if ever I knew it; but 
 let it suffice to say that we were all well received 
 at supper- time in the single men's hut, where a 
 large crowd of men were collected. The French.
 
 138 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 man told me I should be sure to get a job as 
 carpenter from the planter, and that I must 
 demand three pounds sterling per week and board 
 for my services, nothing less. I slept that night 
 on the dining-table, as there was no spare bunk ;. 
 and I remember that night with great distinctness,, 
 on account of what I suffered from mosquitoes. 
 The next morning I saw the planter, and asked 
 him for a job as carpenter. " Yes," said he ; I 
 was the very man he wanted. He intended to 
 build a house of split timber ; I might give him a 
 price. He would order a couple of horses, and we 
 would ride out to look for timber, and if I liked the 
 trees, so much the better. This was a thing I did 
 not then understand anything about, and I told 
 him so. " Never mind," said he, " I will find you 
 something; you can make me a waggon." I told 
 him waggons were not in my line. "What is in. 
 your line, then ? " inquired he. 
 
 I understood the carpentry needed in brick- 
 building, or at least part of it, and I could make 
 joinery of sawn timber. 
 
 " Very well; when he wanted a brick building,, 
 or joinery made of sawn timber, he would send for 
 me." 
 
 Then he walked off in a bad humour, and I had 
 to go back to the boat to tell my shipmates how 
 I had fared. That same day, at dinner-time, we 
 arrived at the next plantation. I was by this time 
 in very low spirits, because I did not know what 
 was to become of me. Everybody seemed to have>
 
 ON THE HERBERT RIVER. 139 
 
 an errand and something to do except myself, and 
 I did not see how and when my services would be 
 called into requisition; but my two shipmates kept 
 telling me it was my own fault, and that I should 
 take anything I could get to do. So I would, but 
 what was it I could do ? Anyhow, they kept 
 telling me that here was the only likely place left, 
 and I there must get a job. I must say I could do 
 anything. After I had dined, the Frenchman kept 
 poking at me and pointing out to me the planter, 
 telling me I must ask for a job. So I mustered 
 up courage and went up and spoke to him. 
 " What can you do ? " " Anything." " Can 
 you cook?" "Do you mean making dinners?" 
 "Yes." "No, I cannot do that." "Can you 
 split fencing stuff?" "No." " Can you make 
 brick ? " No." " Can you chip ? " " What is 
 that?" "KiU weeds with a hoe." "I never 
 did it before." " I am afraid it is difficult to find 
 you a job. You say you can do anything : what 
 is it you can do ? " 
 
 I was again quite crestfallen as I said, " I do 
 not think I can do <m?/thing." " Well, then, I 
 cannot find you anything to do." With that he 
 went his way, and I came back to where the 
 Frenchman sat, and I had to tell him once more 
 of my hard fate. At this he began to swear in 
 French like one demented, and asked me had I 
 never told the planter I was a carpenter. " No." 
 " Mon Dieu ! oh, Mori Dieu, was any one like 
 this infant!" Then he ran after the planter and
 
 140 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 spoke to him, and soon they both came back. 
 The planter then said he had been told I was a 
 carpenter, and that he was prepared to find work 
 for me at that trade, but that he would prefer me 
 to go into the boat to the next plantation, as he 
 knew his neighbour was much in want of me. If 
 I did not get on there he would employ me as I 
 came back. What a relief I felt, especially as I 
 understood they did not expect me to build houses 
 out of growing trees! The next evening we passed 
 the place where I was told I could get work, but it 
 was on the other side of the river. A man stood 
 down by the water's edge hailing the boat. He 
 sang out to us if we thought it possible he might 
 get a carpenter in Cardwell. It was music in 
 my ears. The Frenchman cried back : " We have 
 one on the boat." The man on shore replied he 
 wanted one to make boxes, tables, and the like. I 
 was ready to jump out of the boat with anxiety, 
 but I had to content myself, as my shipmates 
 would not let me off before the return journey, 
 and so I had to ply the oar until, far out into the 
 night, we arrived at the furthest point of our 
 journey, viz., the Native Police camp. 
 
 I may say a few words about this establishment. 
 Eound about in Queensland, on the furthest out- 
 skirts of settlements, some official will be stationed 
 in charge of half a dozen aboriginals, trained in 
 the use of the rifle and amenable to discipline. It 
 is the duty of this official, with the assistance of 
 his troopers, to fill the aborigines with terror, and
 
 ON THE HEBBEBT BIVEB. 141 
 
 to use such means to that end as his own judg- 
 ment may dictate. White men to hunt the blacks 
 with would be useless, as they could never track 
 them through the jungle, and would no doubt also 
 be too squeamish to fight the natives with then- 
 own weapons. But the blacks themselves delight 
 in being cruel to their own kind. Often while I 
 was on the Herbert, would I see them coming past, 
 like regular bloodhounds, quite naked, with their 
 rifle in their hand and a belt around then: waist 
 containing ammunition and the large scrub knife. 
 Their bodies would be smeared over with grease, 
 so as to be slippery to the touch. They would 
 then be out on an expedition. It no doubt re- 
 quires all the authority their officer can command 
 at such times to temper the wind to the shorn 
 lamb. As the district becomes settled the aborigi- 
 nals grow quiet, and the native police camp will 
 then be shifted further on. While I was on the 
 Herbert I never saw any other blacks besides the 
 police, although the blacks were about then in 
 great numbers. We often saw their tracks, but 
 they never showed themselves unless when they 
 could not help it. 
 
 We arrived at the police camp about two or 
 three o'clock in the morning, and were received at 
 the landing-place by two of the troopers, who 
 stood there without saying a word, as if they were 
 watching for us. They were black as the night 
 itself, and as I never saw them until I was out of 
 the boat, I fairly ran against them. One of them
 
 142 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 had a pipe in his mouth, and the only thing that 
 indicated his presence was a glowing bit of coal he 
 had stuck into it. The other one, as I already 
 stated, I ran against, and I was quite startled as I 
 looked into his gleaming eyes and as I stretched 
 out my hands felt his greasy cold flesh ! So I sang 
 out, " Hi ! vot name ? Where you sit down ? " 
 that being the usual greeting to a blackfellow, but 
 although none of them spoke a sentence, I was 
 reassured in the next moment, as I saw a gentle- 
 manly young man, dressed in a pyjamas, coming 
 down to greet us. This was their officer, and as 
 he led us towards the house I thought that it 
 must be a cruel life for any white man to lead 
 alone in such a place with nobody but a lot of 
 howling savages to exchange a thought with. I 
 do not think the whole clearing was more than 
 half an acre in extent. In the middle of it stood 
 a house built on posts eight feet high. It con- 
 tained two rooms. This was where the officer 
 lived. In the yard, or whatever you liked to call 
 the clearing, was a fire, and around it sat or lay all 
 these black troopers. Australian blacks will not 
 sleep in a house if they can possibly avoid it, so 
 this was their regular camping-place. A more 
 wild and desolate spot than this looked to me, 
 with all these naked savages lying in the yard, 
 and with weapons piled about both outside and 
 inside the house, cannot be conceived. 
 
 The next day, on our return journey, I parted 
 company with my two fellow-travellers, and went
 
 ON THE HEEBEET RIVER. 143 
 
 ashore at plantation, where I got a job as 
 
 carpenter for two pounds ten shillings per week 
 and my board. This was a place which scarcely 
 could be called a plantation yet, as it was only just 
 formed. The owner and his family lived there in 
 a large slab-house, erected on wooden piles ten or 
 twelve feet out of the ground. There were also a 
 few outbuildings, but any real work was not going 
 on, only one man, a bullock driver, being engaged 
 on the premises. My "boss" told me, though, 
 that he expected a hundred Kankas shortly from 
 the South Sea Islands, and that he wanted me to 
 fit up bunks for them, put together tables, troughs 
 for making bread in, furniture for his own house, 
 and such like. I perceived a few thousand feet of 
 sawn cedar lying about, and there and then I 
 started work to astonish the natives. I never 
 worked with greater perseverance than then. The 
 tools were in a fearful condition, but I soon got 
 them into some shape. Then I rigged up a bench 
 and made a sunshade out in the yard, where the 
 young lady could see me working, and then it 
 began to rain tables, sofas, chairs, and bunks, so 
 much that I am not afraid to say that I quickly 
 became a favourite. I found out here that I was 
 more capable than I myself thought, because I 
 even made a first-rate boat, in which I had the 
 
 pleasure of rowing about the river with Mr. 's 
 
 daughter, and in which she and her father after- 
 wards travelled to Cardwell. Miss had been 
 
 with her parents on the Herbert for a year, and
 
 144 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 shortly after I arrived on the scene she went to a 
 boarding-school in Sydney. On his return journey 
 
 from Cardwell Mr. brought home a servant 
 
 girl, who proved to be the German girl I already 
 have mentioned as having seen in Cardwell. I 
 relate this matter not because I took any par- 
 ticular interest in this girl, but because I have 
 by and by to write about what happened to all 
 of us. 
 
 My " boss " was in my eyes a regular hero, or 
 Nimrod, if you like. I went out shooting with 
 him both morning and evening, and all Sunday as 
 well, and became after a while quite a good shot. 
 
 But one thing troubled Mr. ; it was this : 
 
 that although alligators were a daily terror, he had 
 never yet been able to shoot one. When we went 
 out shooting he had always a rifle with him, loaded 
 with ball, and we would crawl about some fearful 
 places and follow the tracks of alligators, but still 
 we had no luck. As for me, I professed to be very 
 sorry too, that we did not run right up against one. 
 
 I had great faith in Mr. , and I do not think 
 
 he had any suspicion that I was really afraid; 
 still I always drew a sigh of relief when we 
 came home from one of our expeditions. There 
 is so much boasting going on in Queensland 
 about alligators, that it is next to a proverb 
 here when one is telling an untrue tale to say that 
 it is " an alligator yarn," and I am, therefore, 
 almost ashamed to write about it. Still alligators 
 are a reality, and up there we knew it. On the
 
 ON TEE HERBERT RIVER. 145 
 
 river-bank, in front of the house was a spring, from 
 which we got the water supply for the house but 
 so nervous were we that no one dared to go to it 
 without the utmost precaution. Every morning 
 
 Mr. would come and ask the bullock driver 
 
 and me if we were prepared to fetch water. Then 
 he would get his rifle and take up a position on 
 the river-bank from which he could overlook the 
 surroundings, while we went down to carry up a 
 supply of water. 
 
 And now I will relate an alligator story, although 
 I have been much tempted to pass it over for the 
 reason already stated. One day after dinner 
 
 Mr. came to me much excited, and told me 
 
 that an alligator had taken one of the working bul- 
 locks which had been lying down a few hundred 
 yards from the house, in broad daylight too. We 
 then went down to see about it, and there were the 
 tracks of the bullock and the alligator. It showed 
 plainly that the alligator must have taken the 
 bullock in the hind-quarters and have dragged it 
 along, because the earth was regularly ploughed up 
 where the bullock had been holding back with its 
 head and forelegs ; it had been dragged right down 
 to the river's edge and then killed and partly eaten. 
 As we ran the tracks down, we saw the alligator 
 by the bullock, but it dropped like a stone into the 
 
 water on our approach. Mr. turned to me with 
 
 sparkling eyes. "Now is our chance," cried he ; 
 "to-night and to-morrow night it will come again 
 
 and eat of the bullock. Then we can shoot it." 
 
 11
 
 146 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 Was it not fun ? Anyhow I said I would make one 
 of the shooting party, and then he began to unfold 
 our plan of campaign. To begin with he thought 
 it best to delay till the next evening as the alligator 
 would then be sure to be more quiet. We were to 
 take up a concealed position to windward of the 
 bullock's carcass, and await the arrival of the 
 monster. And so the next evening came, and after 
 
 tea, while it was yet light, Mr. came and asked 
 
 me if I was ready. " Yes," cried I. I was ready, 
 and in a very ferocious spirit besides ! Well, then, 
 we would get the weapons. The two rifles were 
 loaded, and each of us had a six-chambered revolver 
 as well. As for me, I stuck a butcher's knifeanmy 
 
 belt also, as a last resource, but Mr. laughed 
 
 at me for doing it and assured me that before I 
 could find use for that I should be in the alligator's 
 
 stomach. Then we went, Mr. first and I 
 
 close behind. The river-bank nearest the water 
 was very steep for about thirty yards, then there 
 was a gentle slope for another twenty yards or so, 
 and on that slope the carcass of the bullock was 
 now lying. We were very careful to have the wind 
 against us, as the alligator is very shy as a rule, and 
 
 Mr. said it would be sure to clear off if it 
 
 could smell us. Then we lay down behind some 
 bushes in a most overpowering smell from the 
 bullock ; but what will one not do for glory ? It 
 was agreed between us that we should both fire at 
 
 the same moment, and that Mr. should give 
 
 the signal. We were lying flat on the ground, and
 
 ON THE HERBERT RIVER. 147 
 
 one of Mr. 's legs was touching me, and it was 
 
 further agreed that I was not on any account to 
 fire before he with his leg pressed mine in a certain 
 way. Then I was to fire into the mouth of the 
 alligator, while he at the same moment would try 
 to send a ball through its eye. We were lying in 
 this position nearly up to midnight, when we heard 
 some heavy body come creeping up the hill, but 
 still out of sight. Now and then the noise would 
 cease for a minute or two, then it would come on 
 again, until at last we saw the dark mass of the 
 alligator come crawling up to the bullock and begin 
 to tear at it. I was not a bit nervous, because I 
 could see it quite distinctly, but I was very im- 
 patient for the signal to fire which did not come, 
 and I dared not move round sufficiently to look at 
 
 Mr. either. The alligator was turning this 
 
 way and that way. Now, I thought, is the time. 
 Still no signal. Then it turned right round, and at 
 one time I thought its tail was going to sweep us 
 away. Just when our chance was best we heard 
 another alligator coming crawling up the bank. 
 It was at that moment quite impossible to fire 
 according to the position in which the first alligator 
 was lying, but as it was moving about rapidly I 
 thought it best in any case to ignore as well as I 
 could the presence of the second alligator, which 
 we could not yet see. At last the first one began 
 to snap its jaws in that peculiar way which only 
 one who has seen a live alligator knows. Then 
 came the signal. Bang ! went the rifles. The
 
 148 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 beast never moved a muscle. It was quite dead, 
 and we could hear the other alligator tearing and 
 
 rolling down into the water again. Mr. got 
 
 up and wiped his face. " I was afraid of you get- 
 ting excited," said he. I admitted I was thankful 
 the sport was over, and without giving ourselves 
 time to measure the reptile we decamped out of 
 the smell as fast as we could. It was fairly over- 
 powering, and it took the best part of a bottle of 
 Scotch whiskey, which the " boss " introduced, to 
 make me believe that it was possible to go through 
 such adventure and still live. 
 
 It had for a long time been the wish of Mrs. 
 
 and the children to visit their nearest neighbour, 
 who, however, lived some fourteen miles away. 
 One evening preparations were made for the whole 
 family to start at daybreak next morning on the 
 bullock dray. It was quite a perilous journey for 
 a lady and children to undertake, as the track was 
 through the dense jungle most of the way, and 
 through grass eight feet high at other places, and 
 swamps, creeks, and gullies had to be crossed. 
 
 Mr. told me that he could not possibly be 
 
 back before the next night, and that he entrusted 
 everything at home to my care while he was away, 
 the girl included, and that I might take a holiday 
 until they came back, so that I on no account left 
 the premises. He also advised me that as it was 
 possible I might have a surprise from the blacks I 
 had better sleep for the night up in the house, 
 which, as I have already stated, stood on high
 
 OJV THE HEEBEET EIVEE. 149 
 
 .piles, and was only accessible by means of a narrow 
 staircase. The next morning, then, they all went 
 away, the bullock driver and all the dogs included. 
 Twelve bullocks pulled the dray, into which a lot of 
 bedclothes were piled. There sat the lady and 
 
 the children. Mr. was on horseback, armed 
 
 with his rifle and revolvers. The driver cracked 
 his long whip and all the dogs barked and jumped 
 about. I stood by seeing them off and feeling 
 quite important too, as I was the garrison left to 
 defend the home until the travellers should return. 
 About dinner-time that same day two travellers 
 came in a boat from one of the plantations and 
 asked to speak to Mr. . This was rather re- 
 markable, as we scarcely ever saw any other people 
 than the boatmen when they brought the mail, 
 and occasionally the black trackers from the police 
 
 camp, but I told them that Mr. and the 
 
 whole family had left that morning in the bullock 
 dray. They seemed surprised. 
 
 " All of them, did you say ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied I. 
 
 " It means good-bye," said they both. " You will 
 never see any of them again ; they have cleared 
 off." 
 
 I was surprised and incredulous. My friends 
 seemed quite sure. 
 
 " And what did he say to you when they left ? " 
 inquired one. 
 
 " He told me I need not work until he came 
 back, but that I must not leave the premises. He
 
 150 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 also said that he entrusted everything to rny 
 care." 
 
 " My word," said they, "it is a nasty trust. 
 Why, the blacks will be sure to rush the place one 
 of these days, perhaps to-night, for they are certain 
 to have seen the others going away." 
 
 Then they began to commiserate with me on 
 what was to become of myself and the girl, as we 
 were sure to fall into the hands of the blacks, and 
 they offered to take us both away in the boat with 
 them. But I could not see it in that way. I knew 
 that in all probability we should have no visitors 
 for ten or eleven days until the mailman came. 
 But where was I to go ? I had now a good deal of 
 money coming to me. Who was to pay me ? 
 Besides, it might only be all nonsense. Still the 
 responsibility seemed great. I took the girl aside 
 and asked her if she liked to go in the boat and 
 leave me. She began to cry, and said she would 
 rather stay, and did not like the fellows. If there 
 is anything that could ever make me desperate it 
 is to see a woman cry. So I began to give the two 
 strangers the cold shoulder, and to show them that 
 I had a rifle, 'six fowling-pieces, a revolver, and any 
 amount of ammunition, and that I would, if it 
 was necessary, defend the place against all the 
 blacks in the district, but neither the girl nor I 
 would budge out of the place before we were paid, 
 and that, moreover, we did not believe that the 
 " boss " had cleared off, but that he would be back 
 the next evening.
 
 ON THE HERBERT RIVER. 151 
 
 After these fellows were gone I held a council of 
 war with the girl. We turned and twisted proba- 
 bilities for or against, were they coming back or 
 were they not ? Evening came and we sat up in 
 the blockhouse and dared not go to bed. Wherever 
 I moved there the girl was after me. I had all the 
 guns standing loaded alongside me, but we dared 
 not light a lamp for fear of attracting the blacks. 
 We sat whispering and listening. Every time the 
 wind would rustle the leaves in the garden the girl 
 made a grab at me and cried, " There they are ! 
 There they are ! ' ' 
 
 At last I induced her to go to her room, and then 
 I dozed off myself, and did not wake up before it 
 was broad daylight. The first thing we did that 
 morning on coming downstairs was to look for 
 tracks from the blacks, to see if they had been 
 about. I was not a very good tracker then, but we 
 found what proved to our entire satisfaction that 
 the aboriginals had been about in great numbers. 
 This terrified the girl completely, and she upbraided 
 me for having slept during the night, and implored 
 me not to do so again ; also she wished she had 
 gone with the strangers the day before ; and then 
 she began praying in great excitement that it might 
 not be her fate to fall into the hands of savages. 
 Of course all this had its influence on me, and 
 as the day went on we completely discarded 
 the possibility of our employers returning, and 
 only thought of how best to protect ourselves from 
 the blacks. I made up my mind, therefore, that
 
 152 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 the time had now arrived for me to show myself 
 great and brave, and at all events to sell my life 
 dearly. Good generalship, however, was likely, 
 thought I, to do more for me than bravery unas- 
 sisted by judgment, and for that reason I began 
 to think how to act so as to be prepared for the 
 worst. I knew this much, that the greatest danger 
 from a surprise would be about sunrise. But as I 
 was alone I could see that it would be impossible 
 for me to defend the whole property. I must 
 therefore retire to the main house, which, standing 
 isolated and on high piles, would offer a good forti- 
 fication. But if I had to abandon the outhouses, 
 they would then fall into the hands of the enemy 
 and he would be enriched by all there was to be 
 found in them. I must, therefore, while I had time, 
 carry everything I could up to the house, and, 
 perhaps, it would be better to burn the outhouses 
 down afterwards, so that they might not serve as a 
 hiding-place for the blacks. I would see about 
 that, but my first duty was to carry everything 
 upstairs, and at all events commenced. No sooner 
 said than done. The girl and I carried everything 
 we could lay our hands on, upstairs. I also carried 
 up water enough to last us for a fortnight or more, 
 three large tubsful. All the firewood that was 
 lying handy I also humped up, although there was 
 no fireplace upstairs ; but I wanted to do all I 
 could, and in my energy I could not be still. 
 
 In this way the day passed and evening came 
 again. As no one had returned what hope we
 
 ON THE HERBERT RIVER. 153 
 
 might have had was now dead, and as for me I 
 felt like a glorious Spartan, quite certain that the 
 blacks would come and that I should let daylight 
 through every one of them. All my guns, of course, 
 were loaded, and I was showing them off to the 
 girl, explaining to her that it was my intention, after 
 having defended the door as long as I could, to 
 retire from room to room and keep up the war all 
 the time. But she was nevertheless timid, and I 
 feared much that she should, by taking hold of me, 
 which indeed she did all the time, prevent me from 
 firing, and I asked her, therefore, again to retire to 
 her room. She implored me to let her stay with me, 
 and said she did not mind so that we might die 
 together. Then she began to hug me. What new 
 and unexpected horror was this ? Was this a man- 
 trap, or what ? Was there not trouble enough 
 already ? Surely, thought I, if ever a man needed 
 a stimulant to keep up his pluck, I am that man. 
 Happy thought ! I knew where the "boss "kept 
 his whiskey. I went to the cupboard and took a 
 long, deep pull at the bottle. " Dearest Amelia," 
 cried I, " remember that in the time of our glorious 
 forefathers it was the duty of the Danish maidens 
 to hand the cup to the warriors, both before they 
 went to battle and when they came home. Do 
 now ! Let me. Oblige me to drink of this bottle. 
 It is only schnapps. Do! That is right. Here is 
 luck ! And death and destruction to our enemies ! 
 And now retire to your room. Good-night. Nothing 
 shall harm you. Barricade the door from the
 
 154 DANISH EMIGBANT. 
 
 inside. Let me lock it from the outside. And 
 now," cried I, " I make it impossible for anyone to 
 get near you. Here goes the key." 
 
 With that, having turned the key twice in the 
 lock after her, I threw it out of the window as far as 
 I could ! I felt then as bloodthirsty as any savage. 
 Why did these blacks not come ? The only thing 
 that puzzled me, as I traversed the house from one 
 shutter to another, was what I should do if they 
 came underneath the house. They might then fire 
 the building. No, they should not. I would have 
 them yet. I would take the two-inch augur and 
 bore holes all over the floor, so that I might shoot 
 through. I was soon boring away making holes 
 for a long time right and left, when the girl 
 whispered, " What are you doing ? " 
 
 "I am boring holes," cried I, "in the floor to 
 shoot through. Shall I bore a hole in your door ? 
 Then you could kill half a dozen with a revolver. 
 If you have a mind, I will." 
 
 " Oh, there they are ! " cried the girl. 
 
 " Ha, where ? Come on ! " 
 
 " Stop, you fool, it is the master and the missis. 
 Don't you hear the whip ? Let me out." 
 
 " Master and missis ? I cannot let you out. I 
 have thrown the key away." 
 
 Then it dawned on me what a fearful ass I must 
 presently appear. It is impossible for me to keep 
 on with the particulars. I could not find the key 
 again and let the girl out. The floor was spoiled, 
 the house upside down. I should have been game
 
 ON THE HERBERT RIVER. 155 
 
 to have fought his Satanic Majesty himself, but to 
 face the contempt of the " boss " and good, kind 
 
 Mrs. was terrible. So I talked through the 
 
 door at the girl and told her to say, if any one 
 made inquiries for me, that I was not at home. 
 With that I decamped, and did not present myself 
 before the next midday. After a while the matter 
 was only referred to as a joke. 
 
 I should have liked very much to have been able 
 to write a detailed account of the whole twelve 
 months I spent at this place. I am quite sure 
 that if truly written, much of it would prove 
 interesting to people who never were so far north, 
 but I must of necessity pass quickly over many 
 things of which I should have liked to write more 
 fully, or else I shall never come to the end of my 
 travels. Suffice it, therefore, to say that the 
 Kanakas arrived in great numbers ; that the 
 '" boss " and I went to Cardwell on horseback to 
 fetch them ; that a lot of white men were also 
 brought together on the plantation; that I was 
 overseer, or "nigger driver," over part of the 
 Kanakas for some time ; that I, during the twelve 
 months, gained a good deal of colonial experience : 
 learned to ride, drive bullocks, split fencing stuff, 
 &c., also how to build slab-houses, as they are 
 called that is, to go into the bush, and with the 
 help of a few tools, single-handed, to make a good 
 house out of the growing trees. All this I learned, 
 more or less, and then when I had been there 
 -about twelve months I caught the fever. This
 
 156 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 fever is, I believe, peculiar to certain parts of 
 North Queensland ; it is not deadly, but very- 
 common, indeed my impression is that there was 
 not a man on the Herbert Eiver who had not got 
 it more or less. It comes with shivering of cold, 
 followed by thirst and utter exhaustion, once a 
 day or once every second day. Most people are 
 able to work all the time they have it until they 
 feel the " shakes " coming over them. Then per- 
 force they must lie down, but they generally get 
 up to their work again after the prostration which 
 follows is over. With me it was different. A 
 couple of weeks of it made me so weak that when 
 I felt myself strongest I could only stagger about 
 with the help of a big stick. I had built a 
 carpenter's shop, and my room was off that. Then 
 I would lie down of an evening on the bed, with 
 bedclothes piled on me enough to smother one r 
 and still the gasping and the " shakes " would 
 gradually commence. The very marrow in one's- 
 bones seemed frozen, while the teeth would rattle 
 in the head, and the breath would come and go- 
 with fearful quickness. After a couple of hours of 
 this, heat and prostration would follow, coupled 
 with terrible thirst. Of course there was no- 
 hospital, and there was no one to hand one a 
 drink. When I properly understood the matter, I 
 would always place my wash-basin in the bed r 
 filled with water, so that when the time came I 
 could lean over and drink, because I was too weak 
 to lift a billy can or a pint pot off the floor. But
 
 ON THE HERBERT RIVER. 157 
 
 when I upset this basin, which happened once, my 
 sufferings were intense. I remember on two or 
 three occasions when I had no water how I tried 
 to get out of bed, how I fell and lay on the floor 
 for hours, then crept on my hands and knees out 
 around the shed to where a bench stood with a tub 
 of water on. There I would sit or lie over the 
 water for hours and drink. Such a matter as this 
 excites no sympathy in a place like that. There 
 were now a lot of other men, and most of them 
 had a touch of the fever as well. If I had slept 
 among other men I have no doubt some one would 
 have given me a drink, but to ask any one to sit 
 up with me, or disturb their night's rest on that 
 account, would have been asking too much, I fear. 
 Then when I had been alone before the new hands 
 arrived, I had shared pot-luck with my employer 
 and his family, but now it seemed as if one was 
 only lost in a crowd. I had nothing to eat but 
 half-putrid corned beef and bread, served on a 
 dirty tin plate, tea of the cheapest sort, boiled in 
 a bucket, and sweetened with dirty black sugar, 
 was my fare too. How could any sick person eat 
 or drink such stuff? As I write now it seems to 
 me it is enough to cause a strong man to die of 
 slow starvation, and yet it is the ordinary average 
 diet put before working men all over the Queens- 
 land bush twenty-one times a week. One day 
 Mrs. came down and asked me very sympa- 
 thetically how I was getting on. So I showed 
 her my plate with my dinner on, covered with
 
 158 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 flies as it was, and very unappetizing indeed,, 
 and upbraided her and her husband for serving 
 such rations. " Dear me, how shocking ! None 
 of the other men complained. Was the meat 
 bad ? " Then she assured me I should have 
 anything I wished for, and for the last few days I 
 was there I was constantly invited to their own 
 table, although I scarcely could eat anything even 
 there. But I thought I had been there long 
 enough, and when the mailman came in his boat I 
 took a friendly leave of my employer and his 
 family, and was assisted down into the boat. I 
 had with me then my cheque for a hundred pounds 
 sterling, and another for seven or eight pounds.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 LEAVING THE HERBERT RAVEN SWOOD.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 LEAVING THE HEEBERT EAVENSWOOD. 
 
 I HAD again no particular idea as to where I 
 would go, further than that I wanted to regain 
 my health. But oh, for the sweetness of liberty 
 and money! I needed not to say anything about 
 money to my old travelling companions in the 
 boat ; they knew I must have a good cheque, and 
 their attentions were in proportion ! Perhaps I 
 wrong them. Perhaps they would have been just 
 as careful to my wants if they had known me to be 
 penniless. At any rate, a sort of bed w.as made for 
 me in the stern of the boat, and offers to procure 
 for me anything I wanted from the stores on the 
 plantations were profuse. But I wanted for 
 nothing more than to lie as easily as I might, 
 because I really was very sick. There had been a 
 public-house built somewhere a mile from the river- 
 bank since I had passed that way before, and when 
 we came to the place where a track led from the 
 water up to it, my two oarsmen proposed to go up 
 to have some refreshment, and promised to be 
 back directly. Of course I could not go with 
 them. When they were gone some time a little 
 
 12
 
 162 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 pig which they had in a bag in the boat began to 
 find its way out. I thought it a pity to allow it to 
 escape, and yet I had not strength to get up, but 
 without calculating the consequences I rolled my- 
 self over until I lay on the top of it. Never shall 
 I forget the howling of that pig in my ears, for I 
 believe over an hour, until the men came back. 
 The bag had somehow got mixed in my clothing, 
 and I could not either free myself or the pig, else 
 I would gladly have let it go. At last the men 
 came back and got us separated. 
 
 When I came to Cardwell I thoroughly enjoyed, 
 although I was sick, the luxury of lying in a clean 
 bed with white sheets, and mosquito curtains all 
 around me, and to have one of the servants at the 
 hotel coming to my door all day long asking if she 
 could do anything for me. There was neither 
 doctor nor chemist in the place, but one of the 
 storekeepers came and looked at me, and sold me 
 some medicine which in a short time drove the 
 fearful " shakings " I had away. Meanwhile, as 
 there was no other communication with the outer 
 world than " the schooner," which ran between 
 Cardwell and Townsville, I had inquired when the 
 schooner would be in as I had decided to go to 
 Townsville again. On the same day that the ague 
 had for the first time left me, I wa told that the 
 schooner would be ready to run out at eleven 
 o'clock at night. I was then so careless of myself, 
 or so foolish, that I, at that hour of the night, for 
 the first time in a fortnight, got out of my bed and
 
 LEAVING THE EEBBEETBAVENSWOOD. 163 
 
 went on board the craft. It was only a sort of 
 fishing smack, rowed by two men, who had a small 
 enclosure somewhere on board where they could be 
 dry. For passengers there was no accommodation 
 whatever. In the hold, which was open, was 
 nothing but some old sails, rusty chains, empty 
 boxes, and the like. Two or three more passengers 
 came on board, who at once secured the best 
 places in the hold, while I, who for the first time 
 for many weeks felt remarkably well, sat up on the 
 deck enjoying the strong breeze, and even tried to 
 smoke a pipe. But any North Queenslander will 
 tell you that when one has had fever he has to be 
 extra careful of not catching cold. I did not know 
 that just then, but in a very short time I did* I got 
 a fearful toothache. My enervated system did not 
 feel able to hold up against this new affliction, and 
 so I threw myself down among the ropes and 
 boxes in the hold. There I lay, while the pain 
 gradually increased. The wind was against us, 
 and it took eight or nine days before we reached 
 Townsville. During that time my agony grew 
 more acute every day. I had neither strength 
 nor energy enough to stand on my feet. My head 
 swelled up to a fearful extent. My mouth was in 
 such a state that I could not swallow, and I gradu- 
 ally lost power to open my mouth or to speak. 
 When we had been two days out I raised myself 
 on my elbow to try to drink some tea and eat some 
 mashed bananas, which some one gave me in a 
 pint pot. I could not swallow, so I laid myself
 
 164 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 down again and did not after that touch food. I 
 heard them speak about me on deck, and say that 
 they ought to have found out my name, because I 
 should scarcely last out unless the wind changed. 
 I heard this distinctly, and laughed to myself, 
 because I knew I was not going to die just yet. 
 Still to all their inquiries I could not reply. One 
 day I heard a Dane speaking in my ear ; where he 
 came from, or where he went to, I do not know, but 
 he asked me, "Are you a Dane?" I grunted. 
 Then he said, " What is your name ? " I tried to 
 stutter it out from between my teeth time after 
 time, but he could not understand, and kept on, 
 " Say it again." At last he gave it up. Then he 
 asked me if there was anything he could do for me ? 
 what ship I had come out in, and so on. But I 
 was so disgusted with my own inability to use my 
 tongue, that otherwise so ready a friend of mine, 
 that I made no further attempt to speak, and my 
 countryman disappeared again. There was now 
 only one thought that possessed my mind, viz., to 
 get to Townsville, and when there to have all my 
 teeth pulled out. Of course it was more a relapse 
 from the fever that was wrong with me than tooth- 
 ache, but I did not know it. I lay in a daze day 
 after day, every time the boat gave a lurch my 
 head would strike against something, and the 
 agony I suffered cannot be described. At last the 
 skipper took hold of me and cried, "Well, stranger, 
 here we are in Townsville ; where shall we take 
 you to ? "
 
 LEAVING THE HERBERT RAVENSWOOD. 165 
 
 It came on me so unexpectedly that it seemed 
 again to send the life-blood through me. I stared 
 around me and saw that we were lying close to the 
 wharf. 
 
 Up I jumped, to the great surprise of the 
 skipper, and leaving my swag behind me, and 
 holding on with both hands to my head, I 
 staggered ashore. It was about eight o'clock in 
 the morning when I landed. I knew it because I 
 heard all the breakfast bells ringing from the 
 hotels, and although I did not feel hungry, yet it 
 reminded me that I had eaten nothing for tw6 
 weeks. On I staggered like a drunken man. 
 People seemed to look surprised at me, and to go 
 out of their way for me. I came to a chemist's 
 shop. He also looked at me in a disgusted sort of 
 way. I took up a pen and WTote to him that I 
 wanted all my teeth pulled out. He felt my 
 pulse. " My friend," said he, " I think you had 
 better go to a doctor." 
 
 I gave him to understand that I was tired, and 
 did not know where the doctor lived. 
 
 " Wait," cried he, " I will get a man to go with 
 you." 
 
 Then he went out of the shop. As I turned 
 round I saw a very large mirror, in which I beheld 
 my own image from head to foot. At first I did 
 not realize it was myself as I stared at it. Would 
 my own mother have known the picture ? I hope 
 not. Unkempt, unwashed for nearly a fortnight, 
 my hair hung in matted knots about my face. My
 
 166 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 whole head was swollen to such an extent that to 
 describe it as I saw it would seem exaggeration. 
 Add to this a graveyard complexion in the faca, 
 and an emaciated form, dressed in an old Crimean 
 shirt, dirty moleskin trousers and bluoher boots, 
 and you have the picture I beheld of myself as I 
 stood looking. I felt my knees giving way under 
 me, made a grab at the counter and fell. The 
 next thing I remember was that I was lying on a 
 nice bed, in a room which proved to be in the 
 adjoining hotel, and that a doctor was there. 
 With consciousness my agony returned, and I 
 again preferred my request in writing that he 
 should pull all my teeth out. " Yes, that is all 
 very well," said he, "but we must first try to 
 break your mouth open. You must go to the 
 hospital. I will give you a ticket. What is your 
 name ? Have you no money ? " 
 
 I took out all I had got, my one hundred pounds' 
 cheque and some change, and laid it on the table. 
 At the same time I wrote to him on a paper and 
 asked him to take charge of it and give me the 
 balance when I asked for it. I also asked him to 
 order anything I wanted and to spare no expense. 
 Then the doctor suggested to call in a colleague 
 that they might consult, and when the next doctor 
 arrived they agreed to give me chloroform, but 
 after great preparations had been made and a 
 sponge held to my nose for a minute or two with- 
 out having any effect on me, they again decided 
 that I was too weak for chloroform, but as I, half
 
 LEAVING THE HERBERT RAVENSWOOD. 167 
 
 crying, beckoned to them to do in my case what 
 had to be done, one of them, with his knee on my 
 chest, put an instrument between my teeth while 
 the other held my head back and somebody else 
 sat behind my chair and held my arms. My 
 mouth came open. I will not unnecessarily pro- 
 long the agony, only to state that I felt relieved 
 shortly after and that somebody with the utmost 
 tenderness was bathing my head. I had now 
 nothing to do but to allow people to wait on me. 
 I stayed in the hotel for two days, when the 
 doctor's own buggy came for me and I was driven 
 to the hospital. So that the reader may not be 
 under the impression that I wear false teeth, I 
 would like to say that not a tooth was pulled or 
 any other surgical operation performed. I now 
 got better rapidly. It seemed impossible to feel 
 sick in that hospital. I had a large private room 
 and broad verandahs outside. From my bed I 
 could lie and watch the ocean all day and try to 
 count the islands. My friend, the doctor, came 
 also every day, and any extra comfort I wanted 
 was quickly procured. As I grew better I would 
 sit and bask in the sun down among the rocks by 
 the shore in that half-unconscious but blissful 
 condition which I believe is common to all con- 
 valescents, or a couple of hours before meal-time I 
 would lie on my bed watching the sun and its 
 shadows on the floor so that I might be prepared 
 and lose no time the moment the man came with 
 the dinner. Oh, for the ravenous hunger with
 
 168 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 which I could eat ! Although I had double the 
 ordinary allowance, yet after a month's stay in the 
 hospital, I had to leave it for very hunger's sake. 
 I then settled my bill with the doctor, who 
 charged me very moderately, and went to live in a 
 hotel in town. When I was perfectly cured and 
 myself again I could easily have obtained work in 
 town at my trade for four pounds per week, but I 
 had a sort of dislike to the place, which decided 
 me to go up to the gold-diggings and try my luck 
 there. The nearest diggings were at Eavenswood, 
 some hundred and thirty miles inland. Other 
 diggings were scattered behind that place, but to 
 reach them I understood I had to go to Eavenswood 
 first, and that it was as good a place as any. I 
 bought two horses, with all necessary appendages, 
 such as saddle, pack-saddle, bridles, &c. They 
 cost me about thirty pounds. I put thirty 
 pounds more into the bank as a sort of reserve 
 fund in case of accident, and after paying my way 
 so far, and buying a few necessary clothes, I had 
 only some nine or ten pounds left. So one morning 
 I packed the one horse with my swag, containing 
 clothes and blanket, in the large saddle-bags. I 
 had small bags containing flour, tea, sugar, and 
 other necessary things for a journey through the 
 bush, because, although the road I had now to 
 travel was a beaten track, yet it is a Queensland 
 custom on all occasions to be as independent as 
 possible. Besides, when one sets out for a ramble, 
 there is no saying where one is going to pull up, and
 
 LEAVING THE HERBERT RAVENSWOOD. 169 
 
 it seems so pleasant to know that one is all-suffi- 
 cient in his own resources, without requiring any 
 aid from wayside inns. So at least did I think as 
 I rode out of the town; and as this was my first ex- 
 perience of what we in Queensland call going on 
 the " wallaby track," I enjoyed it immensely. 
 
 The way a man acts when travelling like this, is 
 just to please himself. When a fair day's journey 
 is done, one begins to look out for a likely spot for 
 grass and water, and having found that, you get 
 off the horses and hobble them out that is, 
 having freed them of their load, their forefeet are 
 tied together with a pair of strong leather straps 
 in such a way that they can only totter slowly 
 about. Having done that a fire is made, the 
 billy is slung on for tea, and when supper is over, a 
 smoke, a yarn if there is a mate and then a roll 
 in the blanket with a saddle for a pillow. 
 
 There is often a lot of argument about what is a fair 
 day's journey on horseback. Of course it is a 
 matter which never can be decided, because so 
 much depends upon the horses, the road, what the 
 horses get to eat, &c., but I do not believe many 
 careful travellers will take their horses more than 
 twenty miles a day for a long journey, and then 
 rest them occasionally, but to hear some people 
 talk one would think their horses could go a 
 hundred miles every day. In Queensland travellers 
 have sometimes to ride forty or fifty miles between 
 watering-places. Most horses can do it, if taken 
 care of, but not every day. When travellers meet
 
 170 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 on a Queensland road their first question after 
 greeting is, "How far is it to water?" and the 
 distance between watering-places is practically 
 what decides a day's journey. In times of drought 
 these water-holes get scarce or dry up completely ; 
 rivers stop running ; then it behoves the traveller 
 to look out where he goes. If misfortune happens, 
 or he has not calculated rightly the endurance of 
 his horse, or the water-hole on which he depends 
 should be dried up when he arrives there, then he- 
 is likely to perish ! As for myself, I have on. 
 more than one occasion arrived in a parched 
 condition at a water-hole, only to find a lot of dead 
 cattle bogged in the soft mud, and still have been 
 compelled to drink the pint or two of putrefied 
 water that might be left. The reader will there- 
 fore see that travelling in the Queensland bush 
 is not exactly a perpetual picnic. 
 
 Nothing of importance happened to me on this- 
 road, unless I were to mention that when I was- 
 about half-way I met a swag's-man, that is, one 
 who carries his swag on his own back and has no- 
 horses. This fellow asked to let him put his- 
 burden on my horse, which I let him do. I then, 
 by talking to him as we went along, found out 
 that he had neither money nor rations, and as- 
 we were only a few miles from Hugton Hotel I 
 promised to pay for dinner at that place for us both. 
 Arrived at the hotel, I ordered a first-class dinner 
 for two ; it was five shillings. The table was laid 
 for us with a big roast of beef and a plum-pudding.
 
 LEAVING THE HEBBEBTRAVENSWOOD. 17L 
 
 After we both had eaten what we wanted, my fellow- 
 traveller put nearly all the remaining food into his 
 bags and decamped, in spite of my protestations. 
 I remember well how scandalized I felt ! Other- 
 wise the road was not lonely ; every day I passed 
 waggons hauled by sixteen or eighteen bullocks 
 each and filled with merchandise for the diggings. 
 There were also other travellers, both on foot and 
 on horseback, but I did not go myself in company 
 with any, and so at last, one forenoon, I saw the 
 township of Ravenswood lying before me. I 
 stopped the horses to have a good look. 
 
 At last I was on a gold-field. What a magic 
 spell there seemed to me in the words. All the 
 old fallacious ideas connected with the word 
 crowded into my mind. Runaway nuns dressed 
 in men's clothes, princes working like labourers,, 
 and labourers living like princes "looking for 
 gold ! " Had I not better begin at once ? 
 
 As I came nearer I saw what seemed to me 
 wells on all sides and tents near the wells. Then 
 as I looked at the ground again I became fearfully 
 excited. Big nuggets of shining gold were lying 
 all around on the road. Was it possible ? Surely 
 I knew gold when I saw it. I got off the horse 
 and picked it up. Not pure gold, though. But 
 surely half of it was gold. It glittered all over. 
 I picked pieces up as I went along and fairly 
 howled with joy as I filled my bags. Think of 
 those fools coming behind with their flour-bags 
 and of all the empty waggons I had met going
 
 172 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 down, while I was finding a fortune before I 
 reached the diggings ! At the place where I had 
 now come, they could have loaded all the w r aggons 
 quickly. I could not carry more as I went further, 
 ruminating over the matter. Now the w r hole 
 ground right and left was glittering all the way 
 into town. I threw the stuff all away again. It 
 could not be gold ! Then, with a voice shaking 
 between hope and fear, I asked a man who came 
 by, what that was. He told me at once it was 
 " rubbish. ' ; " Did you think it was gold ? " asked 
 he. 
 
 " No ; but I thought there might be gold in it." 
 
 " Yes," said he, " so there was, but it did not pay 
 to extract it." 
 
 In this way somewhat sobered, I rode further 
 and arrived in town, where the next day I pitched 
 a tent I had bought somewhere handy to the 
 other tents, put the horses in a paddock and 
 looked about me. 
 
 I will not attempt a long description of this the 
 first gold-field I was ever on. There was an 
 ordinary street composed of hotels, boarding- 
 houses, and stores, on both sides of the road. 
 Behind the street were tents in which the diggers 
 principally lived. Everywhere were earth-mounds 
 where some one was or had been busy rooting the 
 ground about. The reefs were each surmounted 
 by an ordinary windlass, where a man would stand 
 hauling up the quartz all day long. Such was the 
 picture presented at a superficial glance at Ravens-
 
 LEAVING THE HEBBEBTBAVENSWOOD. 173 
 
 wood, and I think the description answers for all 
 other Queensland gold-diggings. Nearly all the 
 people boarded in two boarding-houses kept by 
 Chinamen, one on each side of the street. I 
 think there must have been two or three hundred 
 boarders in each. They were both alike, two large 
 bark-houses, no floor, only two immense tables 
 with forms on each side. On these tables were at 
 meal-times every conceivable delicacy in season, 
 and up and down between the tables an army of 
 Chinamen would run round waiting on their guests. 
 During my various fortunes in Queensland, I have 
 often paid two or three pounds per week for board 
 in hotels, and I have paid half-a-guinea for a ticket 
 to a public feast, but it has always been my im- 
 pression that nowhere was such good or luxurious 
 food served out as in these boarding-houses. It 
 would simply be impossible to compete with them. 
 The charge was one pound per week, payment 
 beforehand, and those of their customers who 
 wanted sleeping accommodation might, without 
 extra charge, fix themselves up as they liked in 
 some sheds behind. There were also many hotels 
 in town, but, as far as I could see from the outside, 
 their "takings" were more across the bar than 
 otherwise, as the Chinamen seemed to monopolize 
 the boarding-house trade. All over Australia, but 
 especially in Queensland, there is a bitter feeling 
 against Chinamen. People say that they ought to 
 be forbidden to come to the country, because they 
 work too hard and too cheaply, and eat too little
 
 174 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 at the same time ; consequently we shall all go to 
 the dogs. How is this ? Surely " there is some- 
 thing rotten in the state of Denmark." A white 
 man is always praised if he is hard-working and 
 frugal. It seems a contradiction to ahuse one for 
 what is commended in another ! This is an awful 
 world. Some people say we are poor because we 
 work too much, and run ourselves out of work. 
 Others say we do not work half enough, and that 
 that is the reason. Some say that Protection 
 is a panacea for poverty, others swear by Free 
 Trade. In Australia they want to turn out the 
 Chinamen because they work too much ; in China 
 they want to turn out the whites, I suppose for 
 the same reason. Of all countries, I believe, 
 Australia certainly included the greatest majority 
 of the people living in different degrees of poverty, 
 and work is getting to be as scarce here where the 
 population does not count one to the square mile, 
 as it is in Denmark where there are four hundred 
 inhabitants to the square mile. Of late years one 
 more theory has sprung up, and its disciples aver 
 that all our poverty, despite our hard work and 
 frugal fare, is due to the fact that the earth on 
 which we live is sold in large or small parcels in 
 the open market like tea and sugar, and that the 
 owners of the earth can in the shape of rent 
 extract the greatest part of our earnings. I ask 
 the reader's pardon for this little digression, but it 
 seems to me to be an interesting question, and it 
 would at least be desirable if we all could agree
 
 LEAVING THE HERBERT RAVENSWOOD. 175 
 
 whether it is Chinamen, Free Trade, or Protection, 
 or what not, whom we really want, because there 
 is " something rotten in the state of Denmark." 
 
 I took my board, like everybody else, with the 
 Chinamen and lived in my tent not far away. I 
 occupied myself in prospecting, or learning how 
 to prospect, but what little gold-dust I could find 
 was not worth coming all the way for. I soon got 
 tired of that, and one day I went and asked for a 
 job of carpenter's work in a large Government 
 building I saw going up. 
 
 Before I proceed further I must explain that a 
 certain fixed scale of wages existed here for most 
 occupations, and this scale was very jealously 
 .guarded by the people. It was three pounds per 
 week for miners in dry claims, three pounds ten 
 .shillings in wet claims, bricklayers sixteen shillings 
 per day for eight hours, carpenters fifteen shillings, 
 &c. I had heard this but I had not believed it. I 
 took it that those figures represented what men 
 would like to get rather than what they actually 
 got, and while I worked for a master I always 
 preferred to put my pride in earning what I got, 
 rather than, perhaps, getting what I did not earn. 
 I understand the importance now of keeping up 
 wages, but at that time I did not, and when the 
 carpenter said he would give me twelve shillings a 
 day and find tools not only did I think myself well 
 paid, but I had no idea or care whether others got 
 more or less. 
 
 Beside myself there was an American negro
 
 176 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 employed as carpenter. He seemed a very 
 morose sort of individual, but I took no notice 
 of him and was hopping about all day, giving 
 as I thought as much satisfaction to others 
 as to myself. I often heard the "boss" grumble 
 at the negro, and occasionally I would be set to 
 put him right about what he was working at. This 
 happened one afternoon as the "boss" went away 
 shortly before five o'clock, and I was consequently 
 explaining to him out of my wisdom, when he 
 suddenly asked what wages I was getting. I told 
 him with great pride I was getting twelve shillings 
 a day. 
 
 Squash came a stick down over my head, then 
 he flew at my throat and kicked and belaboured 
 me in a terrible way. At last he flung me with 
 awful violence out on the verandah, got hold of me 
 again and threw me outside. He was two or three 
 times as big a man as I, and I could not at all 
 defend myself against him, nor had I any idea why 
 he had thus maltreated me ; but as there was no 
 one to appeal to, I, in a terrible rage, ran home to 
 my tent for the gun. It stood there loaded, and I 
 took it up and started back again along the main 
 street. The blood was running down my face, and 
 I howled to myself with rage as I ran. I meant to 
 shoot him as dead as a herring. 
 
 " Halloa ! " cried the people, " there is a fellow 
 running amuck," and soon there was a whole 
 crowd behind me, intent on watching the sport. 
 
 But I must now go back in time a little. There
 
 LEAVING THE HERBERT RAVEN SWOOD. 177 
 
 was at that period in Eavenswood a Danish digger, 
 whom I had met and who had been very friendly 
 to me, and both because he plays an important 
 part in the next few pages I have to write, and 
 because I have entitled this book " Missing 
 Friends." I think he deserves mention, as he 
 indeed had been, and is no doubt yet, " a missing 
 friend." He had been a farmer in Denmark, what 
 we in Danish call a yardsman, who owned his own 
 freehold. When the war with Germany in 1864 
 broke out, he was called on to serve in the artillery. 
 He was married then, had two children, and was, 
 like all Danish farmers, in extremely good circum- 
 stances. During the war he was taken prisoner 
 by the Germans, but was by some mistake reported 
 dead by the Danish authorities. He told me that 
 he wrote home as soon as he could, but the letter 
 never reached his wife. Shortly after he tried to 
 escape from the Germans, and, being caught, 
 defended himself desperately. For this offence he 
 was condemned to three years' hard labour on the 
 fortifications of some place in the south of Ger- 
 many. For one reason and another he did not 
 write from there. Partly he was not much of a 
 writer, partly he objected to the enemy reading his 
 efforts, and as he knew his wife had plenty to live 
 on, and that his neighbours at home would help 
 her to run the farm, he neglected writing, and as 
 the time went on pictured to himself in rosy 
 colours the happy surprise he would give his wife 
 and them all at home when he did return. At last 
 
 13
 
 178 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 the time arrived when he was set free, and started 
 for home. Meanwhile his wife had bemoaned him 
 as dead, and what little hope his friends might 
 have had for him died when he did not return at 
 the end of the war. It did not take long before 
 one suitor after the other presented themselves, 
 and a couple of years later the wife got married 
 again, with the full consent and approval of all 
 concerned. 
 
 One day, when sitting at dinner on the farm, the 
 wife saw her first husband coming in at the door. 
 With a scream of joy and excitement, she rushed 
 towards him. (Tableau.) Husband No. 2 was as 
 honourable a man as husband No. 1. There was a 
 second family. What was to be done ? They made 
 a sad but friendly compact. My friend took the 
 eldest child with him, and went to Australia, after 
 having got back a fair amount of his own cash. 
 This man now came from his work, and as I rushed 
 down the street, we met. I did not see him, but 
 he saw me. " Hulloa, countryman, what is the 
 matter ? Stop ! where are you going ? " 
 
 I tried to escape him, but he had hold of the 
 gun. We struggled for possession and the stock 
 broke. When the gun broke my hope of revenge 
 fled as well, and in the relaxation which followed 
 I sat down on some steps and actually cried. I 
 admit that it is sometimes as hard for me to write 
 about my weakness as about my folly, but I will 
 ask the reader to remember what I already have 
 written here. The truth must be told. There was
 
 LEAVING THE HERBERT BAVENSWOOD. 179 
 
 now a large and sympathetic crowd around us, to 
 whom I related how the negro had maltreated me 
 without any provocation, and while I spoke I could 
 see that the chances were that I would yet have 
 revenge, because all sorts of remarks would fly 
 about, such as : " The poor fellow had pluck, by 
 Jove ; " " Would you have shot him ? " or, " Such 
 a rascally negro should not be allowed to strike and 
 half kill a white man ; " I think I can flog him ; " 
 " So can I, and I will ; " " No Bill ! you cannot ! " 
 "Let me, you are not heavy enough!" " No," 
 cried the Dane, and struck a crushing blow in the 
 wall of the house by which we stood; " he is my 
 countryman, and any one who strikes him, him I 
 will strike. Where is that negro ? Only let me 
 see him." 
 
 I went with a sort of pious joy in front of the 
 whole crowd up to the negro's tent. When he 
 saw us all coming, he thought they were going to 
 mob him, and only asked for fair play. He would 
 fight them all, man for man, and as for me, he had 
 only struck me in open fight because I was running 
 down wages, working for twelve shillings a day. I 
 was surprised how much sympathy this statement 
 created, but my countryman cut it short by saying 
 he would fight first and argue after. " All right, 
 I'm your man," cried the negro; " only pull off 
 your shirt. I am dying to commence." 
 
 They both pulled off their shirts, and some 
 willing assistants from the crowd got behind each 
 combatant to watch his interest in the coming
 
 180 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 struggle. It was easily seen now that my 
 countryman was a very strong man. His arms, 
 his shoulders, and his deeply curved back were 
 swelling with muscles. In his face sat a determi- 
 nation which boded his opponent no good. Still, 
 my heart sank as I looked at the negro, who was 
 prancing about as in irresistible joy over what he 
 deemed his easy victory. He seemed little short 
 of a giant. They were just beginning to spar, 
 when a seedy-looking individual came forward and 
 cried, " Hold on, gentlemen, hold on, just one 
 minute. It seems that we are going to see a 
 splendid piece of sport, and I think we ought to 
 improve the occasion a little. I will lay two to 
 one on oui coloured friend two to one on Mr. 
 Jones ! " Nobody took him up, when the negro 
 said, " I don't mind if I lay a pound or two on 
 myself; anyone on?" I looked at my country- 
 man. He said, " Have you got any money on 
 you?" "Yes," said I, "I have got over ten 
 pounds ! " " Lay it all," said he. " Oh, but if we 
 should lose? " "Death and destruction, we don't 
 lose; lay it all." "Eight you are! I lay ten 
 pounds to twenty against the nigger ten to 
 twenty ten to twenty who will take me up ? " 
 
 At last the amount was gathered, but the ques- 
 tion arose in my mind whether the first promoter 
 of the "sweepstakes" might be trusted with the 
 stakes. I asked my friend in Danish, before I 
 handed the money over; he said, " Just give it to 
 him ; it is all right. If we lose, we have nothing
 
 LEAVING THE HERBERT RAVENSWOOD. 181 
 
 more to do with the money, but if he won't give 
 up the stakes to us after I have flogged the nigger, 
 I will flog him too ! " 
 
 Now began the terrible fight. The negro had both 
 strength and science, and for a long time it seemed 
 as if my countryman was utterly done for. It 
 began to get dark and still they fought, but the 
 longer it lasted the more equal seemed the battle. 
 At last it began to turn ; at every round my 
 countryman would charge the negro with a loud 
 hurrah ; in another quarter of an hour it was simply 
 a matter of knocking him down as fast as he got 
 up ; at last the negro was lying on the ground with 
 his nose downward, and could not get up again, 
 while the Dane, stronger than ever, was jumping 
 all over the ring calling on him to get up. As he 
 did not get up, the Dane ran up to a man who 
 held a riding-whip in his hand, wrenched it from 
 him, and belaboured the negro's head and back 
 with it until he quite lost consciousness. I admit 
 if I had dared I would have tried to prevent that 
 part of the performance, but neither I nor anybody 
 else stirred. Of course I was not sorry when my 
 friend and I went home together, our ten pounds 
 having swelled to thirty. Another advantage I 
 had over this matter was that I had to promise not 
 to work under current wages again, and when I 
 came to work the next morning the "boss," who 
 had heard of the fight, at once agreed to pay me 
 fifteen shillings a day. As for the negro, he did 
 not turn up and I have never seen him since.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SHANTY-KEEPING, PROSPECTING, THORKILL'S 
 
 DEATH.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SHANTY-KEEPING, PKOSPECTING, THORKILI/S DEATH. 
 
 SOME time after this my friend and country- 
 man came to me one evening about nine o'clock 
 with a very important air, and told me he had 
 heard of a new find of gold some thirty miles 
 distant, and that there would be sure to be a terrible 
 rush as soon as it became generally known. As 
 for him, he would like to go if I would go with 
 him and be his mate, because, as he put it, he was 
 sure I was lucky. He could not well have made a 
 greater mistake, but anyhow I w T as flattered and 
 agreed to go. Then I found he wanted to go at 
 once. I had a few days' wages coming to me, but I 
 went to my employer's house at once and got my 
 cheque. That we changed in a public-house and 
 went to our tents, saying nothing to anybody about 
 our intentions. Having got our swags ready, we, 
 more like thieves than anything else, knocked the 
 one tent over and were off. My friend's tent 
 remained, and my horses were in a paddock with 
 saddles and belongings ; there was no time to- get 
 them, and suspicion would have been created had 
 we tried.
 
 186 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 We rather ran than walked, but we were scarcely 
 a mile out of town before we overtook some six or 
 seven others bent on the same journey. The first 
 twenty miles ran on a good road ; that would be as 
 far as we could go that night, because the next ten 
 miles were only a blazed track right through the 
 bush made by the prospectors, and could only be 
 safely traversed in the daylight. On the whole 
 journey we were both overtaken ourselves, and 
 overtook other people, until, when we arrived at 
 the camp, we numbered a score or more. Here 
 we found another score of diggers sleeping or 
 .smoking, waiting for daylight. It was a moonlight 
 night, and I could see that we had arrived at a place 
 where a few humpies stood in seeming disorder round 
 .about. There was also a public-house, and it was 
 in the street in front of that, that the whole army 
 halted. I was both hot and tired, and as my mate 
 .suggested that we had better get an hour or two of 
 sleep, I laid myself down and slept. I woke up 
 again as my mate was shaking me. It was just 
 break of day ; still we seemed late, for everybody 
 was up and stirring. There was no time for a billy 
 of tea, or for ever so slight a stretch : it was up and 
 away. Oh, how tired I was, and stiff, and footsore ! 
 I would not have minded if I might have started 
 quietly, but this seemed like a race. Although I 
 lost no time, yet I was the very last through the 
 little street with the heavy swag on my back. 
 My mate was beckoning to me as he, also late, ran 
 a few hundred feet in front, and then disappeared
 
 SHANTY-KEEPING THORK ILL'S DEATH. 187 
 
 amongst the trees. I felt irritable, as I often do 
 before I have had my breakfast. I came by a 
 baker's shop, over the door of which was written, 
 " Cold refreshing summer drinks sold here." The 
 baker and his wife, and a young girl also, were peep- 
 ing out through the half-opened door, and seemed 
 to enjoy the spectacle of the crowd racing down 
 the street. I said to myself, " Bother running 
 like a fool here, I am going for a bottle of beer." 
 
 The baker asked me if I was going to look for 
 gold out there, or was I looking for a job ? 
 "Because," said he, "if you think of finding gold 
 in that place you will be mistaken." 
 
 He then told me he had been on the spot the 
 previous day, and that it was a " duffer," but still 
 there would be a rush, and he would much like to 
 get somebody to ride out with bread every day and 
 sell it at the place. I told him I could not leave 
 my mate like that, but the baker just invited me 
 in to breakfast, and offered me the loan of a horse, 
 and said also that he himself would take bread out 
 as soon as we could be off. "Perhaps," said he, 
 " if my mate did not like the place, as he was sure 
 he would not, I might take a job from him." 
 
 I therefore rode out with the baker after break- 
 fast and found my mate, who, as the baker pre- 
 dicted, was in no way enthusiastic about finding 
 anything as good as he had left, and before evening 
 he was satisfied to return to Kavenswood before 
 any one could jump his claim there. As I did not 
 like going back, but wanted the change to ride up
 
 188 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 and down with bread, I engaged with the baker for 
 one pound ten shillings per week and board. My 
 duty now was to load a pack-horse every day with 
 bread, and, having another to ride, to take the 
 bread to the "rush" and sell it. The butcher at 
 the " Twenty Mile " also engaged a man to ride up 
 with beef, and we generally rode in company. 
 But it soon proved that it did not pay our employers 
 to keep us on, and after about three weeks' time 
 we both got notice to leave. That brought me to 
 think that as there were many men on the " rush," 
 it might pay me to get my two horses up from 
 Ravenswood, and, buying myself both bread and 
 meat together, sell it on my own account. To 
 that all parties were willing, and as one thing 
 brings another with it, I went to the Chinamen's 
 shop with a view to seeing what profit he would 
 give me on groceries. As "Johnny" strongly 
 advised me to sell a little grog for him, I bethought 
 myself that I had while with the baker learned to 
 make hop-beer and ginger-beer, and found that I 
 could make it for a penny a big glassful and 
 charge a shilling. I resolved, therefore, to take 
 up that industry too. There was nobody at all 
 who had anything for sale at the "rush," and I 
 determined to go out and build a hut and start a 
 general store and shanty. I now went out to the 
 "rush " again, and got two men to help me in the 
 building. The hut I put up was very primitive. 
 Just one room about fourteen by twelve feet, made 
 of saplings, packing-cases, bark, or anything I
 
 SHANTY-KEEPING THOBKILL'S DEATH, 189 
 
 could get at all suitable. The roof was bark ; the 
 counter was bark also, and at night had to serve 
 for my bed. The door was an artistic piece of 
 rubbish, if I might use that term, but somehow it 
 all hung together and could be locked up. Outside 
 I made a sunshade with tables and chairs under. 
 That was managed by four forked saplings put into 
 the ground, and other straight saplings resting as 
 wall-plates in the forks. Again a row of lighter 
 sticks lay across them and leafy bushes on the top, 
 and the chairs were a lot of logs cross-cut at a 
 height of eighteen inches. The job was completed 
 in three or four days ; then I went up to Bavens- 
 wood for my horses, and on my return got out a 
 cask to make hop-beer in, some buckets, and a few 
 groceries. I was now my own " boss," and wonder- 
 fully proud and happy I was in my little shanty. 
 Besides my own two horses, the butcher and baker 
 each lent me a horse to carry the bread and meat 
 on, and I had quite enough to do indeed my energy 
 knew no bounds. 
 
 Just about the time I started, the Palmer dig- 
 gings came to the front, and a great rush set in to 
 that place from the south. But as no one seemed 
 to know properly where the Palmer was, and as 
 conflicting and disparaging statements soon ar- 
 rived from the Palmer, and the wet season was 
 coming on, the north was everywhere swarming 
 with men who were ready to camp and prospect 
 anywhere, just to abide time. As soon, therefore, 
 as I started for myself, numbers of men would arrive
 
 190 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 every day, and I had so much to do that I did not 
 know sometimes how to fling myself about quick 
 enough. Long before daylight I was up and got 
 my four horses together. I had a little yard for 
 them. Then, in a racing gallop, I had to tear into 
 the butcher's, baker's, and grocer's, at the " Twenty 
 Mile." My goods would stand ready for me when I 
 came. I would just fling the stuff on the horses, 
 leave my orders for the next day, and be back again in 
 time to sell bread and meat for breakfast ! When 
 that was over I had to carry water from the creek 
 to brew a cask of hop-beer, clean up shop, serve 
 people with grog, and feed the horses, make break- 
 fast for myself, chuck out a loafer or two, and other 
 matters, all at the same time. Thus it went on 
 all day. In the afternoon I had sometimes to- 
 send a man off with the horses for more rations,. 
 and from five o'clock to ten, eleven, twelve, and 
 sometimes all night, there would be a lot of fellows 
 drinking outside the shanty. 
 
 The reader may understand that I quickly 
 gathered in money. Five pounds a day was 
 nothing. But what a life it was ! I was never 
 out of my clothes, and I was very seldom dry. 
 Sometimes for weeks together I would be like one 
 hauled out of the sea. That required stimulants, 
 and they were near and handy, nor was it practi- 
 cally possible to be a Good Templar in my position. 
 But all my better instincts were revolted. Still 
 another glass of grog would make me see things in 
 a different light, and somehow it never seemed to
 
 SHANTY-KEEPING THOKKILL'S DEATH. 191 
 
 have any other effect on me than sharpening my 
 wits; indeed, although I know myself to be a 
 temperate man by nature, and but seldom touch 
 spirits, I believe that if I had not then freely 
 indulged in the cup that cheers, I could never 
 have stood the strain on my constitution which 
 this life necessitated. My troubles were many. 
 One was that fellows would get drunk and grow 
 quarrelsome every day ; if they were not very big 
 I did not much mind, but if they were too big 
 then I tried all devices to make them laugh and be 
 in good-humour, or I would sometimes even have 
 to keep two retainers in free grog to assist me 
 in the " chucking out " business. I was often 
 knocked about myself. Another trouble or fight 
 with my conscience, which I successfully overcame, 
 was the falsifying the spirits. The storekeeper 
 where I bought it, as well as one good friend after 
 the other, would show me how I could save two- 
 thirds of the rum and still keep it over-proof by 
 mixing it with water and tobacco. So with 
 brandy, all sorts of vile poison and most dis- 
 gusting stuff was offered me to mix it with. I did 
 not do that, although my advisers thought me 
 very foolish. I mixed my spirit with water of a 
 necessity, but I saw enough to convince me that 
 few shanties or public-houses ever sell pure spirits* 
 But my greatest trouble was what to do with my 
 fast-accumulating money. I did not trust any- 
 body about me. There was no bank nearer than 
 Ravenswood. There was no police, and nowhere
 
 192 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 to put it. At last I hit on a plan. Under the big 
 cask in which I made beer I formed a hole in the 
 ground, and at night, when all at last was still, 
 and the cask was empty enough to move on edge, 
 I, having first carefully ascertained that no one 
 was about, would thrust in all I had, and put 
 things around it again so as to prevent suspicion. 
 This mode of banking did not altogether satisfy me ; 
 indeed, I was always very anxious about it, but I 
 could think of nothing better. And so the time 
 went on. The bucket which stood under the cask 
 came at last to be nearly full of money, and while 
 on the one hand it was my great consolation, 
 it also caused me more anxiety than all the rest 
 of my work. 
 
 One day somebody came and told me that a 
 countryman of mine was in his tent, and was 
 apparently hard up, as he had asked for something 
 to do whereby to earn a bit of rations. The man 
 was, I understood, camped somewhere about. I 
 asked them to show him to me, that I might give 
 him what he wanted and have a talk with him. 
 What was my surprise and joy to find that the 
 stranger proved to be no one less than my long- 
 lost friend and shipmate, the Icelander Thorkill. 
 He seemed to be as glad to meet me as I was to 
 see him, and we exchanged our colonial experiences 
 as far as they had gone. It appeared that Thorkill 
 had not stayed long on the sugar plantation in 
 Mackay, where he had first been engaged. That 
 did not surprise me. His employer, he said, had
 
 SHANTY-KEEPING THORKILL'S DEATH. 193 
 
 offered no opposition to his agreement being can- 
 celled, and with the money he had earned he 
 had bought a ticket for Sydney in one of the 
 steamers. He had thought to get something to 
 do in Sydney more suitable to his ability, but for a 
 long time he failed, and was, through want of 
 money, driven to all sorts of extremities, even to 
 sleeping out at night. Then he at last got a job 
 to drive a milk-cart into Sydney for fifteen shil- 
 lings a week. He had also tried other things, 
 such as pick and shovel work; had been assistant 
 in a slaughter-yard, and more besides. 
 
 " But I do not like it," said he, " people seem 
 so rude." 
 
 At last he had scraped enough together to come 
 back to Queensland ; he had walked all the way 
 from Townsville, and here he was. " And you are 
 going to look for gold now? " asked I. He scarcely 
 knew; he was so glad and surprised to see me 
 again that he could think of nothing else. "Well, 
 Thorkill," said I, " do you remember you said 
 once that you and I would never part? Let us now 
 renew that agreement. Last time it was, perhaps, 
 my fault we parted, but this time it shall be yours ; 
 and to show you I am in earnest I will ask you, 
 without further formality, to consider yourself a 
 part proprietor of this hotel and all there is in it." 
 
 " Oh ! what do you mean ? " cried he. " You 
 must be making a great deal of money here and I 
 have none ; nor do I understand your work." 
 
 " Never mind," said I, " we are partners if you 
 
 14
 
 194 DANISH EMIQEANT. 
 
 like ; you do not know how badly I am off for some 
 one I can trust. Think of my being all alone 
 here ; I cannot do it much longer." 
 
 But say what I would Thorkill would never hear 
 of it, and so I in a sort of way engaged him to 
 do what he could for me. He carried water and 
 swept the floor, but the only time he tried to drive 
 the horses to the " Twenty Mile " he lost them 
 both ! He had his tent not far from the shanty, 
 but we had seldom time to speak. His heart was 
 not in my work, and I often, nay always, when I 
 saw him, felt an uneasy sort of conscience. 
 
 One Saturday night, or perhaps more correctly 
 Sunday morning, when a lot of men were drinking 
 outside my hut under the sunshade, and when I 
 myself had imbibed more than was good for me, I 
 began, against all the rules of common prudence, 
 to boast of my money. The party appeared as if 
 they did not believe me, on which I got excited, 
 and called them all into the hut. There I asked 
 them to look under the cask while I tilted it over. 
 What a sight ! A bucket was buried in the ground 
 nearly filled with silver, gold, and notes ! How 
 much there was I did not know myself, but there 
 was more than I liked to say for fear of being 
 doubted. Now began a drinking bout such as had 
 never been before. Everybody had to stand drinks 
 all round. At last they went away, but my re- 
 collections thereof are not clear; I only know that 
 I slept on the counter, and that some one was 
 shaking me and grumbling in very unparliamen-
 
 SHANTY-KEEPING THORKILL'S DEATH. 195 
 
 tary language over my not having been away after 
 bread and beef. I sat up and looked around. It 
 was about the time I ought to be back from the 
 Twenty Mile. The door was open, and nearly a 
 score of men were coming along for bread and 
 meat. Now I remembered all about the previous 
 night. My first thought was my money. I went 
 and peeped under the cask. The bucket was 
 gone ! 
 
 I gave the cask a push that capsized it. "Thieves 
 and robbers, who has stolen my money ? Speak ! " 
 There was lying a pair of hobbles on the counter, 
 and as one of the party began to laugh, I struck him 
 with it. This was the signal for a fearful orgie. 
 The whole crowd flung themselves forward and 
 struck, kicked, and tore me until I fainted right 
 away. When I came to again they did not leave 
 me alone. The whole shop was sacked from end 
 to end, and in their drunken frenzy they pulled it 
 down ! In the midst of it all came Thorkill, and 
 putting me on his back carried me off into his 
 tent. There I lay while he bathed my wounds 
 and consoled me as well as he could, assuring me 
 it might have been all for the best. 
 
 The next day the butcher and the baker came 
 out and took their horses away. They wanted me 
 to start again, and both of them offered me money 
 and credit, but I was so disgusted with myself and 
 the whole business that I told them I would not 
 be a shanty-keeper again for all the gold in Queens- 
 land.
 
 196 DANISH EMIGBANT. 
 
 Thus was it with me. To lie in ThorkilTs tent 
 and listen to his quiet, peaceful way of talking 
 how different was that from the noisy, drunken 
 orgies of which I had for about five months been 
 a daily witness ! I took a violent dislike to the 
 very place, but where to go I did not know. I felt 
 as if I only wanted to get away from everybody 
 but Thorkill. I did not care where I went. As 
 for him, he thought he would like to go south 
 again. This place and these people were too much 
 for him. He had now learned to write pretty well 
 in grammatical English, and he thought he might 
 get something to do in Brisbane. As for me I had 
 never seen a place yet where I could not get some- 
 thing to do ; so far as that went I did not care, 
 but I thought of him that he came straight from 
 Sydney, where he had not been successful. He 
 had such a mild, pedantic air about him, which no 
 doubt would look well in an antiquary, but which 
 would scarcely prove a recommendation for a 
 grocer's clerk, or, indeed, for any other position 
 for which I could think him eligible. So I said to 
 him one day, as we were again talking about going 
 away, "I am sick and tired of looking at anybody 
 but yourself. What do you say if we go pro- 
 specting for twelve months ? I have got thirty 
 pounds in Townsville bank, and thirty pounds in 
 Eavenswood, besides a few pounds here. You 
 have got twelve pounds you earned while with 
 me. Then we have the horses, and you have got 
 the tent. It is sufficient for a twelvemonth's trip.
 
 SHANTY-KEEPING THOBKILL'S DEATH. 197 
 
 I am now a pretty good bushman, and if we only 
 get to where there is gold I think we shall find it. 
 If we don't I do not care. What do you say? " 
 
 This proposal met at once with Thorkill's ap- 
 proval, and we both went into Eavenswood, where 
 I drew out my money. Here we loaded up the 
 horses with as many rations as they could carry, 
 also pick, shovel, basin, and other necessary things. 
 Then we went back the same way we had come, 
 until we arrived at Condamine Creek, twenty-five 
 miles out. From there we ran up the creek, as 
 near as I can guess about forty miles, prospecting 
 all the time. Then we turned northward, up 
 another creek, and knocked about so that it would 
 be difficult to describe where we went. But we did 
 not care. I was as happy as a bird, and so was 
 Thorkill. We had our guns with us, and we could 
 every day shoot as many birds as we could eat, and 
 kangaroos besides. Sometimes we would camp, 
 and Thorkill would fish while I prospected about. 
 When it rained we would lie in the tent and talk 
 about Denmark and Iceland. That was a theme 
 on which Thorkill never could be tired, and he had 
 such a fund of genuine information on that subject 
 that I was never tired of listening to him. 
 
 We had been out prospecting in this way for 
 about three months, and were now in the vicinity of 
 Cape gold-field, when we struck a place where we 
 thought there was payable gold. We had for 
 several days been following on, through a very 
 mountainous country, a river, the name of which
 
 198 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 we did not know, until we reached the place of 
 which I now write, where it ran through a 
 valley, hemmed in on all sides by big mountains. 
 The river was still of considerable volume. Here 
 we found a nugget of gold about an ounce in 
 weight the first time we tried, and although our 
 good luck did not repeat itself, yet we decided, as 
 it was such a beautiful spot, that we would camp 
 for a month or two there, so at least to give the 
 place a fair trial. We pitched our tent, there- 
 fore, on a little knoll not far from the creek, and 
 made ourselves comfortable. The next fortnight 
 we washed for gold from morning to night, and 
 each made about an ounce per week. We con- 
 sidered this very satisfactory, and were talking 
 often about what name we should call this new 
 field when we could not conceal it any longer and 
 a "rush" should set in; because we knew very 
 well that if we, as strangers, by and by rode into 
 the Cape, or any other place, to buy some rations, 
 and there try to get our bit of gold changed, that 
 we should be tracked back to where we had got it, 
 unless we were far more clever than I gave myself 
 credit for being. But neither of us minded that. 
 We were, on the contrary, quite proud of having 
 to figure as successful explorers, and it used to be 
 one of our recreations of an evening to sit and talk 
 about what name to give the place. Thorkill was 
 of opinion that we ought to find a name which should 
 remind all who came here of both Denmark and 
 Iceland, but as it did not seem possible for us to
 
 iiREAKFAST IN THE GOLD FIELDS
 
 SHANTY-KEEPING THOBKILL'S DEATH. 199 
 
 invent such a name, at last I accepted Thorkill's 
 suggestion to call it Thingvallavatu, that being the 
 name of a large lake and river in Iceland not far 
 from his home, and as it seemed a well-sounding 
 name, I thought it suitable ; and although I do not 
 know if ever a white man has been there before or 
 since that time, yet as often as I think of the 
 place I remember the name we gave the river 
 Thingvallavatu. 
 
 On one evening that is for ever engraven on my 
 memory, we were lying in our tent Thorkill and I. 
 It had been raining heavily all day, and we had 
 not been able to be about. We felt pretty miser- 
 able, our usual stock of conversation seemed to be 
 exhausted, but far out in the evening it revived 
 again, so much indeed that Thorkill began to tell 
 me of things of which he had never spoken before. 
 He told me of his parents, of his brother and his 
 sister, and explained to me where their farm in Ice- 
 land was, giving me the address, describing the road 
 leading to it, and every detail, until I said to him 
 that if we were lucky enough now to get a bit of 
 gold we would both go home to Iceland and settle 
 down there. From that conversation drifted to 
 other things, and was at last almost at a standstill, 
 when he called me by name, and, in a bashful sort 
 of way, observed, "I say, were you ever in love ? " 
 
 This was a theme on which we had never en- 
 larged : partly because there had not been much 
 opportunity yet for either of us in Queensland to 
 indulge in such a luxury, and partly because I do
 
 200 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 not know, to the best of my recollection, that it 
 had ever been mentioned between us, so, as I 
 recognized that he wanted to tell me something, I 
 said, a little surprised, " Why do you ask ? " 
 
 "I have," said he. "While I was overseer on 
 that farm in Alo, I knew a girl. Oh, how good 
 she was, and how beautiful ! I sometimes would 
 go and visit her in the evening. She was only a 
 servant girl, and her father was working there too. 
 One evening I kissed her." 
 
 "I am afraid," said I, " you have not forgotten 
 her yet." 
 
 " No ; her I can never forget." 
 
 "Why did you not marry her?" said I. "I 
 suppose as you went visiting her, she would have 
 had no objection ? " 
 
 " How could I ? " replied he. " If only I had 
 been an ordinary working man I would willingly 
 have asked her; but I was not that. Her father 
 always spoke to me as if I owned a mansion, and 
 yet I had scarcely sufficient salary to pay for my 
 own clothes. No, I never asked her." 
 
 " Does she know you are out here ? " inquired I. 
 
 " No, neither she nor my parents, nor anybody ; 
 they must think I am dead." 
 
 I had nothing to say. I was lying thinking 
 about matters of my own. A little after this I 
 thought I heard him crying. Was it possible ? I 
 did not like the idea. I listened again. Yes ! 
 there was no mistake. Thorkill was really crying. 
 Deep, big, stifled sobs. I asked what was the
 
 SHANTY-KEEPING THOBKILL'S DEATH. 201 
 
 matter. Two or three times I asked before he 
 answered. At last he said, " I could not help it ; 
 I cried because I know very well I shall never see 
 Beikjavik" (the only town in Iceland) " again." 
 
 After that I kept talking for some time to him 
 in a sort of overbearing way about that, saying we 
 need not cry, surely, about that, if that was our 
 only trouble ; that we had money enough to get 
 home now, and if we had not, what then ? As for 
 myself, if I set my mind on going home, rather 
 than cry over it I would stow away on a ship or 
 work rny passage. But I got no answer from Thor- 
 kill. I could not sleep, and soon after the day 
 broke. The rain had by this time ceased, and as I 
 saw that Thorkill had now fallen asleep, I thought 
 it a pity to waken him, and crept as quietly as I 
 could out of the tent to make a fire and get a drop 
 of tea for breakfast. As I sat by the fire an hour 
 after, eating my breakfast, I saw Thorkill coming, 
 creeping on his hands and feet out of the tent, with 
 his head screwed round, looking up in the air over 
 the tent. I somehow thought he was looking at a 
 bird, and wondered he had not got the gun, so I 
 sat still and said nothing, but kept watching him. 
 When he was a long way out of the tent he got up, 
 and, still looking up in the air, pointed fixedly at 
 something and cried, " See ! oh, look there ! " I 
 stole behind him and looked, but could see nothing, 
 so I asked, " What is it?" 
 
 " Oh, don't you see? See! a large Bussian 
 emigrant ship flying through the air."
 
 202 DANISH EMIGBANT. 
 
 " Are you going altogether insane?" cried I r 
 beating him on the back. The next moment with 
 a deep groan he fell right into my arms. I asked 
 him what was the matter. Was he sick ? Was 
 he bitten by a snake ? I do not know half I asked 
 him, but all the reply I got as I laid him in his bunk 
 again, was, " Go for a minister." 
 
 My mate was dying, and I knew it now. Dear 
 reader, whoever you may be, if you have seen your 
 nearest friend die, then you know how bitter it is, 
 But if you at such time have been among others 
 who have shared your grief, and had a doctor to 
 take the responsibility off your hands, then you 
 may only guess at what I felt when I saw Thorkill 
 lying there perfectly unconscious. We had as it 
 were for a long time been everything to each other, 
 and the disappointments and mishaps we both, so 
 far, had suffered in Queensland, had, it seemed at. 
 that moment, made him simply indispensable to my 
 existence. How could I go for a parson ? I 
 jumped out of the tent and ran round it three or 
 four times before I recollected that I did not know 
 of any human habitation within fifty miles ! Then 
 I went in again and spoke to him. There was no 
 answer ; not a movement in his body. He lay as 
 if in a heavy sleep, a high colour in his face. One 
 of his arms was hanging out over the bunk, and 
 would not rest where I put it, so I took a saddle 
 and placed that underneath it, and as it was not 
 yet high enough, I put a pint pot on that again. 
 There I balanced it, and there it remained. I had.
 
 SHANTY-KEEPING THORKILL' S DEATH. 203 
 
 not much medicine, only some quinine. That was 
 no good. Then I thought he must have been taken 
 by an apoplectic fit. I took the scissors and cut 
 off all his hair and beard. Then I went outside 
 and worked desperately at making a sunshade over 
 the tent, because the sun was beating down on us 
 so fiercely ; next in again, and out. I did not 
 know what to do. I could not for a moment 
 remain still. Sometimes I carried water from the 
 creek and bathed his head with it. Then I feared 
 I was only tormenting him, and knocked it off 
 again. As I sat looking at him in the afternoon I 
 could not avoid thinking about how he had in his 
 last hour of good health made such a complete 
 confession about matters he always before had 
 been so reticent about. Why ? I ask the question 
 now. Can any one answer it. It is not fashionable 
 in our age to believe more than can be rationally 
 explained, but I believe most people in their lives 
 have had similar strange experiences. If I make 
 the remark that I am superstitious, then I know I 
 shall lay myself open to ridicule, and yet it is only 
 a form of admitting that I do not know all that 
 passes in heaven and 011 earth. 
 
 In the afternoon, as Thorkill still lay in the 
 same immovable trance, I thought I must find 
 out whether he was conscious of my being 
 there or not, so I knelt down and spoke in 
 his ear, and calhd him by name. " Thorkill," 
 cried I, "if you can hear me and know that 
 I am here, try to give me some sign." Then
 
 204 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 as I watched him I thought he breathed extra 
 deep, but I was never certain. Anyhow, although 
 I had myself no Bible, and never had used one 
 before, I got his out of his swag and began reading 
 at the commencement and kept on until it was too 
 dark to read any more. During the night the rain 
 and storm began again. I could hear in Thorkill's 
 altered breathing that the end was near, but I had 
 no other light but a match I struck occasionally, 
 and it seemed to frighten me when I struck one 
 and saw his altered face. At last I knew he was 
 dead, and in an agony of sorrow and excitement I 
 began praying to Balder, our ancient god of all that 
 was noble and good, to come and fetch his own. I 
 was fearfully agitated, and remember well how I 
 walked outside the tent singing the old " Bjar- 
 kamsal," and almost fancying I saw all the ancient 
 gods coming through the air. It is a common 
 saying of a person who has died, that he was too 
 good to live, but if ever that saying was true of 
 any one, it was true of Thorkill. A pure descendant 
 from the ancient Vikings, yet how different was he 
 from his forefathers. And all Icelanders are more 
 or less the same. Honest, frank, and kind, he 
 could not understand why everybody else was not 
 also honest and good, and I know very well he 
 declined the contest of life ; he could not match 
 his simple faith with the cunning and brutality of 
 the ordinary set of people one meets with when the 
 pocket is empty. Better, perhaps, he should have 
 died then and there. Why was I sorry ? Why
 
 SHANTY-KEEPING THOEKILUS DEATH. 205 
 
 did I not rejoice ? Who knew but that I some 
 day might not die in great deal more lonely and in 
 much more friendless way than he ? He had lost 
 nothing, and it was I who was the loser ; but for 
 his sake I would be glad. In this strain of mind I 
 passed the remainder of the night, but when at 
 last daylight came it brought with it the grim 
 reality of death such as it is, and life such as it is, 
 and also a sense of what was now the only favour 
 I could show the remains of my friend. It was 
 three or four o'clock that afternoon before I had 
 managed, as decently as I could, to bury the body, 
 and then all my energy was expended. Yet as I 
 sat resting myself for a moment, I was aware that 
 I must be off somewhere before evening, far from 
 that spot. I had a splitting headache ; my legs 
 seemed unable to carry me. Yet I must be off to 
 get the horses. I found them, but when I came 
 home with them it was evening and I had to let 
 them go again. I could do no more, and not 
 altogether with an uncomfortable feeling was it 
 that I that evening laid myself down in Thorkill's 
 bunk, thinking that perhaps after all we need not 
 part. I was sick now myself, and fancied I saw 
 fearful visions all night. The next morning I 
 could scarcely raise myself to a sitting posture, 
 but during the day I managed with the instinct of 
 self-preservation to carry some water up from the 
 creek and to bake a damper. My recollections for 
 some time after this are very indistinct. It may 
 have been a week or it may have been two weeks.
 
 206 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 All that I remember of that time are glimpses of 
 myself sitting by Thorkill's grave, singing, or 
 playing the flute. The first clear recollection of 
 that time which I have, was one afternoon when 
 I was lying in the bunk watching, in a lazy sort of 
 way, some rats nibbling at the flour-bag, which 
 had somehow fallen down from its place. The 
 flour lay scattered about the tent, and everything 
 seemed in glorious disorder. I lay a long time 
 looking at the rats, and wondering where Thorkill 
 was whether he was making breakfast, for I felt 
 very hungry. I had no remembrance whatever of 
 his being dead. I called him ; my voice seemed 
 curious and weak. I grabbed a poker to strike at 
 the rats with it how heavy it felt ! Then I got 
 up and went outside, and stood staring for a long 
 time at the grave before I recollected that he was 
 dead, and that I myself was or had been sick. 
 Everything outside the tent bore evidence of 
 having been thrown about as if by a maniac, and I 
 felt a thrill of horror running through me as I 
 thought of myself, how perhaps I had walked about 
 here at night alone, sick and delirious. I felt 
 quite myself, however, although very weak. I was 
 hungry, and felt that I must have something to 
 eat, get it where I could. I staggered about 
 looking for food. Not a vestige of tea could I 
 find ; there was no meat except a few nasty bones 
 which I found in the billy, and had to throw away ; 
 then I discovered a little sugar, and I scraped 
 together some flour. My next trouble was that I
 
 SHANTY-KEEPING THORKILL'S DEATH. 207 
 
 lad no fire and no dry matches. It took me all 
 my time to get a fire, by rubbing a hard and soft 
 stick together, but at last I succeeded, and then 
 made a johnny-cake in the fire. Out of sugar I 
 made my supper, and sat by the fire dreaming and 
 living it all over again. With the help of my gun 
 I got some birds the next day, and stewed them in 
 the billy with flour and figweed. I also found the 
 horses all right, but I was too weak to think of 
 shifting my quarters just then, much as I would 
 have liked to do so, because there seemed to me to 
 be a sort of haunted air about the whole place. I 
 busied myself all day, when I was not hunting for 
 food, with repairing my clothes, but I had a great 
 longing to see somebody of my own species again, 
 and to sit there every day talking to or thinking 
 about a dead man had something sickly in it that 
 I did not like. I could not for a couple of days 
 find either my money or the bit of gold we had 
 got. Whatever I had done with it was to me a 
 complete blank. I found it all at last in this way : 
 that somehow my hat did not seem to fit me, and 
 when I looked it over, there was all the money 
 stuck under the lining, but I never had any recol- 
 lection of putting it there. 
 
 I read all Thorkill's letters and took them with 
 me when I left. They were from his parents and 
 his sister, addressed to him while he was in Den- 
 mark, telling him of all sorts of small home-news, 
 .and hoping soon to see him again. These he had 
 }>een carrying with him everywhere, and I had
 
 208 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 often seen him reading them. There were also 
 photographs of all his family, and I made them 
 all up into a small parcel intending some day soon 
 to write to his people. 
 
 I confess I never did write. I could not bring 
 myself to do it. I thought of what he had said 
 that they must think him dead. Why, then, re- 
 open their wound? Let him remain " a missing 
 friend." As I had no settled abode for a long 
 time after this, I carried his papers with me every- 
 where for many years. One photograph, of his 
 sister, a very handsome girl, I had until after I 
 was married, and treasured it greatly. I think 
 Mrs. must know what became of it at last.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 GOING TO THE PALMER. 
 
 15
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 GOING TO THE PALMEE. 
 
 WfHEN I left Thorkill's grave I made a course 
 W as near as I could for the Cape gold-field. 
 This place I found almost deserted, as most of the 
 diggers had left for the Palmer. The few people 
 who remained there had seemingly nothing else to 
 speak about but the fabulous richness of that field, 
 and they were all deploring each his untoward 
 circumstances which kept him from going thither. 
 And so it came to pass that, while gradually re- 
 covering my spirits, I made up my mind to go to 
 the Palmer too. But to go to the Palmer was at 
 that time easier said than done. The Palmer 
 gold-fields lay somewhere in a totally unexplored 
 country, and none had been known to reach the 
 Palmer from the Cape after the commencement of 
 the wet season. Many unsuccessful attempts had 
 been made, and the returned parties spoke loudly 
 of the ''impossibilities" on the road, such as 
 swollen rivers, swamps, marshes, mountains, 
 blacks, and what not besides ; and what seemed to 
 me the worst, no supplies of any kind were to be 
 found on the fields. One had simply to carry with
 
 212 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 him rations sufficient to last until he returned. 
 Add to this that a pint pot full of flour cost half- 
 a-crown on the Cape, with other things at a pro- 
 portionate rate, and it made me decide another 
 way. 
 
 A new port had been opened on the coast by the 
 shipping companies as the most feasible spot from 
 which to reach the Palmer. The name of this 
 place was Cooktown on the Endeavour Kiver; and 
 the spot is identical with a place mentioned in 
 Captain Cook's travels, where he ran his ship, the 
 Endeavour, ashore to carry out some necessary 
 repairs to that vessel. To get to Cooktown from 
 the Cape I should first have to go to Townsville 
 and thence take ship to Cooktown. Although the 
 distance from the Cape to Townsville was as great 
 as from the Cape to the Palmer, yet, as it was 
 possible to travel the one road and not the other, 
 I decided to go there, and from that port take 
 ship to Cooktown, whence after having obtained 
 supplies, I would try to reach the Palmer. 
 
 I will not tire the reader by describing my 
 journey to Townsville. My horses were well 
 rested and in good mettle, and I let them trot out 
 every day, so that I reached the coast very quickly. 
 I found Townsville crowded with people who 
 wanted to go to the Palmer. The steamers could 
 not take them fast enough, and in trying to secure 
 a passage for myself and my horses I was dis- 
 appointed time after time. Money, however, was 
 flying about all over the place. I was offered work
 
 GOING TO THE PALMEB. 213 
 
 in several quarters in fact I was nearly implored 
 to take it up for fifteen shillings a day, or there 
 was piecework, by which I could easily have earned 
 double that amount, but, of course, I could not 
 think of it. At last I obtained a passage in a 
 schooner which had been fitted up for the voyage. 
 There was accommodation below decks for forty 
 horses, and fully that number were hoisted on 
 board. On the deck was accommodation for as 
 many passengers as could find standing room, and 
 I think there must have been over a hundred 
 people altogether. Indeed, we were so crowded 
 that, if the skipper had a right to complain of any- 
 thing, it certainly could not be that he had not a 
 full cargo. I paid five pounds apiece for the pas- 
 sage of the horses and two pounds ten shillings 
 for myself. We had to find our own forage, too, 
 for the horses, and also to provide our own food. 
 Water, however, the skipper had to find himself 
 no light matter on so small a ship. We were sup- 
 posed to make the run in forty-eight hours, and 
 carried water enough for double that time. I had 
 corn and hay to last my horses for a fortnight, but 
 some of the others had scarcely any fodder. At 
 last we started, and when the little steamer which 
 hauled us out of the creek had cast us off, it was 
 proved to my entire satisfaction that my run of 
 bad luck was not yet at an end. A strong wind 
 was blowing, but although the ship was tearing 
 through the water at a terrible rate, yet we did 
 not make real way, as the wind was straight against
 
 214 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 us. It may seem strange that we should start 
 with such an adverse wind, but once the horses 
 were on board the skipper had to go. The first 
 evening we were out the captain and mate fought 
 and nearly knocked each other into the sea. I 
 mention this, however, only because I remember it; 
 I don't think our troublesome journey was due 
 to neglect or bad seamanship, but the wind was 
 against us, and kept so day after day until at last 
 it blew a perfect hurricane. The horses, of course, 
 suffered very much. At one time they would 
 stand nearly on their heads, at another, the other 
 way, now on one side, then on the other, as the 
 ship was jerking up and down. I was working 
 down below with my two horses all the time, 
 trying to ease them all I could. I tied iny tent 
 clothes and blankets round about the stalls to 
 lessen the force of the knocks a little for them. 
 All the horses, however, did not fare so well as 
 that, for their masters themselves were, for the 
 most part, lying in a helpless condition up on 
 deck, and the air below was so foul that it took 
 a good pair of lungs to endure it. The horses 
 soon began to die off, too ; and to haul the poor 
 dead brutes up and throw them overboard took us 
 all our time, seeing that very few of us were 
 capable of such work. Upon deck it was indeed a 
 sight. Some were completely gone with sea- sick- 
 ness and had tied themselves to the bulwarks, 
 others were lying " yarning " and laughing as if 
 nothing were the matter. Many of these men
 
 GOING TO THE PALMER. 215 
 
 must have known that even if the ship could 
 weather the storm, yet with the death of their 
 horses all hope of a successful journey was at an 
 end for them. Yet one heard no complaint ; and 
 I should like here to pay this compliment to 
 Britishers: that, whether English, Scotch, or Irish, 
 they are, as a rule, brave men. Ours was not a 
 momentary suffering either. It was a constant 
 drenching with the waves, day after day. The 
 horses, our most valuable property, hauled over- 
 board as fast sometimes as we could get them up, 
 and our own lives in constant danger ! Yet no 
 one complained. They would "yarn," laugh, or 
 crack jokes all day long. The only exceptions to 
 this rule, I am sorry to say, although I hope they 
 were not typical, were two Danes who had come 
 on board. One of them had informed me as soon 
 as we left Townsville that he intended to run 
 away from his wife who lived there. Now, when 
 the storm was blowing, he became intensely 
 religious and declared it to be a punishment from 
 Heaven for his wickedness and he made me most 
 sacred promises, one after the other, that he would 
 return to her bosom if only God would spare him 
 this time. The other declared the ship to be a 
 regular pirate craft and Queensland an accursed 
 country. I had to cook for them both, hand them 
 their food, and cheer up their spirits all the way. 
 One day we spied a large steamer flying the flag of 
 distress. She came from the south too, and was, 
 like ourselves, trying to reach Cooktown. As she
 
 216 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 came labouring through the waves we saw that it 
 was the Lord Asliley. The deck was black with 
 people and I do not know how many hundred 
 horses. This heavy deck-cargo caused the ship 
 to rock so that it looked as if it were about cap- 
 sizing every time it lurched over. Two of her 
 masts were already overboard, and as our schooner 
 ran past her we saw the people engaged in 
 throwing the horses overboard alive. Nearly all 
 the horses were sacrificed in this manner. To see 
 the poor brutes try to swim after the steamer or 
 the schooner was heartrending. We on the 
 schooner could give no assistance; indeed, after 
 all, the steamer was better off than ourselves, inso- 
 much that it kept on its way while the schooner 
 had to tear up and down and to do its best not to 
 be blown south again. When we at last reached 
 Cooktown, some days after, the Lord Asliley was 
 lying there ; but it was her last journey. She was 
 so knocked about that, to the best of my belief, she 
 was sold as lumber afterwards. All our water was 
 now used up, and we had either to try to effect a 
 landing or go south again. As the mate declared 
 he knew a place on the coast just where we were, 
 where there was a fresh-water creek, it was decided 
 to call for volunteers among the passengers to 
 man the boat and get some water. As I had two 
 horses on board and was not sea-sick, I declared 
 myself ready to make one. There were six oars to 
 be manned. The other five volunteers, although 
 dassengers, were yet old sailors. The mate was
 
 GOING TO THE PALMER. 217 
 
 to take the helm. Before the boat was lowered 
 great care was taken to lash the empty casks in 
 their proper position and to have everything in 
 order. Then the captain took the wheel and ran 
 the schooner in towards the land further than 
 customary when we tacked. As we turned the 
 boat was lowered. The men and I jumped down. 
 Off flew the ship : it seemed miles before I realized 
 that it was gone. And we in the boat talk about 
 the big swing at home in Tivoli ; that was only 
 child's play to the rocking we now had ! My hat 
 blew off and flew towards Townsville ; my hair, 
 and even my shirt, were trying hard to follow ! 
 One could scarcely get the oars in the water. But, 
 in spite of all, we paddled as best we could, and 
 shortly after were inside a little harbour, where 
 the water was comparatively smooth and where we 
 effected a landing. How peaceful and quiet it afi 
 seemed here under the mountain. I felt, as I trod 
 the firm soil under my feet, that I should never 
 make a good sailor, and it was a terror to me how 
 we were ever to reach the schooner again. We 
 rolled the casks up to the little creek and filled them. 
 The mate said he had been there some years before 
 when he was with a New Guinea expedition. As 
 we were roaming about, waiting for the right 
 moment to get out again, we found a lot of wreckage, 
 old rotten spars, a cabin door, &c. Then we came 
 on the skeleton of a man, not all together, but 
 scattered about. There were also remains of some 
 old clothes, and we found a purse with silver in it,
 
 218 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 something less than a pound. The mate declared 
 this money to be an infallible charm, and suggested 
 that we should each take a piece and say nothing 
 about it. There were only six pieces of money, 
 and we were seven to share it. No one would 
 .stand out for any consideration, so we drew lots. 
 I secured a two-shilling piece, and, whether for 
 good or forbad luck, I have it yet, and used to carry- 
 it for years in the most approved fashion round 
 my neck. We had no tools with us, so we could not 
 bury the bones. There they lie, perhaps even yet, 
 the remains of another " missing friend." We came 
 on board the schooner again somehow. Opinions 
 differed much amongst us as to why we had not been 
 drowned, and no verdict was arrived at. The mate 
 said it was the charms we carried which had done 
 it, others said that Grod held His hand over us, but 
 the one who had no charm said it was because we 
 were the very refuse of the devil. I express no 
 opinion myself, only that it was certainly sur- 
 prising. As the storm gradually veered round 
 a little we reached Cooktown. Out of the forty 
 horses only sixteen were alive ; one of mine was 
 dead, and the other did not look as if it could live 
 long after I got it out of the ship, yet it gradually 
 came round and proved a very good horse after- 
 wards. 
 
 Cooktown is now reckoned among the old-esta- 
 blished towns of Queensland, but when I landed 
 there it looked wild enough. To describe it I ask 
 the reader to think of a fair in the Old Country,
 
 GOING TO THE PALMER. 219 
 
 leaving out the monkeys and merry-go-rounds. 
 There were some thousands of people all camped 
 out in tents. Those who intended to start busi- 
 ness in Cooktowii had pegged out plots of ground 
 in the main street and run up large tents or cor- 
 rugated iron structures in which all sorts of 
 merchandise was sold cheap enough. But the 
 wet season kept on, and there was no communica- 
 tion with the Palmer. People left town to go 
 there every day in the rain and slush, but many 
 returned saying it was no use trying, as the rivers 
 could not be crossed. There was at that time a 
 very mixed lot of people in Cooktown. All the 
 loafers, pickpockets, and card-sharpers seemed to 
 have trooped in from Brisbane, Sydney, and Mel- 
 bourne, looking for the gold in other people's 
 pockets, and the robbing of tents was an every- 
 day occurrence. Then, although it had been made 
 known far and wide that any one who wanted to 
 ,go to the Palmer must either starve or carry six 
 months' rations with him, still many destitute and 
 .good-for-nothing people could also be seen wherever 
 one looked : these form a class of men as easily 
 distinguished from the bond fide miners as if they 
 belonged altogether to another species. No work 
 of any kind was going on for more than one-tenth 
 of the people who looked for employment, and 
 any one who wanted a man might easily get him 
 for his " tucker." I believe one could have got 
 them to work' all day for their dinner alone. Men 
 -would walk about among the tents in droves, and
 
 220 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 wherever they saw rations there they would heg. 
 While this was the true state of affairs in Cook- 
 town just then, I remember well standing outside 
 the newspaper office, reading the paper, the 
 leading article in which described in glowing 
 terms the bustle and activity going on in this 
 rising city, and declared that any man who could 
 lift a hammer was welcome to a pound sterling 
 a day ! Of course I did not look for any work, so 
 I did not care. There was also a great deal of 
 sickness, especially dysentery, and the doctors re- 
 quired cash down before they would even look at 
 any one. If one took a stroll up among the tents, 
 it was a common, indeed an inevitable, sight to 
 see men lying helpless, writhing with pain on the 
 ground, some of them bellowing out for pity or 
 mercy. Very little pity or help, as a rule, did 
 they get. Men would pass such a poor object 
 with the greatest apathy, or at most go up to him 
 and give good advice, such as that he ought to be 
 ashamed of lying there and ought to try and crawl 
 into the tent again ! Such was life in Cooktowri 
 during the first " rush " there to any Queensland 
 gold-fields. 
 
 I had not at that time got much money. If luy 
 second horse had lived, I should have been, as I 
 thought, all right ; but as horses worth six or seven 
 pounds could not be bought under thirty or forty 
 pounds, I could not buy another to replace the one 
 I had lost, and had therefore to be content with 
 one. So one day I loaded up my horse with rations
 
 GOING TO TEE PALMER. 221 
 
 and went on the road. As I was going to the 
 Palmer, where money was of no value whatever, 
 and as everything depended on my being able 
 to carry a sufficiency of provisions, I had bought 
 the best of everything regardless of cost. I had 
 cocoa, extract of beef to make soup of, preserved 
 meat and such like in large quantity. Then I had 
 tea, sugar, and one hundred and fifty pounds of 
 flour. My wardrobe, on the other hand, was not 
 extensive. It consisted of one shirt, over and 
 above that I wore. Fifty pounds of my flour 
 with the tent, half a blanket, billy-can, pint pot, 
 knife, gun, &c., I carried on my own back; the 
 remainder, including spade and basin, I strapped 
 on the back of the horse. I had then only a 
 few shillings left of all my money when I started, 
 but going through the town on my road out the 
 burden on my back began already to feel heavy. I 
 therefore thought it wise to carry no unneces- 
 sary loads, and seeing some fellows standing in 
 the street who looked as if they needed some re- 
 freshment, I called them together and had a 
 big " shout " in a public-house as far as the 
 money would go. That relieved my mind and my 
 pocket ! 
 
 The road, if it might be called one, was really a 
 track or belt of morass, some ten 'chains wide, in 
 which one had to wade at times up to the knees. 
 I was prepared to endure great hardships ; but to 
 understand the suffering to man and horse in drag- 
 ing oneself along that road one must have tried it
 
 222 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 for himself. Twice that day the horse and I got- 
 bogged. To get clear again I had first to crawl 
 on my hands and knees with part of my own load 
 up to some fallen log and deposit it there, then 
 back to the horse for more. When the horse was 
 quite unloaded, I had to take it round the neck 
 and let it use me as a sort of purchase by which to- 
 work itself out. Then load it again and wade 
 along. I made eight miles that day, and I knew 
 that no one who left Cooktown with me came so 
 far. At the eighth mile there was a large camp 
 of diggers, who said they could get no further nor 
 yet back to Cooktown. I should have remained 
 there ; but as I saw next morning some prepare to> 
 get a little further, I started with them, and soon 
 left them behind too. That day and the next the 
 road was better although still very bad. I crossed 
 a river the third evening I was out. It was as 
 much as I could do to get over, and, as in the 
 night it began to pour with rain, I concluded, what 
 really proved to be the case, that the creek would 
 rise and so effectually cut off my retreat. The 
 next day the road was worse than ever. The 
 horse got bogged time after time, and I was my- 
 self on the eve of being knocked up. The whole 
 road so far, almost ever since I had left Cooktown, 
 was strewn with clothes, boots, saddles, rations, in 
 such quantities that there would have been enough 
 to have opened a good store with if one could have 
 got it all together. I had also passed at least a 
 score of dead horses, sticking in the mud with the:
 
 GOING TO THE PALMER. 22$ 
 
 saddles, and, in some cases, rations on them ; and 
 I met scores of men, who, having thrown every- 
 thing away, were struggling to reach Cooktown 
 again on foot. But with dogged obstinacy I kept 
 on trying to accomplish the impossible. At last 
 the poor horse got bogged again worse than ever. 
 I could not get him out. He looked so pitifully at 
 me ! I am sure it knew the predicament we were 
 both in. I struggled and tried hard to get it out, 
 but I could not. As it settled deeper and deeper 
 into the quagmire I thought I might as well finish 
 his sufferings and my own. So I put my gun to- 
 his ear and shot him. 
 
 There I stood in the pouring rain alongside the 
 dead horse, full of anger with myself that I had 
 not, by using more judgment, saved myself and 
 my poor, faithful companion from such a hard fate. 
 I am not poetically gifted, and do not understand 
 the science of making much out of a little, so I can- 
 not say how miserable I felt. Yet it is neverthe- 
 less true that I was ready to burst with grief. I 
 was wet through, and had been so all day, nor had 
 I anything dry to put on. Evening was coming 
 on too. Up and down the " road " there was. 
 nothing but a quagmire, into which I sank to the 
 knees whenever I moved. Here also lay my hopes 
 of redeeming my fortunes. I know very well if I 
 were placed in the same position now, I should 
 not have strength either of body or mind to extri- 
 cate myself. As it was, when I think of it now, 
 after so many years, I can truly aver that I
 
 224 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 mourned for the horse more than for myself. I had 
 met no travellers that day on account of the rain, but 
 I knew I was about eight miles from the Normanby 
 Eiver, on both sides of which large bodies of 
 miners were camped those on my side being 
 desirous of reaching the Palmer, and the camp on 
 the other side being full of men who had come 
 from the Palmer and wanted to go to Cooktown. 
 But both parties were prevented from getting 
 further as the Norrnanby Eiver was in full flood 
 and half a mile across. 
 
 I could not continue to stand looking at the 
 dead horse. I felt a great longing to reach the 
 other men that I might, by talking to them, forget 
 a part of my own trouble in thinking of theirs, so 
 I managed that evening, and with even a part of 
 my goods, to reach the camp, and the next few 
 days I devoted to fetching the remainder of my 
 stores from where the dead horse was lying. 
 
 On the banks of the Normanby Kiver there was 
 at that time a sight which might well furnish food 
 for reflection. I doubt if fiction could invent any- 
 thing more strange. Several hundred men were 
 camped on the south side of the river waiting for 
 the flood to subside so that they might get over. 
 We had rations in any quantity, but, speaking for 
 myself, I can truthfully say, if the others were like 
 me, we had no money. On the other side of the 
 river was an equally large camp. The men there 
 were the diggers who, when the first news of the 
 Palmer broke out, had, before the wet season set
 
 GOING TO THE PALMER. 225 
 
 in, gathered to the "rush" from the Etheridge, 
 Gilbert, Charters Towers, Cape, and other outlying 
 places, and who, having eaten their rations and 
 gathered their gold, were now trying to get to 
 Cooktown to purchase supplies. A perfect famine 
 was raging over there. The country around is 
 very poorly off for game ; besides, they had no 
 powder, and so they had been eating their horses, 
 their dogs, and at last their boots ! It is a fact 
 that they used to boil their blucher boots for 
 twenty-four hours and eat them with weeds ! It 
 takes something to make a Queensland miner lie 
 down to die, yet it was the general opinion among 
 men who had been to all the Victorian and New 
 Zealand " rushes," that they had never suffered 
 such hardship before or seen country so void of 
 game or life of any sort. 
 
 There we were, looking across at one another 
 they shaking their gold-purses at us, and we show- 
 ing them the flour-bags. Two came across to us. 
 The way they managed was this : first they took 
 off the rag or two which yet served them for 
 clothes and strapped them on to the horse, then 
 getting on the horse and forcing it into the water 
 it would soon be borne with the current down the 
 stream ; they would then slip off, and getting hold 
 of the tail with one hand swim with the other. 
 They both managed to cross, but it looked so des- 
 perate an undertaking that the others did not 
 venture. The two men who came over brought 
 the first reliable news from the Palmer for a long 
 
 16
 
 226 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 time, and were besieged with questions. As I do 
 not care to return to the matter again, I will say 
 here that among the tales of suffering on the 
 Palmer by the first batch of diggers, was that of 
 one of my shipmates from home, who had arrived 
 there from the Etheridge, and who, while looking 
 for gold in one of the tributaries to the Palmer, 
 had been cut off from the main camp by the river 
 rising so that he could not cross to get away. 
 His dead body was found in his tent after the wet 
 season. He had died of hunger, yet under his 
 head was a bag with eighteen pounds' weight of 
 gold in it. Poor fellow ! the last time I saw him 
 was in Port Denison, the first year I was in the 
 country ; he had then earned five pounds sterling, 
 and had come into town to get it sent home to 
 his father and mother. 
 
 On our side of the river we passed the time as 
 best we could. There was a large band of Ger- 
 man musicians, and I joined them with my 
 flute, which I always carried. It really seemed 
 strange, in the heart of the wilderness, where a few 
 months before no white man had ever put his foot, 
 to hear the tones of Strauss or Offenbach. As a 
 general thing, though, men would sit in their tents 
 while the rain came pouring down in sheets of 
 water. At night we suffered very much from mos- 
 quitoes, and in the daytime from flies, the common 
 little house-fly, which was a perfect nuisance 
 all day. Dear reader, I know you expect of me 
 that the least I can do for you who have followed
 
 GOING TO TEE PALMER. 227 
 
 my fortunes so far is to tell you now how I some- 
 how proceeded to the Palmer, and there in a 
 month or two accumulated at least twenty 
 thousand ounces of gold, with which I returned 
 and got married to some nobleman's daughter. I 
 should not be sorry to write this if I only had 
 the gold somewhere handy, but as you no doubt 
 would, after all, prefer the truth, whatever it is, I 
 must confess that I could not at all see my way to 
 go on any further. When the weather settled and 
 people began to cross the river I had a good look 
 at the poor emaciated fellows who came across, 
 some of them with very little gold, and all of them 
 more or less broken in health. Then I began to 
 ask myself whether the game was worth the 
 candle. The Germans who constituted the band 
 offered to take me as mate in their party, and to 
 put my rations on their horses ; and for that I was 
 greatly obliged to them, but I seemed all at once 
 to have taken such a dislike to roaming about, and 
 was picturing to myself the comfort I could have 
 had and the sum of money I might have saved by 
 constant employment at my trade, that I refused 
 their kind offer, and instead of going on towards 
 the Palmer I sold my rations for a good price and 
 returned to Cooktown.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 RETURNING FROM THE PALMER.
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 KETURNING ' FEOM THE PALMES. 
 
 I SAT in my tent one day in Cooktown, while 
 the rain was pouring down outside, when my 
 attention was attracted by four men who stood 
 in a desolate sort of way in the road. They 
 seemed to me to have such a pitiful, aimless, 
 vacant way ahout them as they stood there while 
 the rain ran down their backs in bucketsful ! 
 But I do not suppose that I for that reason 
 alone should have given them a second thought, 
 because misery and want were such common sights 
 in Cooktown. What, however, riveted my interest 
 in them was that I could see they were Danes 
 by their clothes, and also that they had only 
 been a very short time in Queensland. So I 
 thought I would have a lark with them at my 
 own expense if, as I guessed, it should prove true 
 that they could not speak English. I therefore 
 called to them in English, and invited them 
 to come into my tent out of the rain. They 
 came quickly enough. My point was to let them 
 think me an Englishman and to prove the old
 
 232 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 proverb that lie " who hears himself spoken of 
 seldom hears praise." So I questioned them from 
 what country they came, how long they had been 
 in Cooktown, where they were going, how long 
 they had been in Queensland, and all such matters. 
 It appeared then that they had arrived in Rock- 
 hampton a few months before, had taken a contract 
 there to burn off a piece of scrub, by which they 
 had saved a few pounds, and having heard of the 
 Palmer, had bought tickets for Cooktown in the 
 Lord Ashley, that steamer we met in the storm. 
 All their swags had been washed overboard, and 
 since they arrived in Cooktown they had not only 
 spent their money long ago, but had since been 
 unsuccessful in all they undertook. They subsisted 
 on scraps and odd pickings among the tents but 
 they did not mind so much now that they had got 
 used to it ! They liked Eockhampton and the job 
 of scrub-burning, "that being a lively game," but 
 Cooktown they did not like ; anyhow, as soon as 
 they could get a job and save enough to buy some 
 rations, they would go to the Palmer. What ag- 
 grieved them most was that they had a Danish 
 five-dollar note (worth about ten shillings), but 
 they could not get it changed because the English- 
 men said it was a false one. This they told me in 
 a sort of English a great deal more broken than 
 my own, but yet they had not the slightest 
 suspicion about my not being myself a thorough- 
 bred Britisher. Indeed, the conversation was full 
 of interjections in Danish from the one to the
 
 BE TURNING FROM THE PALMER. 233 
 
 other, such as : "I wonder if the heggar is going 
 to give us some grub when he has done question- 
 ing ? " or, "He has got nothing himself to eat; 
 let us get out of this ; " or, " Wait a minute, I will 
 ask him for some flour." When I had carried my 
 game as far as I cared, we had some tea and a real 
 good meal, after which, as it began to get dark, I 
 invited them all to stay in my tent until I left 
 Cooktown, because I was only waiting for a 
 steamer. In the night, as we all lay as close as 
 we could in the little tent, I had the satisfaction 
 of lying listening half the night to their praise of 
 myself, as they were talking in Danish, thinking 
 I did not understand. They seemed to have a 
 terrible grudge against some Dane in Cooktown 
 whom I did not know, but to whom it appeared 
 they had applied in vain for assistance ; and now 
 they compared me as an Englishman to their own 
 countryman, and came to the conclusion that 
 strangers were always the best. I did not like to 
 undeceive them, and I never did; but it was so 
 very pleasant to lie and listen to one's own praise, 
 and I really felt quite benevolent over it, so I 
 thought I would do what I could to deserve their 
 praises. 
 
 I had decided that I would go back to Port 
 Denison and ask my old employer there for a job, 
 which I never doubted he would give me. It 
 seemed to me it was the place where I had been 
 treated best as yet in Queensland, and although 
 we had some differences of opinions, yet I was
 
 234 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 quite longing to see him and his family again, and 
 also my old shipmate and his wife. I had no doubt, 
 somehow, he was there still. It seemed to me 
 almost like going home, to see them all again, and 
 as I was in the tent lying listening 'to the Danes, I 
 thought that I would get my nice old room once 
 more as soon as I came to Port Denison and have 
 everything provided for me, and that I could 
 therefore spare this tent, and the gun, the billy- 
 can, pint pot, &c. When I left Cooktown I gave 
 all these articles to my countrymen there, and, as 
 I was going in the boat, even offered to exchange 
 their " false " Danish five-dollar note. I had 
 finally only half- a- crown left. 
 
 I have written about this, not because I wish 
 the reader to know how benevolent I was, but. 
 to make it clear how it was that I parted with 
 these things. It will be perceived, as my history 
 proceeds, how sorely I was afterwards in need of 
 them myself. 
 
 It was early morning when I was put ashore in 
 Port Denison in a boat, because I was the only 
 passenger for that port. I had been away about 
 four years, and as the memory of my first landing 
 in this place forced itself upon me I felt that I had 
 not made very good use of my time so far. Yet 
 as I went along I consoled myself with the reflec- 
 tion that even if my pocket was empty, still I was 
 more like a man than I had ever been before, and 
 if I was not rich, no one could say he was poor on 
 my account.
 
 RETURNING FROM THE PALMER. 235 
 
 I walked along the jetty and up the street before 
 I met any one ; then I saw a man I remembered 
 as one to whom I had spoken several times 
 formerly. I rushed up to him, laughing and 
 smiling, and shook him by the hand. He seemed 
 surprised and looked cold upon me. At last he- 
 remembered me. " Oh, yes ! How are you ? 
 Come by a steamer ? Nice morning." 
 
 How many have never known the bitter disap- 
 pointment of being repulsed in this manner? I 
 sneaked away, and began to ask myself if it was 
 possible that my old " boss," or, perhaps, even my 
 shipmate and his wife, would greet me in the same- 
 manner. I had only half-a-crown left in my 
 pocket. My wardrobe was also in a sad condition ; 
 yet I was clean, and had, while on the ship,, 
 polished my boots and scented my handkerchief,, 
 so who should say that I was not the successful 
 digger ? Still, I felt very shaky about meeting 
 a new disappointment, and walked about for an 
 hour or two, not caring to present myself at Mr. 
 
 's place, and not being able to find out where 
 
 my countryman lived. I was soon reassured,, 
 however, for presently I saw the " boss " himself,, 
 out for a morning walk, and he seemed both glad 
 and surprised to see me. After we had -given the 
 public debt a lift in a public-house just opened, he 
 made a few inquiries about how far I had succeeded 
 in making my fortune, and offered me there and 
 then a job, although he said he was by no means, 
 busy. My shipmate was with him yet, and had
 
 236 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 two pounds ten shillings per week, and he would 
 give me the same, he said, in the hope that work 
 might soon be more plentiful. When we sepa- 
 rated I went to look for my countryman, who also 
 was glad to see me, and at once insisted on my 
 staying at his house for the present. How well off 
 he seemed to be ! It was his own house, and he 
 had made a nice lot of furniture himself for the 
 rooms. He had also a fine garden, where, as he 
 said to me, he took his recreation in working it 
 up. But, best of all, he had a kind, good wife, 
 who also had been my shipmate, and two little 
 boys. When he came home of an evening the 
 wife came with his slippers and his smoking-cap, 
 and there he was, while I, who had gone through 
 more hardships these four years than many people 
 do in their whole life, had seemingly done no good 
 either to myself or to others. I had, of course, told 
 them at once that I intended to go to work in 
 the old place again; and it was my intention at 
 the first favourable moment which offered to ask 
 my friend for a few pounds to renew my wardrobe 
 a little, but so far I had said nothing whatever to 
 anybody about my circumstances. In the evening, 
 as we sat talking on the verandah, my countryman 
 quite suddenly asked me if I was short of money, 
 as he was prepared to let me have some if I wanted 
 it. It seems a strange contradiction to my pre- 
 vious confession, but nevertheless it is true, that he 
 had scarcely spoken before I blurted out that I was 
 not at all short of money, and that it was a great
 
 RETURNING FROM THE PALMER. 237 
 
 mistake on his part to think so, that I had quite 
 enough to serve my purpose at any time, and more 
 to the same effect. 
 
 " Well, then," said my mate, " I am glad for 
 your sake ; but as that is the case I will tell you 
 what I otherwise would have said nothing about. 
 The ' boss ' was to-day passing one or two jokes 
 about your being so anxious to make your fortune 
 quickly when you left here last, and as we have 
 scarcely a stroke to do, I would not, if I were you, 
 give him the satisfaction to begin work again, 
 because I am sure he thinks you are very hard up." 
 " Does he?" cried I. "Well, he makes a mistake, 
 and so do you. Perhaps you think because I 
 haven't a paper collar on that I am ready to beg?" 
 " Oh, no, no ! " cried he ; "I only meant, in a 
 friendly way, to offer you what you perhaps needed, 
 so do not get angry where no offence is meant." 
 " Oh, I was not angry," said I; " but I certainly 
 
 would not work for Mr. again, as he thought 
 
 I could not do without him. Had I not for a fact 
 passed Townsville, where wages were higher and 
 work more plentiful, to come here ? And now he 
 thought he was the only man in Queensland where 
 I could earn my living ! But I would show Mr. 
 
 different. I would go to Port Mackay, where 
 
 there was plenty of work and no family arrange- 
 ment about it. That was what I would do." 
 After some more conversation of the same sort, I 
 went out in the street for a walk, and to get an 
 opportunity of thinking quietly over my now des-
 
 238 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 perate circumstances. With the exception of the 
 -clothes I wore upon me, 
 
 " All my fortune was a sliirt 
 That was ragged and full of dirt." 
 
 I walked about the streets for some time, trying 
 to make a song in honour of the occasion, which 
 was to begin with the above words, and set it to 
 music, and as I succeeded better than I thought I 
 correspondingly got into high spirits, and took it 
 all as an immense joke. There seemed to me only 
 one way out of the difficulty. I could walk to 
 Port Mackay, which is another and larger town, 
 more prosperous than Port Denison. It lies on 
 the coast also, and the distance by road between 
 the two places is one hundred and thirty miles. 
 The road, however, is very little frequented, as 
 what little communication there is is all by water. 
 There were, however, half a dozen stations on the 
 road, and I made no doubt I should be right some- 
 how. The blacks in that district had, indeed, a 
 bad name for spearing cattle and being very wild 
 and ferocious ; but of that I took no heed. The 
 most important thing just then was for me to get 
 away from my countryman's house without exciting 
 in him any suspicions about the state of my ex- 
 chequer. I felt some strokes of conscience cer- 
 tainly over thus repaying his kindness with such 
 insincerity, but I could at least truthfully say that 
 I had not meant it, and that circumstances over 
 which I had no control, &c. So the next morning
 
 BETUBNING FROM THE PALME B. 239 
 
 1 put on a reserved, dignified air, and after break- 
 fast told my host that I intended to shift my 
 quarters. They both kindly protested, until I had 
 to say that I had business somewhere in the bush, 
 and would come back to their house as soon as I 
 came to Port Denison again, but that I had to go 
 now, and might not be back for some time. Then 
 
 Mrs. pressed me to take some sandwiches 
 
 with me for dinner, for which I was not sorry, and 
 then I started for Port Mackay. The first station 
 on the road was thirty miles out. That place I 
 meant to reach before evening. The sandwiches 
 went down like apple-pie long before dinner-time, 
 and a little before evening I gained the station. I 
 was even at that time so much of a " new chum " 
 that I took it for granted that a traveller would be 
 made welcome anywhere in the bush whenever he 
 might call. In the gold-fields where I had been 
 people were ashamed of refusing hospitality at 
 least, I had not seen it done. This was the 
 furthest south I had yet been in Queensland, and 
 as I stood by the creek that evening and looked 
 over to the neat little homestead lying there so 
 isolated, it seemed to me quite a beautiful place, 
 and I congratulated myself that I had reached it 
 just before I got tired and in good time for supper. 
 I had a bath in the creek and straightened myself 
 up all I could before I went up to the house. It 
 was getting nearly dark as I came up the track 
 leading into the garden. I heard some one crack 
 .a whip close behind me, and saw a man on horse-
 
 240 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 back coming along with nearly a dozen big dogs, 
 who now barked in angry rage all round me. I 
 stood there a complete prisoner while the man on 
 horseback looked daggers at me. I suppose he had 
 been out after cattle and had not found those he 
 looked for ; anyhow, he did not appear in a good 
 humour. " Where are you going ? " asked he. 
 
 " I thought I might have a bit of supper and a, 
 camp here to-night," said I. 
 
 "Supper and camp!" cried he. "Why the 
 
 don't you camp in the bush ? Ain't you got 
 
 no rations, neither ? " 
 
 " No," said I. "I should be obliged to you if 
 you would sell me something to eat." 
 
 " Would you not be obliged to me if I would 
 show you a public-house ? " cried he. 
 
 I was too innocent to see his jeer, only I 
 perceived that he did not want me, so I said, 
 "Public-house? yes, I should be glad;" and 
 added, " I did not know there was any ; how far 
 is it?" 
 
 " Oh, not far," said he, and he moved on, and at 
 last called his dogs off me. 
 
 I was in a rage as I moved on, but just past the 
 house the road branched off, and I thought it 
 necessary to find out which to take, so I sang out 
 to him, " Which is the Mackay road ? " 
 
 " The right one," cried he. And along the riglit- 
 hand track I went mile after mile, but no hotel 
 was there. At last I found it was only a cattle 
 track, and that I had come out to a big creek,
 
 EETUENING FROM THE PALMER. 241 
 
 where it branched off everywhere. The moon was 
 just going down, and it was far out in the night 
 when I laid myself down to sleep. It was raining 
 heavily by this time, so that I could light no fire, 
 but, tired and worn out as I was, I slept as well as 
 if I had lain on a feather bed. 
 
 When I woke up again it was daylight, and I 
 felt quite stiff in all my joints and so cold that 
 I could scarcely move. Three or four native dogs 
 were circling round me, but retired' to a more 
 respectful distance when I sat up. These native 
 dogs are, I believe, peculiar to Australia. Miser- 
 able, cowardly curs they are. They will often follow 
 a man for days when he is lost until he drops, 
 but I do not believe it has ever been recorded that 
 they have actually attacked a man before death 
 has made him oblivious to all. Not so, however, 
 with the crow. The crow is found all over 
 Australia in the most out-of-the-way places, and 
 many a brave man has had his eyes picked out 
 before he has had time to die ! These birds seem 
 to have a sort of instinct to know when any one is 
 in distress. If a man is lost and the "trackers" 
 are out after him, they know that he is not far off 
 when they see a lot of crows hovering over a par- 
 ticular spot. He may not be dead, but he is 
 certainly dying. 
 
 Although I was wet, stiff, and cold, and without 
 any food, yet I was worth twenty dead men yet. I 
 saw that the only thing I could do was to retrace 
 my steps to the station the same way as I had 
 
 17
 
 242 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 come ; so along the road I went, and that in a very 
 bad humour, most of all because I could see no 
 other remedy than to beg assistance where I had 
 been already so badly treated. When I could get 
 on the right track there were thirty miles to the 
 next station. I had only half-a-crown. What could 
 I do if nobody would help me ? At last, at two or 
 three o'clock in the afternoon, I came back to the 
 place I had started from the evening before, when 
 I had been shown the wrong track. As soon as I 
 saw the house again I felt neither hungry nor tired. 
 I only felt as if I could walk for ever without rest 
 or food. I would ask for nothing. I would take 
 nothing. I would just go on. But still I had to find 
 out which was the Mackay road. Yes, I would go 
 up to the house to ask that question. As I came 
 up to the place I saw a young woman standing out- 
 side the back door washing clothes, and about a 
 dozen blacks were squatted about the ground in all 
 sorts of lazy positions. I noticed especially a very tall 
 young gin, who stood leaning against the wall, with 
 a long spear in her hand. I asked the girl which 
 was the Mackay road, and she, looking round rather 
 surprised at me, said, " There that one to the 
 left." She did not look at all vicious, and seemed 
 disposed to enter into conversation, but, true to 
 my determination, I turned on my heel to go again. 
 I had scarcely turned, however, before I heard her 
 sing out in an excited voice to the blacks, " Don't ! 
 Drop that spear ! Look out ! " Turning round 
 once more, I saw the tall gin with the spear, hold-
 
 RETURNING FROM THE PALMER. 243 
 
 ing it high above her head, ready to hurl it at me. 
 I never spoke, because, to tell the truth, I never 
 realized that she intended to kill me. I looked 
 her full in the face, and, as I felt pretty indignant 
 at the time, my look disarmed her. Anyhow she 
 quailed before my eyes and dropped the spear, and 
 I went my way. 
 
 The blacks were at that time very bad in that 
 district, spearing cattle, <fec., and as I was going 
 along the road I accounted to myself for their 
 presence on the station in this way that perhaps 
 the squatter thought it cheaper to feed them than 
 to allow them to rob him. That they were not 
 very quiet blacks I felt sure, and the more I 
 thought of the gin and her uplifted spear the 
 more anxious I became. They might, thought I, 
 set out after me yet and finish me off. Moreover, 
 as I had thirty miles to walk before I could hope 
 for any food, I made up my mind to stagger on as 
 long as my feet could carry me. But I did not go 
 so fast as the day before. Slowly and painfully 
 did I drag along. The road was simply a track on 
 which a horse might come along, and a sort of 
 coarse grass eight or nine feet high grew on both 
 sides. How fervently I wished I might meet 
 another traveller anybody had been welcome- 
 but no one seemed to have been along there for 
 ages. On I went. Every half mile or so I would 
 come to a running brook crossing the road. I 
 became too fatigued to take off my boots and socks 
 every time, and this made my feet sore ; but still I
 
 244 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 staggered on. It was now evening, or, rather, late 
 at night, but just as the moon was going down I 
 carne to a creek which seemed larger than the rest, 
 inasmuch that I could not in the darkness look 
 across, and taking a couple of steps into the water 
 I went in nearly to the middle ; still it grew deeper. 
 I therefore concluded that as necessity knows no 
 law, I must camp and wait for daylight before I 
 attempted crossing. A large tree was growing close 
 to the water and on the track. Down by the roots 
 of that tree I threw my swag, and laid myself upon 
 it without undressing *and without a fire. My 
 matches were all wet, and I was too tired to walk 
 one unnecessary step. 
 
 I was lying there looking up at the stars, feeling 
 so unspeakably tired, when, after a while, just as I 
 was going to sleep, I heard a noise not far from me 
 for which I could not account, but it brought me 
 to speculate upon the probability that there were 
 alligators in the water, and that it was scarcely 
 prudent to lie there as I did, with my feet almost 
 in the stream. So I got up and went back some 
 twenty yards or so, on the rising ground, where 
 there had been an old camp years before. There 
 I lay myself down again with a big stick in my 
 hand. I had just gone off to sleep when I started up 
 again in terror. A peculiar indescribable noise was 
 coming from down the creek, where I had been 
 before. What it might be I did not know. Never 
 had I heard the like before; it was a noise sufficient, 
 as they say, to raise the dead.
 
 RETURNING FROM THE PALMER. 245 
 
 The water seemed agitated as if an army of 
 blacks were coming across, the bushes and grass 
 were cracking as if a stampede of cattle was taking 
 place, and through all these noises ran a piercing 
 continuous yell such as no human being or animal 
 I knew in nature could utter. The thought ran 
 through me as I started to my feet : either it is the 
 blacks who have come to kill you, or it is an alligator 
 on the same errand. In any case, thought I, my 
 only chance was to show fight. With that I 
 grabbed my stick, and sang out, to gammon the 
 blacks, " Here ! hie ! Bill ! Jack ! Jimmy ! Here 
 they are. Get the guns ; we will have a shot at 
 them ! " 
 
 While I screamed at the top of my voice like 
 this, I struck the long grass with my stick, and, 
 to frighten the alligator, if any were there, ran 
 right down to where I had been before, yelling all 
 the while. The noise kept on in front of me, 
 but died away with some splashes in the water, 
 just as I came down. When I stopped screaming 
 all was silent. I stared around me, but the dark- 
 ness was perfectly impenetrable. 
 
 Was there an alligator now crouching at my feet 
 ready to swallow me in a couple of mouthfuls ? Or 
 was I surrounded by a mob of savages, perhaps, 
 lurking alongside of me, and seeing my helpless- 
 ness ? Or was it evil spirits ? I did not know 
 what it was, or where it had gone, and yet the hair 
 seemed to rise on my head. Do not talk to me 
 about bravery or cowardice ! I believe most men
 
 246 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 are capable of screwing their courage up to the 
 necessary point at any time, providing they know 
 what is before and behind them, but if I knew 
 where there was a man who would not have felt 
 fear if placed in the same position as I stood in 
 there, then I would fall down and bow before him. 
 I crept back to where I had been lying when I 
 heard the alarm and lay down again, and so 
 exhausted was I that I fell asleep at once, and did 
 not wake up before the sun was shining in my face. 
 My first thought, of course, was the noise in the 
 night, and I went down to the creek to look for 
 tracks or signs of some sort. There, close by the 
 tree, on the very spot where I first had laid myself 
 down, was the half of a large kangaroo. It seemed 
 bitten off right under the forelegs, all the rest was 
 gone. On the road and in the soft mud by the 
 water were the tracks of an immense alligator, and 
 where it had come out and gone into the creek 
 again a deep furrow as from a sulky plough had 
 been made by its tail. I had never yet been so 
 near death ! It seemed plain to me that the 
 first noise I had heard which induced me to get 
 up and go further away from the water must have 
 been the alligator stealing upon me, and thit the un- 
 fortunate kangaroo afterwards unwittingly saved my 
 life. But as there is scarcely anything that cannot 
 be turned to good account, so I also tried to turn 
 this accident to my advantage, because I took up 
 my knife and cut some steaks out of the kangaroo, 
 which I had to eat raw, as I could make no fire, for
 
 BE TURNING FBOM THE PALMER. 247 
 
 I could not find any of the wood with which I had 
 learned by rubbing two sticks together to make it. 
 It was with fear and trembling that I crossed the 
 deep creek. The water went up over my armpits ; 
 but it had to be done, and once on the other side I 
 made a speech to the alligator, thanked him for my 
 breakfast, and wished him, " Good-morning." 
 
 I walked all day, but so slowly and painfully that 
 I did not go very far. One of my boots was chafing 
 my foot so that I had to take it off, but after having 
 carried it some miles I threw it away. In the even- 
 ing I came to an empty hut and a stockyard, but 
 as no one was living there I concluded it was put 
 up for the purpose of mustering cattle. It was 
 locked up, so I lay down outside and seemed to find 
 some company in looking at the house. The next 
 day was Sunday. I felt when I got up that I could 
 not walk much further. Fortunately, perhaps, I 
 got some encouragement from thinking myself near 
 the station, as fences and cattle began to appear. 
 Yet it took me from break of day to afternoon 
 before I came out on a large plain, and there at 
 once I saw the house lying in front of me, but 
 yet about a mile distant. It seemed a large and 
 " fashionable " house for the bush. As I came 
 a little nearer I could see people under the 
 verandah, and as I carne still nearer I made out 
 three ladies and a gentleman sitting there. They 
 seemed to have a telescope, which they passed 
 from one to the other, and whoever had it pointed 
 it straight at me. Ah ! what a disgrace, thought
 
 248 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 I. I would not mind so much, but I felt revolted 
 at the idea of standing as a beggarman before 
 young ladies. If I could have run away I am sure 
 I should have done so, but I was altogether too 
 weak. Still, I seemed to straighten myself up 
 somehow under their eyes, and I threw the long, 
 ugly stick I carried away, and went on with as 
 sure a step as I could command up to the 
 verandah and saluted the company. 
 
 I remember well the following scene. The 
 gentleman, a portly, elderly man, had one of those 
 bluff-looking, high-coloured faces which, even while 
 they try to look cross, cannot hide their evident 
 good nature. He was now smiling in a benevolent 
 sort of way upon me. The elderly lady who sat 
 by his side also looked very kind, while two young 
 ladies, who also were in the verandah, regarded me 
 with a mixture of dignity, curiosity, and pity. When 
 the gentleman began to speak he looked very cross. 
 
 " Coming from the Palmer ? " inquired he. 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 " Hah ! did I not tell you so ? Did you find 
 any gold there ? " 
 
 "No, sir." 
 
 " Didn't I say so ?" 
 
 These aside remarks were addressed to the elderly 
 lady, who silently acquiesced ; and then she turned 
 towards me and inquired, with a sort of anxiety, 
 "Did you happen to meet a young man up there 
 by name Symes ? David David Symes, that was 
 his name."
 
 RETURNING FROM THE PALMER. 249 
 
 I was very sorry that I had not met him. 
 
 " How do you think he should know him ? " cried 
 the gentleman, in a great rage. " Ah ! " he ex- 
 claimed, " that will teach you fellows not to run 
 gallivanting about the country again in a hurry, 
 I'll swear. All your bit of money clean gone ? " 
 
 " No, sir." (I had my half-crown.) 
 
 " Then you want nothing from me, I suppose ? " 
 
 II Indeed, sir, I do, very much." 
 
 " Ah ! I thought so. I knew it jolly well, I did." 
 
 " Father," cried the lady, " why do you keep 
 tormenting the poor man so ? You go and sit there 
 under the sunshade, and I will tell the girl to bring 
 you some dinner. Poor man ! walked all the way 
 from Palmer." 
 
 I went and seated myself by a large table which 
 stood in the yard, and as soon as I sat down I fell 
 asleep; then I would start up again, and fall asleep 
 again, and every time I opened my eyes I saw them 
 all sitting on the verandah watching me. The 
 servant -girl brought a large supply of roast beef 
 and potatoes, also a plum-pudding, but I could eat 
 nothing. When I had tried a couple of mouth- 
 fuls the squatter came down to me and said he 
 would show me a bed where I could lie down. 
 " And when you have had a good sleep," said he, 
 " then I will find you a job of some kind, if you 
 want it." 
 
 I slept for nearly twenty-four hours, and when I 
 had fully recovered, which took me three or four 
 days, I had a job at ring-barking trees for the
 
 -250 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 squatter for ten shillings per week. That was all 
 he offered me and I did not care to ask for more 
 indeed, I was very well pleased. When I had 
 been there two or three weeks, and I thought we 
 were about quits, I asked for my wander-book 
 again in other worJs, I explained that I was a 
 carpenter and expected to earn better money if I 
 could get to Mackay. I am glad to say that he 
 would have liked to keep me, and he offered me a 
 job as stockman for a pound sterling a week, but 
 still that did not suit me at all, so I went my way 
 again with a few rations in my bag and twenty shil- 
 lings in my pocket. I will not ask the reader to 
 follow me step by step on this memorable journey. 
 No doubt it will quite plainly appear that I have 
 gone through a terrible lot of hardships in my time, 
 but although I admit I should not care to have to 
 do it again, yet it is a fact that, when I think of 
 myself at that time, I seemed in no way crestfallen. 
 On the contrary, I was always in the best of 
 humours, and never doubted for one moment that 
 .good fortune would come again. It has always 
 been a fact in my case that when I, as on this 
 journey, have had very scanty food for some time, 
 my voice becomes much better and clearer. So 
 that as I came along the road, or in the night 
 when I was camped, I would enjoy myself by 
 singing as well as if I had been a performer at a 
 concert. Alas ! many matters which unfortunately 
 w r ould not interest me much now, had at that time 
 great attraction for my mind a bird, a wallaby
 
 RETURNING FROM THE PALMER. 251 
 
 scudding across the road, a strange plant, all such 
 things would set my imagination going. It is 
 only as we grow older and get more sense that 
 such trivialities cease to amuse ! 
 
 The next place on this journey where anything 
 worth relating occurred was at a sugar plantation 
 about sixteen miles from Mackay. I arrived there 
 at eight or nine o'clock one night, but as I came 
 past the place, some men who were camped in a 
 tent by the road good-naturedly offered me a 
 drink of tea, and when I had drank it and was just 
 ready to start again one of the men, who had been 
 away for half an hour, came back and said that I 
 had to go up to the kitchen, where there was a 
 countrywoman of mine who wanted to see me. I 
 was in no way caring for a lady's company at the 
 time, so I asked him to make my excuses to this 
 countrywoman of mine and to say that I was gone ; 
 but all the men began chaffing me, and were nearly 
 going into fits of laughter about her good looks, 
 wishing they were me, that such a girl was not to 
 be seen every day, &c., so at last I unwillingly 
 went up to the kitchen. I never thought to see 
 anybody more than some uninteresting sort of 
 country girl, and I only intended to ask her, as 
 shortly as possible, what she wanted, and then 
 go on again. In a word, I was in rather a bad 
 humour. The door was opened for me by a very 
 lady-like girl, and I was quite doubtful at first 
 whether it was the lady of the house or only the 
 .servant. All at once I seemed to remember how
 
 252 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 torn my clothes were, and my poor appearance, 
 and felt as if I did not like to go in ; but the girl 
 seemed bent on patronizing me. 
 
 " Come in," cried she, in Danish ; " be not afraid. 
 If Danes meet in this country I think it is the 
 least they can do to speak to one another. I know 
 it right enough there is many a brave fellow in 
 this country suffering hardships such as they do 
 not dream of at home. Come in, come in ! " 
 
 I did not know at first whether to feel angry or 
 not over this speech, but she was so pretty, and 
 she meant well, and she was my countrywoman 
 after all, so I took her by the hand and thanked 
 her for her sympathy, admitting that I was rather 
 down on my luck just then, but that I had great 
 hopes that things would soon take a turn for the 
 better. Then she offered me a cup of tea, and by 
 and by we were chatting away like old friends. It 
 was now about ten o'clock, and I thought it high 
 time to take my leave, when we heard some one 
 approach the kitchen from the house. The girl 
 seemed to get quite terrified. " Oh," she 
 
 whispered, "that is Mr. himself. He has 
 
 forbidden any of the men to come to the kitchen ; 
 he is sure to be angry." 
 
 The gentleman came in, and while he' was 
 staring in a sort of haughty and surprised way at 
 me the girl was sitting bending over her sewing as 
 if she had committed a crime. I did not like the 
 prospect of being turned^ out very much, and I felt 
 also sorry for having brought unpleasantness upon
 
 RETURNING FROM THE PALMER. 253 
 
 her; but, after all, the want or possession of a little 
 tact will alter matters wonderfully even at such a 
 moment as this, so, more for the girl's sake than 
 for my own, I saluted him in my politest manner 
 and begged his pardon for having come into the 
 kitchen. I said I had been travelling past, in- 
 tending to walk to Mackay, but that the men on 
 the place had told me that a countrywoman of 
 mine was here, and that I had not been able to 
 resist the temptation to call in the hope that it 
 might be some one I knew. I hoped he would 
 excuse me. 
 
 " Oh yes," said he, " that is all right ; I am sure 
 Sophy will be glad to see a friend of hers. Have 
 you given your countryman some supper ? Don't 
 let him go away hungry. Surely you are not 
 going to walk to Mackay to-night? There is a 
 place over there where you might sleep : you will 
 show him, Sophy. Good-night." 
 
 What a relief we both seemed to find at the 
 turn things had taken ! Quite a grand supper was 
 now put before me, a white damask table-cloth 
 was spread, silver coffee-pot and cream-jug and all 
 sorts of delicacies appeared. When all was ready, 
 we both sat down to the cheese, and when at last 
 I went to seek my bed we both candidly admitted 
 to each other that this had been a red-letter day 
 and one never to be forgotten. I slept and 
 dreamed, and when I woke up again I could dis- 
 tinctly remember what I had dreamed ; and that 
 dream I have never forgotten since. I dreamed
 
 254 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 that I saw a snake which crept on the floor, and 
 this snake seemed to me of wonderful beauty, but 
 I was not at all afraid of it on the contrary, I 
 wanted to take it so that I might keep it ; for that 
 purpose I bent- towards it, but as I did so the 
 snake seemed to rise on end until it was nearly as 
 tall as I, and while I stretched my arm out to take 
 it, it hissed, and when I touched it, then it bit 
 me. I now perceived it was no longer a snake, but 
 that young woman who had entertained me in the 
 evening. I woke up at once, and grasped the whole 
 dream in my mind. Then I thought it must surely 
 be a warning. I fancy I see the sceptic smile who 
 reads this. I should like my readers to believe 
 in the truth of my assertions ; and to those who 
 are disposed to so believe me, I will say they 
 may, for nothing is truer. I was lying the re- 
 mainder of the night thinking of my dream and 
 congratulating myself that there was no cause for 
 me to feel uneasy, as I should be going away in 
 the morning, and probably should never see that 
 girl again. But when morning came the sun dis- 
 pelled my fears, and I was soon sitting chatting 
 with Sophy while I had breakfast. I felt wonder- 
 fully sorry that I should now have to go, never to 
 see her again. It was, however, ordained otherwise. 
 By the time I had the swag on my shoulder she 
 had been into her mistress, and, without my 
 knowing or asking it for indeed I only wanted to 
 get to Mackay had interceded for me, asking that 
 I should be offered work. Mr. , therefore,,
 
 RETURNING FROM THE PALMER. 255 
 
 came out to me and said he had been told that 
 I was a carpenter, and that he had a lot of 
 carpenter's work he wanted done. He had no 
 time to go into details then, hut he would he- 
 obliged to me if I would glue together for him a 
 case of chairs he had, and then he would speak 
 to me again the next day. How could I refuse ? 
 I got out the case of chairs and stood all day 
 gluing them together, outside the kitchen, but I 
 could not help thinking of my dream every now 
 and again, and I realized that there was great 
 danger, and that if I engaged myself for one week 
 it would be impossible for me to either tear myself 
 away or for any one else to trust me. In the evening 
 I sat by the fire in the kitchen, with my elbow on 
 my knee and my head in my hand and was in a 
 bad humour, although the girl was sitting chatting 
 more sweetly than eVer by my side. To talk about 
 a week before I tore myself away ! was it not too 
 late already? If I had to stay here, thought I, 
 until I could not tear myself away, then I must 
 be weak indeed. It must never be. I will go at 
 once this moment. I got up and said I was 
 going to Mackay as soon as I could get time to 
 roll my swag together. 
 
 She looked at me as if she thought I was mad. 
 Then she asked me if she had offended me, and 
 
 insisted on telling Mr. I was going, so that 
 
 he might pay me for my day's work ; but I would 
 not risk the effect of any pressing invitation to 
 stay, and groped my way in the darkness down to
 
 256 DANISH EMIGEANT. 
 
 the road and away. Never have I felt more poor 
 and miserable and lonely in my own eyes, as I went 
 along, than I did that stormy, bitterly cold night. 
 As soon as the imaginary danger was over I 
 pictured to myself in rosy colours how things 
 might have turned out if I had only remained. 
 And all this I had made impossible for the sake of 
 a miserable dream which most people would have 
 forgotten before they were properly awake. Oh, 
 yes, I deserved surely as much bad luck as fate 
 could heap upon me ! But now it was too late. 
 " Too late ! " I kept repeating, and then I would 
 make plans for going away to the end of the world, 
 as soon as I should have sufficient money to pay 
 my way. I could not in the darkness cross the 
 Pioneer Eiver, which runs twelve miles from town, 
 and as I had plenty of time I sat on the bank of 
 the river all night, wishing an alligator might take 
 me, indulging in romantic sentiments ; but the 
 next morning, as I was nearing Mackay, hope sat 
 on her throne again as I passed by the one beauti- 
 ful plantation after the other and saw enough 
 work going forward on all sides to convince me 
 that I should get plenty to do for myself, and 
 possibly some day, perhaps, myself own one of 
 these plantations.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 A LOVE STORY. 
 
 18
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 A LOVE STORY. 
 
 I OBTAINED work at one of the plantations 
 for three pounds sterling per week. For this 
 money I was expected only to work eight hours a 
 day and five hours on Saturdays, that being the 
 ordinary tradesman's hours of work all over 
 Australia. But as my employer was busy and I 
 was tired of remaining poor longer than I could 
 help, I obtained leave to work two hours overtime 
 every day, for which I was paid at the rate of 
 eighteenpence an hour. When I arrived in 
 Mackay I had gone into a Chinaman's boarding- 
 house, as being the most suitable place for my 
 means and condition, but although a similar place 
 had suited me well enough in the gold-diggings, 
 the class of men who stayed here and the accom- 
 modation I received did not now suit me at all. I 
 seemed to shrink into myself and gradually got 
 into a morbid and unhealthy state of mind. I was 
 as good, at least I thought myself as good, as most 
 of the clerks or well-dressed young fellows I saw 
 knocking about the town, doing very little work ; 
 but that they were of a different opinion was
 
 260 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 evident from the scathing contempt one or two of 
 them managed once or twice to put into their 
 manner towards me the first week I was in town 
 when I by accident had addressed them. Do 
 clothes make the man ? thought I ; was it neces- 
 sary for me to conform to their habits, and to 
 imitate them, to secure respect or even civility ? I 
 would not do it. What would be gained ? All was 
 vanity. Another little incident which had not 
 been without its influence upon me, I mention to 
 show that such unconsidered trifles make the sum 
 total of ordinary life, was this : the day I arrived in 
 town, but when I was yet about half a mile from it, 
 I had met four young ladies, who I suppose were 
 out for a walk. They were evidently dressed in 
 their best clothes and looked both nice and pretty, 
 and as youth always recognizes a sort of relation in 
 youth or, if you prefer it, young men always take 
 an interest in young women, and vice versa I was 
 looking closely at them and they at me as we 
 neared each other on the road. They took no 
 trouble in concealing their verdict of me. I will 
 not say they were so ill-bred as to make grimaces 
 at me, but they might just as soon have gathered 
 their skirts about them and held their noses. I 
 saw that they considered me an undesirable party. 
 I was just then in rather high spirits, which could 
 not be damped all in a moment, so as I met and 
 passed them I took my stick up and held it in 
 military fashion close to my shoulder as I 
 inarched by. I could hear them giggling behind
 
 A LOVE STOEY. 261 
 
 me, but I did not look round, and lovelorn as I was 
 because you must remember my adventure of the 
 day before it had a depressing effect upon me, 
 which grew as time went. So, after staying for a 
 week in the Chinaman's boarding-house, with the 
 first money I got I bought a tent and pitched it right 
 away in a lonely spot, and there I lived by myself, 
 like a regular hermit. I thought of Thorkill who 
 was dead and of his lonely grave, that dream for 
 which I could not account, and I thought, too, of 
 my own home from which I had heard nothing now 
 for years, and I brooded over my own friendless con- 
 dition. Then I thought of the girl on the planta- 
 tion I had left behind me, but it never entered 
 my head for a moment to go and visit her. Far 
 from it. I would travel to the end of the world 
 to put it out of my power rather than do that, 
 or for two pins I would then have put an end to 
 myself ! It seems to me as I write, that, this being 
 simply tiue, it should not be without a salutary 
 warning to other young men not to allow them- 
 selves to drift into the same state of temperament, 
 because it is dangerous and may spoil a life which 
 otherwise might become useful ; nor is there any 
 merit in such misanthropy, as the subsequent pages 
 will show, and but one little straw one way or the 
 other will have its effect during the remainder of 
 one's life. 
 
 One thing which it is difficult to write about, 
 as it seems to have no logic or sense in it, but 
 which, nevertheless, was of great importance to
 
 262 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 me, was this : I worked like a tiger, not because I 
 was fond of work nor to get away from my morbid 
 feelings, because I did not struggle against them, 
 nor because I was fond of money, as I had very 
 little use for any, as I thought, and as my wages were 
 the same whether I worked like an average man or 
 did more, but I worked because in my morbid brain 
 I liked to fancy that the girl on the plantation was 
 in great distress, and that her life and liberty 
 depended upon my doing certain work in a certain 
 time. When I got a piece of work to do I would 
 think to myself in this way : here is a week's 
 work for any man, but unless I can do it in four 
 days, then all sorts of misery will happen. There- 
 fore I really worked as if my life depended on it, and 
 I would be perfectly intolerant of any obstruction 
 to my progress. My " boss " took in the situation 
 very soon, because he let me stand by myself and 
 dared scarcely speak to me for fear of putting me 
 out. 
 
 This state of affairs had lasted about three 
 months, and during that time I can almost count 
 on my fingers the words I had said ; I do not think 
 I had spoken to any one one unnecessary word. 
 It cost me only five or six shillings a week to live. 
 I had bought merely the most necessary clothes, 
 and all the rest of my money and cheques I had 
 received were in my possession, lying in a pickle- 
 bottle in the tent. 
 
 One afternoon as I came from my work I saw 
 in front of me in the street the girl from the
 
 A LOVE STORY. 263 
 
 plantation. I ran after her. " Sophy, Sophy, is 
 that you ? " Happy meeting ! She had been in 
 town for a month and was now a dressmaker ; but 
 let it be enough to say that I went at once to the 
 tent and got out the money and bought the best 
 clothes I could get in town, that I went to 
 stay at an hotel, and that, as time went on, I kept 
 two horses in a paddock, ordered a side-saddle, and 
 for sixteen months after used to boast to myself 
 that no one among the tradesmen in Mackay had a 
 prettier sweetheart, was a better dancer, kept such 
 good horses, or earned so much money as myself! 
 
 I reckon this time as being among my most 
 pleasant recollections. People did not seem to 
 me so egotistic or the world so black as it had 
 appeared while I lived in the tent ; on the contrary, 
 I was often invited among very nice people to 
 their parties and family gatherings, and I was a 
 constant attendant at both Oddfellows' and Cale- 
 donian balls, and, in short, anything that was going 
 on. I was intending some day in the near future 
 to marry and settle down, and for that reason had 
 bought an allotment for twenty-five pounds, and I 
 meant to build a house on it. I had only one 
 fault to find with the lady who honoured me with 
 her approbation. It was this : she was fearfully 
 jealous and excitable, and would at such times be 
 in a perfect rage if I had done anything which she 
 thought not becoming ; but as I took it as a proof 
 of the value in which she held me, I rather liked it, 
 and even sometimes went so far as to excite her
 
 264 DANISH EMIGBANT. 
 
 suspicion on purpose just to get up a " scene." 
 This happened again one day when I had been 
 sixteen months in Mackay. The occasion was 
 that I had, as it was Sunday, been out for a ride 
 with another young lady I had things so handy, 
 the two horses, one with side-saddle and all, and 
 the temptation to a little extra flirtation was 
 always great but when that evening, in a most 
 dutiful mood, I went to see my " only love," she, I 
 remember, was very angry indeed with me. She 
 was sitting sewing in her room, and I was sitting 
 also at the table in a careless position, with my 
 head on my hand and my elbow on the table, 
 smiling at her and enjoying matters very much, 
 although, as I have written above, she was very 
 angry, and even crying. She rated me terribly, 
 too, for my wickedness, and I was defending my- 
 self mildly. " Dear," I said, "I only took her 
 out to-day as a mark of the respect in which I 
 hold her." 
 
 " I'll mark you ! " she cried, and she struck me 
 in the mouth with terrible violence. The blow 
 not only knocked me off the chair, but sent one of 
 my front teeth spinning round the room, and to 
 this day I am marked by the absence of that tooth. 
 I got up; she stood gasping with excitement, 
 looking at me. I cannot give the reader any idea 
 how handsome she was, or how fond I was of her. 
 Still, this would never do. I took the lamp from 
 the table and began looking for my tooth on the 
 floor. I never spoke, neither did she say any-
 
 A LOVE STOEY. 265 
 
 thing. I can well remember. When I had found 
 the tooth I took my hat up and went away. This 
 would never do, thought I, I must be off some- 
 where by the next steamer, never to return ; be- 
 cause I knew very well that if I stayed in Mackay 
 I should just go and make love to her again. I 
 therefore decided I would be off, never mind where 
 I went ; and in that mood I arrived at my hotel. 
 On the verandah stood one of the boarders who 
 was the captain of a labour schooner. For the 
 information of my readers who may not know what 
 that means I will state that the plantations round 
 Mackay arid elsewhere in Queensland employ a 
 great many South Sea Islanders, and that these 
 men are brought to Queensland under a certain 
 system. It is this way : a number of planters 
 unite in sending a ship out among the South Sea 
 Islands to engage all the Kanakas the ship can 
 hold, and who are willing to come. The ship so 
 engaged is under Government orders, and the 
 Government sends an agent with the ship, whose 
 duty is to watch that no coercion is employed in 
 order to get "the boys" to engage, and that they 
 understand their agreements with the planter. 
 These agreements are all uniform. The Kanakas 
 engage for three years' service, for which the 
 planter gives them their food and six pounds per 
 year ; he also defrays the cost of bringing them to 
 Queensland, and when their time is out he sends 
 them at his own cost back to the island whence 
 they came. As I now came up on the verandah
 
 266 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 the captain spoke to me and invited me in to have 
 a drink with him. He had been staying in the 
 hotel for about a month and I knew him very 
 well, so we went into the bar and began to talk 
 about his affairs. He intended to start for the 
 South Seas the following night, if all went well ; 
 the only thing that upset him just then was that 
 his cook had deserted the ship and was not to be 
 found. He did not care except for this reason 
 that he could not afford to keep the ship waiting, 
 and on the other hand he did not know where to 
 get another, as he could not do without a good 
 cook. " Faith, then," said I, " I am a good cook, 
 as cooks go in this part of the world, and, what is 
 more to the purpose, not only do I intend to leave 
 Mackay to-morrow if I can, but I have a great 
 longing to see the South Sea Islands, and there- 
 fore I am your man, if you like." 
 
 He could not see that at all for a long time, and 
 thought I was having a lark with him, but when 
 at last I said there was a lady at the bottom of it, 
 he winked and thought he knew all about it. So 
 at break of day the next morning we went on 
 board the schooner, and I started in the cook's 
 galley making breakfast for all hands. I peeled 
 potatoes and flogged the steak as if I had never 
 done anything else in my life, because the captain 
 would not engage me before I had shown my cap- 
 abilities ; but after my trial he was quite satisfied 
 and engaged me for the trip at eight pounds per 
 month, and then I stipulated before signing.
 
 A LOVE STORY. 267 
 
 articles that I should have leave of absence until 
 break of day next morning, as it was necessary for 
 me to put my affairs in order before I left Mackay. 
 After having given my word of honour to return, I 
 went ashore again. There was enough for me to 
 see to. My " boss " did not owe me anything, as 
 I had received my last cheque on the previous 
 Saturday ; but there were my tools to dispose of. 
 These went for a trifle among the other men : one 
 took one piece, one another, and the " boss " gave 
 me his cheque for the lot. Then there were the 
 horses and saddles ; these also were got rid of before 
 dinner-time, and when evening came I had sold 
 my allotment which I had bought for twenty-five 
 pounds, for one hundred and fifty pounds, and had 
 all the money lodged in the bank. I had not, 
 therefore, done so badly in Mackay. the eighteen 
 or nineteen months I had been there. Not only, 
 on an average, had I enjoyed myself pretty well, 
 but the sum total which I now had to my credit 
 was as near two hundred and fifty pounds as 
 possible. After tea I had nothing to do but 
 reflect on the wisdom or otherwise of the step I 
 had taken. I walked about the streets for a long 
 time, and as I knew very well that my sweetheart 
 expected me as usual I found myself circling 
 round the house in which she lived. She did not, 
 of course, know that I was going away, and as she 
 usually expected me about seven o'clock of an 
 evening, my feet seemed perforce to carry me 
 towards the house. I did not go in; at eight
 
 268 DANISH EMIGBANT. 
 
 o'clock I saw her sitting by the window, at nine 
 o'clock she was there still, at ten o'clock I saw her 
 sitting by the window as I came past the place, at 
 eleven o'clock she was standing outside, and I was 
 right up to her before I saw her. The reader 
 must not expect too much confidence from me ; I 
 cannot repeat what she said, and will only say 
 this that I have never seen her since, and that 
 with a heavy heart I went on board the schooner 
 next morning, when we hoisted anchor and left for 
 the South Sea Islands. 
 
 Dear reader, if I were to tell you all that hap- 
 pened to me on this journey in the same detailed 
 way as I have told you about my travels through 
 Queensland, it would take me too far away and 
 also occupy too much space, so I have thought it 
 better to leave it all out and take up the thread of 
 my history at the point when I again arrived in 
 Port Mackay about nine months after. Should 
 this effort of mine meet with the approbation of 
 the public, I shall be very glad to write another 
 book about my adventures in the South Seas, but 
 at present I will content myself by saying that 
 although many things I saw upon this journey 
 were new and startling to me, yet on the whole 
 we had a good journey, and that I was paid off in 
 Mackay when we came back, and at once took a 
 passage in a steamer for Brisbane.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 BRISBANE TRAVELS IN THE "NEVER 
 NEVER" LAND.
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 BRISBANE TEAVELS IN THE " NEVER NEVER" LAND. 
 
 I WENT on board the Black Swan on taking 
 leave of the captain and my other friends on 
 the schooner, and after an uneventful passage 
 arrived in Brisbane. Times had altered greatly in 
 Queensland, for the worse I thought, since I was 
 there last. The rich people had grown richer, and 
 the poor poorer. It is sad at the present day to 
 walk about the town and look at all the semi- 
 destitute people whom one sees on every side, and 
 then think of the " booms " which used to be a 
 few years ago. My objects in coming to Brisbane 
 were many. I had now, as I thought, sufficient 
 capital to establish myself in a small way at my 
 trade, and I intended to look out for a suitable 
 place near town where I might begin. I was also 
 on the look-out for a wife ; but that was only in a 
 general sense, and when all is said, I believe that 
 what I considered most important was to enjoy 
 myself. In any case, with over three hundred 
 pounds in the bank I felt pretty independent and 
 considered myself entitled to spend all I could 
 earn so long as I could keep this nest-egg safe.
 
 272 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 The town was busy, work was plentiful, but 
 although I went about every night and spent all I 
 earned, yet I by no means liked Brisbane. I do 
 not propose to criticise the inhabitants thereof in 
 a general way, but so far as it concerns my narra- 
 tive at this point I must say a few words. I was 
 very unsuccessful in finding any girl whom I 
 thought might suit me for a wife, and who, at the 
 same time, herself approved of me for a husband. 
 The reason, as I understood it, was this : Brisbane 
 was, and is, crammed full of young women who are 
 glad to stand in a shop from morning to night for 
 half-a-crown a week and find themselves. Whether 
 such girls can or cannot make a cup of tea I do 
 not know, but my general impression of them was 
 that they would rather not, if they could avoid it. 
 Then as for servant-girls, it is a common delusion 
 to believe that they are well off in Brisbane ; the 
 fact is that the majority of people who keep a 
 servant both overwork her and use her as a coat- 
 of-arms wherewith to set themselves off, and one 
 never by any chance reads a book either in Aus- 
 tralia or elsewhere in which a servant is spoken of 
 as possessed of even common sense. Of course, the 
 better class of girls will revolt at contemptuous treat- 
 ment, and they are, therefore, scarce in Brisbane, 
 and have always been. In the bush of course it is 
 different : there the servant is not spoken of as the 
 " slavey " and thought of as a fool, and as a conse- 
 quence they are neither the one nor the other. But 
 a tradesman in Brisbane has no opportunity what-
 
 TEAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 273 
 
 ever of meeting any young woman outside these 
 circles, because the greatest possible social distinc- 
 tion exists between such people as, say a bank clerk, 
 or even a grocer's clerk, and a tradesman or a 
 labourer; so is it between a music-teacher, shop- 
 girl, dressmaker, or a servant. I found it so, and 
 that had a great deal to do with my dislike to 
 Brisbane ; but, apart from that, I had been so used 
 to the free life of the bush, and more lately then 
 to the changing scenes among the South Sea 
 Islands, that I could not endure for long the 
 everyday life of the shop and the boarding-house, 
 and the boarding-house and the shop. I there- 
 fore engaged myself as carpenter to a squatter who 
 had a large station on the Darling Downs, and 
 right glad was I when I shook the dust of Bris- 
 bane off my feet again. But before leaving this 
 city I should like to speak about the last piece of 
 work I did [there, because it is in such striking 
 contrast to the state of the carpenter's trade at the 
 present time. One Saturday morning when I 
 came to work, my employer asked me to put a few 
 tools in my basket and go out to his private house 
 to perform certain work there. As I crossed 
 Queen Street a man came running after me and 
 asked me if I wanted a job of carpenter's work. I 
 said " No." When I came a little further up, along 
 George Street, a publican came running out of his 
 door, smiling all over his face, saying I was the 
 very man he wanted, as he could see by the 
 basket I carried that I was a carpenter. I told 
 
 19
 
 274 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 him I was not open to engagement ; but he 
 would not take " no " for an answer. After a long 
 conversation in the street, in which he implored 
 me to do just this little job for him that he wanted, 
 while I explained that I was on my road to work 
 for which I already was engaged. I was on the 
 point of cutting it short by going away , when he 
 asked me in any case to come into his hotel and 
 have a glass of beer. When I came in he renewed 
 the attack in this way he asked me just to 
 oblige him by looking at the work and telling him 
 what it was worth. He then showed me a large 
 shutter which stood under a rough window open- 
 ing in the yard, and told me that all he wanted 
 was for a man to fit this shutter to the opening and 
 put hinges on it ; he had the hinges. Now, what 
 was it worth ? I saw that he intended me to do it 
 if he could get me, but I by no means wanted to. 
 I said it was worth thirty shillings at the least. 
 " All right," cried he, " do it, and I will give you 
 thirty shillings." 
 
 I was caught now, so I gave in. I took my saw 
 out and fitted the shutter, screwed the hinges, and 
 took my thirty shillings, all in less than an hour. 
 This is eleven or twelve years ago. I have not 
 worked in Brisbane since, but I know a friend of 
 mine who two years ago put a shilling advertise- 
 ment in the papers for a carpenter to do a few 
 days' work, and in less than half an hour after the 
 paper was out he had thirty-two applicants ! I 
 was now working on one of the largest stations on
 
 TEAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 275 
 
 the Darling Downs. I had only come there in a 
 roving sort of way, under a six months' agreement 
 which was made in Brisbane, and I had no intention 
 whatever of staying longer, but although the wages 
 were less than what I could earn in Brisbane, or in 
 any other town, I thought I should like to see a 
 large sheep station, and I was told by the agent in 
 town that I should be sure to like it. The property 
 itself covered I do not know how many square 
 miles, divided into paddocks, and in each or most 
 of these paddocks stood a house in which the 
 boundary rider and his family lived. The duty of 
 this man is not fatiguing ; he has to look out 
 that the fences are in good repair and report to 
 the head station when anything is out of order. 
 Therefore his day's work is generally done when 
 after breakfast he has been jogging round the 
 boundary fence. For this work the wages are 
 about thirty-five pounds sterling a year with 
 double rations, a free house, use of cow, &c. These 
 boundary riders are by no means the only 
 employees on the station. There were general 
 labourers, carriers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, 
 storekeepers, carpenters, and a host of people who 
 came and went without my knowing they did so, 
 but the whole formed quite a little township at the 
 head station. Once a year, when the wool was 
 clipped off the two hundred thousand sheep there, 
 it was an extra busy time. Then the shearers would 
 arrive, sixty in number, and with all their assistants 
 they would make nearly a hundred persons. Be-
 
 276 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 sides these there were the washers, who washed tha 
 sheep by elaborate machinery. There would be 
 so many people that I do not know how the 
 "boss" knew them all. Every one of them earned 
 good money, although in various degrees. The 
 shearers earned three shillings and sixpence for 
 every score of sheep they could shear. An 
 average day's work is from fifty to a hundred 
 sheep. Then the wool-packers, who pressed the 
 wool into bales, had also piecework, and this was 
 a favourite job reserved as a reward for old hands. 
 They earned at it a pound or more a day. This 
 was of course for a short time only out of the year, 
 but when one station is done shearing another 
 generally begins, and the men can, therefore, keep 
 on for at least six months at a stretch with very 
 little lost time. The tradesmen on the station 
 seemed all part and parcel of the station, old identi- 
 ties, who had made their homes there years before 
 and did not intend to shift. I heard it whispered 
 that the squatter meant to try and break through 
 the monoply that some of the old hands had 
 created, and that some new blood might be 
 infused, and I believe that I had been engaged to 
 hang as the sword of Damocles over the other 
 carpenters' heads, but I refused the role. The 
 head carpenter was an old, worn-out man with a 
 large family. He had been there seventeen years. 
 He had one hundred pounds a year and double 
 rations, with a free house, wood, water, and many 
 little perquisites. I daresay he had saved a little
 
 TRAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 277 
 
 money, but any one may easily understand that a 
 man over fifty years of age, with a large family 
 and a settled home where he has been for seven- 
 teen years, does not like the prospect of change 
 and to have to make a new start in life. Such 
 a billet as that of tradesman on a station is 
 much sought after, and in many respects is incom- 
 parably better than the position occupied in town 
 by a married man who works for wages. But 
 neither the one nor the other suited my ambition. 
 If I had been doomed to choose between the two, 
 I think I should, after all, have taken the lot of 
 the man in town, for he is more independent if he 
 is poorer. It is all very well to work for a master 
 when one is young, but as one gets on for thirty 
 years of age he likes to be his own master. At 
 least that was my opinion. There seemed to me 
 something so forbidding in the ringing of the large 
 bell on the station. It would ring at a quarter to 
 six on a morning for all hands to get out of bed 
 and dress. Then it rang at six o'clock for starting 
 work. It rang for dinner, and it rang when we 
 were to start again. It was all correct enough ; 
 I have no fault to find with it, I cannot suggest 
 anything better, but all the same I did not like 
 it. 
 
 My work on the station was otherwise both 
 pleasant and independent enough. A great deal 
 of it consisted in making and hanging gates for the 
 various paddocks. These would be made at home 
 in the shop and afterwards carted out to their
 
 278 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 places. Then I would get a labourer with me and 
 we would drive off in a spring- cart from one gate 
 to the other, and hang them. It was a regular 
 journey across the paddocks, and involved about a 
 fortnight's trip every time. 
 
 The man who earned the most money of all the 
 employees on the station was the shearers' cook. 
 The shearers had a large house to themselves and 
 managed their own housekeeping, inasmuch as 
 they engaged and paid their own cook and bought 
 and paid for anything they liked to eat, so that 
 they should not grumble over the provisions. But 
 that object has never yet been attained with 
 shearers, either with the lot on this station or any 
 other set of shearers I have ever seen. They are 
 the most frightful grumblers, and who is so fit 
 an object for their displeasure as their servant 
 their own servant, the cook ? One thing, they pay 
 him well. The wages of a shearers' cook is the 
 shearing price of a score of sheep per week, or 
 three-and-sixpence a week for every shearer. You 
 will therefore see that in a large shearing shed like 
 this, with sixty shearers, the cook earned ten 
 guineas per week besides his food. But for this 
 money he had to do more than an ordinary man 
 can do, and take more insults than an ordinary dog 
 would tolerate. First of all, the shearers always 
 insist on having their table spread with good 
 things, puddings and cake every day. He had also 
 to bake bread, chop wood, fetch water, keep the 
 hut clean, and in short everything else that was
 
 TRAVELS IN TEE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 279 
 
 wanted. Nobody but the very smartest men can 
 do it. But his work is not everything. When the 
 bell rings for meal-time, I have seen shearers come 
 out of the shed, making for the hut, howling at the 
 
 same time : "I wonder if that of a cook 
 
 has got that breakfast ready ! " Everything 
 
 has to stand ready for them to " rush ; " and even 
 if it does, yet one seldom hears other conversation 
 
 than such as: "I say, cook, do you call them 
 
 peas boiled ? D you ! If I had my way you 
 
 should be kicked out ! " 
 
 But as the majority only can dismiss their cook, 
 he is not sent away notwithstanding, and it is 
 quite understood that it is part of his duty to 
 assume a respectful demeanour towards his 
 employers. Yet, unless a cook is a good fighting 
 man, it is not a billet that I would recommend 
 any friend of mine to come all the way from Den- 
 mark to fill. 
 
 When I had been on the station for six months 
 I took a trip in the train to the surrounding towns 
 of Dalby, Toowoomba, Warwick, and Stanthorpe, 
 with a view to seeing if there was an opening for 
 permanent business in my line. It did not seem 
 to me that the prospect was good enough for more 
 than a bare living, because bad times seemed 
 suddenly to have set in, and competition for work 
 and contracts requiring small capital was very 
 keen. I therefore went back to the station again 
 and bought two horses, intending to go out west. 
 I had my three hundred pounds safe in a Brisbane
 
 280 DANISH EMIGBANT. 
 
 bank, and I did not mean now to work for any 
 employer, but to keep my eyes open as I came 
 along and to take any opportunities for contracts 
 that might come in my way and for which I could 
 obtain a reasonable price. 
 
 I started from Roma, which is a town lying 
 about 350 miles west of Brisbane and 200 miles 
 from the station on which I then was located. It 
 was fearfully dry weather when I started and there 
 was not a blade of grass anywhere for the horses. 
 I made long stages of thirty to forty miles a day, 
 but how the horses endured it I do not know. 
 When I camped out at night I would have to 'tie 
 the horses to a tree alongside of me, as there was 
 nothing for them in the bush to eat, and they 
 would have rambled away never to be found again 
 if I had let them go. All the food it was possible 
 for me to provide for them was a little bread 
 which I bought at the inns on the road at intervals 
 of seventy or eighty miles, and in the mornings 
 when I got up I would take a pillow-case I had 
 and a knife and walk about in places where the 
 ground was inaccessible to horses, such as the 
 brinks of a gully or between large stones ; there 
 I would manage to find some dry, withered stuff, 
 wherewith I filled the pillow-case and shared it 
 between them. It was all I could do, and when I 
 arrived in Roma they were both very far gone for 
 hunger, and there, in town even, there was nothing 
 for them either the last bushel of corn had been 
 sold for two pounds sterling. I fed them on bread,
 
 [TRAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 281 
 
 but even that seemed like a forbidden thing. People 
 appeared to regard the proceeding with evil eyes. 
 Flour was scarce and getting more scarce. There 
 was no prospect of rain, and soon all would have to 
 starve ! In St. George, which is another town 150 
 miles south of Eoma, I was told a perfect famine 
 was raging. For fear of being misunderstood by 
 people who do not know much about Queensland, 
 I would say that want of money had nothing to do 
 with this state of things, it was only the want of 
 rain which prevented teams from travelling and 
 supplies from coming forward. 
 
 I left Eoma again. There was nothing to do 
 there, scarcely a prospect of getting enough to eat. 
 I rambled away with my two horses out west, and 
 I am now anxious, for obvious reasons, not to 
 particularize too closely where I went. 
 
 It had now become of more -importance to me 
 to save the lives of my horses than to find 
 anything to do for myself. I travelled for a 
 month or more at slow stages, and was now right 
 away in the " Never Never " country. Occasionally 
 I would find a little for the horses to eat, but very 
 often it was scanty fare they had. I arrived at a 
 station where shearing was in full swing, and as 
 both grass and water seemed more plentiful there 
 than I had seen it for hundreds of miles, I turned 
 the horses out for a month's spell, while I made 
 myself comfortable in my tent and occupied 
 myself by reading such literature as I could 
 borrow from the shearers on the station.
 
 282 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 Among the shearers was a man with whom I 
 grew to be on very friendly terms. He was a big, 
 strong, good-looking young fellow, about thirty 
 years of age, and seemed to me at all times so 
 polite and well-informed that I was always seeking 
 his company. What interested me most in him was 
 a peculiarly sad expression in his face, and I often 
 wondered at the cause of it. When the shearing 
 was over all the shearers went in a body to the 
 nearest hotel, as is customary, to have a jollifica- 
 tion. It happened to be located the way I had 
 ome, so, though they did not actually pass me, I 
 saw them ride away, and thought it rather shabby 
 of my acquaintance not to come and say good-bye 
 to me. I was mistaken, however, as I shortly 
 afterwards saw him coming up to the tent on a 
 really good horse and leading another. 
 
 " Well," said I, " are you off? I thought you 
 had left with the others ; how is it you did not ? " 
 
 " No," said he, " I know my weakness. If I had 
 gone with them I should probably have got on 
 the spree and drunk all I possess. But I am now 
 already pretty well-to-do, because I have a cheque 
 for over thirty pounds and these two horses 
 besides. All I want is just another shed, and then 
 I will make tracks for Ipswich where my people 
 
 % 
 
 "But," said I, "there is a public-house this 
 way too." 
 
 " Ah, yes," cried he, and winked, " but they do 
 not catch me this time. I have worked for the
 
 TEAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 283 
 
 publicans for seven years, but I will never enter 
 such a place again." 
 
 With that we parted, and two or three days 
 after I got my horses up and followed along the 
 same road that he had taken. About noon I came 
 to the hotel. I did not intend to go in because the 
 money I had with me was getting scarce and I 
 did not wish to draw on what I had in the bank. 
 I carried, too, all sorts of necessaries on my horses 
 and wanted for nothing. But when the publican 
 .saw me passing the door, he came running out. 
 
 " Good-morning, young fellow ; good-morning. 
 J3y Jove, that is a splendid horse you have there. 
 Are you travelling far ? Surely you don't mean to 
 take your horses along in this weather. Why it 
 is too hot for a white man, too hot entirely, 
 dome, in and have a bit of dinner ; it is all ready. 
 
 I won't charge you ; I never charged a b man 
 
 for a feed yet. I do not think it right, do 
 you?". 
 
 Pressed in this way, I went inside ; but my sus- 
 picions that was a robbers' den in disguise were 
 aroused, and if I had not felt sure of myself I 
 should probably have preferred to dash the spurs 
 into the horses and tear away; but although I 
 thanked him for his hospitality, and agreed with 
 him that it was very wrong to charge a man for 
 food, yet I made up my mind that he would have 
 to be clever to outwit me. On the verandah sat a 
 lorbidding-looking man on his swag, and I saw at 
 once that he was a poor swagsman who need have
 
 284 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 no fear of being robbed. In the bar were three 
 men standing drinking, but yet moderately sober. 
 The publican began to bustle about behind the 
 bar. I kept one eye on him and one on the 
 horses. Scarcely five minutes had elapsed before 
 a blackfellow made his appearance outside, and 
 began to lead my horses away. I went outside 
 and took them from him. 
 
 "Are you taking my horses away?" cried I; 
 "don't do it again." I used a> little more persua- 
 sion, but it does not look well in print. 
 
 " Master said I take him Yarraman along-a- 
 paddock," whined the blackfellow. 
 
 Now the publican came out again. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " cried he. "I told him 
 to take and give the horses a feed ; they look as if 
 they needed it." 
 
 " Not at all," said I; " they have had a month's- 
 spell, and I can scarcely hold them." 
 
 " All right, you know best. Are you going to- 
 have a drink ? " 
 
 " Yes," I said, " I don't mind." 
 
 "What is it going to be?" 
 
 " Kum," said I. 
 
 " Eight you are. I almost thought you were a 
 teetotaler." 
 
 I watched him closely, and saw he picked out a 
 particular glass, and before I let him fill it I took 
 my handkerchief up and wiped it carefully all 
 around the inside. I looked at him and he at me 
 while I did it. I also noticed that he tapped the
 
 TRAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 235 
 
 compound from the ordinary cask, and I was there- 
 fore not afraid to swallow it, nor did it do me any 
 harm. The reason I was so careful to wipe the 
 glass was that I knew it to be a common trick of 
 dishonest publicans, when they see a man coming 
 along the road whom they wish to catch, to take 
 a dirty pipe and blow some of the thick, foul- 
 smelling stuff that it contains into an empty glass, 
 and then have it ready for the customer. A very 
 little dose will make the strongest man intoxicated 
 for the whole day, and if it is not nicely adjusted, 
 but just a speck too much, it will knock a man 
 down in a dead swoon for many hours. I had 
 been told this on the gold diggings by more than 
 one person at the time I kept shanty there myself, 
 and I knew that there were people who travelled 
 about the country selling to publicans the secrets 
 of tricking and falsifying spirits. I, therefore, 
 kne,w pretty well where to look for danger, and 
 where I might take the risk ; but now dinner was 
 announced, and we all went into the dining-room. 
 On the floor of the room I saw a man who was lying 
 there smeared all over with blood and filth. Still I 
 recognized him at once as my friend the shearer. 
 I went up and shook him until I got a little life 
 into him, and he sat up and recognized me. 
 " Hullo," bawled he, " is that you ? Ain't I a fool ? 
 Publican, give me my horses, I want to go with 
 this young fellow. I am going away this after- 
 noon. Don't go away without me." 
 
 "All right," said the publican; "I will see to
 
 286 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 get the black boy to find your horses for you, but 
 he says one has got out of the paddock." 
 
 Then we had dinner that is, I had a good meal ; 
 but the drunken shearer could not touch food, and 
 presented a terrible picture of sickness and misery. 
 By this time I was not on good terms with the 
 publican ; but I did not care. I only studied how I 
 could get the other poor fellow away, and I could not 
 as yet see any way. As soon as we came from the 
 table he staggered into the bar and called for 
 drinks for all hands. The publican then called his 
 wife, four or five children, a seamstress, the ser- 
 vant-girl, myself, the man in the yard, the black 
 boy, the bushman I had seen, the traveller on the 
 verandah, who had had no dinner, and himself, and 
 they all N had their drinks ! It was a shilling a 
 glass. Then the shearer asked him to be kind and 
 let him have the balance of his cheque, which, it 
 appeared, he had given the publican to change for 
 him when he came; but that good Samaritan 
 simply told him that he would not do such a. 
 thing, as he was too drunk to take care of money. 
 When he went away he should have it. The 
 shearer, who was getting more intoxicated again 
 after this last glass, hung over the counter, and, in 
 
 a plaintive sort of way, cried, " I am a fool I. 
 
 Never mind, let's have another. Here, fill 'em up 
 again." 
 
 I could do no good, so I went away without 
 paying for my dinner. I met the shearer two 
 years after, when he told me all about it. It
 
 TRAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 287 
 
 appeared that he had tried to pass the place in the 
 same manner as I, and that the publican had per- 
 suaded him to come in. He had not liked to take 
 his dinner for nothing, and had given the publican 
 the cheque he had for changing. He had been 
 promised the money in half an hour, but was 
 shortly after intoxicated, and had never been able 
 to get either the horses or the money again. 
 After having been in the state I saw him for 
 about three weeks, the publican presented him 
 with a bill, from which it appeared that he owed him 
 for "refreshments" more than the amount of the 
 cheque added to the value of horses, saddles, and 
 bridles. The publican had, therefore, kept the 
 horses, but had kindly given him a bottle of grog 
 to take with him on the road when he went away ! 
 This process is called in bush parlance, " lambing 
 down," and is going on every day, year after year ! 
 I had not gone far from the hotel before I saw 
 a man coming after me. He called me to stop, 
 which I did, and when he came closer I perceived 
 that it was the man who had been sitting on his 
 swag in the verandah at the hotel. He said he 
 had come after me because he had neither rations 
 nor money, and did not know how to get along 
 the road unless I would be good .enough to let 
 
 him travel with me. He wanted to go to 
 
 station, and try to get some shearing to do. It 
 happened that I intended to turn off the road 
 about half a mile further on, and that according 
 to the place to which he said he was going we
 
 288 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 should travel in almost opposite directions, and I 
 "told him so. I said also that if he was pushed I 
 would help him with a few rations, but that I had 
 not time to accommodate the pace of the horses to 
 his walk, as I had already been travelling for a 
 much longer time than I liked. Of course he said 
 he would be glad of anything, and so I got off the 
 horse and had a fire lighted, by which we made 
 some tea, and he had his dinner out of my 
 provisions. After the meal he suddenly made up 
 his mind that he might as well go the same road 
 as I, and try to get a job at '& station which we 
 should pass some forty miles from where we then 
 stood. I did not like this much, because he 
 seemed to me a man whose company I should not 
 appreciate, but, as the loneliness of the bush 
 always appeared to me to engender a sort of 
 fellowship towards whoever is there, I did not 
 find it easy nor did I deem it right to say I would 
 have nothing to do with him. On the contrary, I 
 said that we would push on together then for the 
 day, and that I would walk while he put his swag 
 on my saddle-horse. In this way we now went 
 several miles, and my travelling companion had 
 very little to say. He seemed to know the road 
 to perfection, and about four o'clock in the after- 
 noon he suggested that we should camp at a 
 certain spot at which we had arrived, but about a 
 hundred yards off the road. I objected. I said 
 he was free himself to camp or not as he chose, 
 but if he wanted to travel with me he would have
 
 TRAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 289 
 
 to walk a good deal further, as I had by no means 
 come as far yet as I considered a day's journey 
 required. After that we started again, but my 
 new friend seemed frightfully morose, and had not 
 a word to say. As the horse he held was a better 
 leader than mine he gradually forged ahead of me, 
 and try as I would I could not keep up with him. 
 I was just wishing myself well rid of him when I 
 saw him suddenly turn off the road, leading the 
 horse after him, and although I called again and 
 again, he neither turned round nor answered me 
 until he came to a deep water-hole about a mile 
 off the road. Here he took the load off the horse, 
 and hobbled it out. I was not only angry, but I 
 was also to a certain extent afraid. I had already 
 agreed with myself that I could not lie down to 
 sleep alongside of him ; but what, of all things, did 
 he mean by leading me to this place ? As soon as 
 I came up I asked him what he meant, and how 
 he dared to take my horse off the road. I had 
 taken the bridle belonging to the saddle-horse to 
 go and catch it again, for I intended now at all 
 hazards to get rid of him. At this juncture he 
 came towards me. 
 
 " Here is grass, and here is water," cried he, 
 
 and out of this spot shall neither I nor any 
 
 Grerman or Dutchman come to-night. Let 
 
 go that bridle ! " 
 
 Then he grasped the bridle. You know the old 
 proverb that " There is a time when patience 
 ceases to be a virtue," and in my opinion that 
 
 20
 
 290 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 time had now arrived. I had not been so long in 
 Queensland without learning to defend myself, so 
 I closed with him. What a fearful struggle we 
 had ! As far as I was concerned, I felt as if it was 
 a struggle for life, and I fought accordingly. Now 
 we were up, now down. Sometimes I was on the 
 top of him and sometimes I was under, but what- 
 ever happened I must not give in, because I felt 
 sure I should receive small mercy if I did. At 
 last I had him. My hands were round his throat, 
 and my knees on his chest, while I felt his hands 
 slide powerless off me. It was not victory yet. If 
 I let him go he might renew the attack, so I 
 pressed his throat until he was nearly black in the 
 face, and I sat on him as heavily as I could, 
 because I was angry, and when at last I let him 
 go, it was not before I thought I had taken all his 
 fighting humour out of him. While I loaded my 
 horse again I called him all the names I thought 
 it probable would insult him most, in case he might 
 have any honour and shame in him, and at last I 
 threw his swag at his head and cried, " There, you 
 old loafer ! " 
 
 Then I got on the horse and rode away ; nor did I 
 stop that night before I had put fully twenty miles 
 between him and me. 
 
 I was now following down the Eiver, 
 
 towards the town of , which I was anxious to 
 
 reach as soon as possible. The weather had so far 
 continued fearfully dry, and the heat was every 
 day intense, but when I was within ninety miles
 
 TRAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAKD. 291 
 
 of the township it began to rain. It rained as if it 
 intended to make up for a two years' drought. 
 The river I followed was nothing but a dry sand- 
 bed when the rain began, but in three or four 
 days it became a roaring torrent. I saw that we 
 were in for a first-class flood and became anxious, 
 as the country on which I was camped seemed to 
 me very flat. Just as I had made up my mind 
 that such was the case I met a party of stockmen, 
 or, more correctly, they came to my tent. They 
 had been out helping to shift some shepherds and 
 their sheep to rising ground, and they assured me 
 that the place I was in would be flooded. As 
 they directed me to what they thought a safe spot, 
 I shifted my tent at once, to that place. It was a 
 low, narrow ridge about a mile from the river. 
 Here I prepared myself to weather it out. Next 
 morning when I got up, I saw the river much nearer 
 than the evening before. During the day it rose on 
 all sides, and before evening again I was a complete 
 prisoner on about ten acres of land, while the 
 water roared and hissed on all sides of me as far as 
 the eye could reach. This state of affairs lasted 
 about three weeks. Anything more appallingly 
 lonely than to sit there in the tent, and look out 
 on the awe-inspiring sight of the flood with its 
 swiftly running, destructive water cannot be con- 
 ceived. As I had but little room for exercise in 
 my prison I could not sleep at night, and so I 
 would sit and sing or play on the flute, and think 
 of all sorts of things. The waters did not go down
 
 292 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 at the same time as the rain ceased, and I had it 
 all to myself some beautiful moonlight nights. I 
 had heard the stockmen speak ahout an old shep- 
 herd who, with his sheep, was camped on a sort of 
 island, which was formed hy the river opposite the 
 place I was in, and about a mile and a half distant. 
 He was, therefore, my nearest neighbour. I could 
 hear him at night sometimes felling trees for 
 exercise, and occasionally he would answer me 
 when I cooeed. Little did it matter to him 
 whether the flood was on or not. At ordinary 
 times he would probably never see any one for 
 weeks or months, as no one could have any busi- 
 ness there excepting the ration- carrier once a week, 
 and the shepherd, as a rule, did not see him, as he 
 was away with his sheep when the carrier arrived 
 in his hut. I used to speculate as to who he was 
 an old man, with wife and family dead, perhaps. 
 What a sad existence ! Or, worse still, an old 
 bachelor, crusty and tired. Surely he would 
 have some one he longed to see, and who longed 
 for him ! How many years, thought I, had he 
 been there, or in places like that ? What did he 
 do with his money when he got it once a year ? 
 Would he go with it to the nearest hotel, and as 
 he saw other men wonder why they were not as 
 glad to see him as he to see them ? Would he pur- 
 chase their good -will with grog ? What else could 
 he do, or was he likely to do ? Anyhow, when it 
 was all spent, and he would get angry when 
 people would have no more to do with him, would
 
 TRAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 293 
 
 he be kicked out ? Would he then come back here 
 for another year ? What else could he do ? I 
 have, among shepherds, seen many men who 
 must have been what is called well educated. 
 They count in their ranks both lawyers and par- 
 sons, but disappointed and embittered silence is 
 generally the stamp of them all. Sometimes the 
 reverse is the case ; then they will talk as if they 
 could never stop. I like solitude myself to a cer- 
 tain extent, but it must surely be an unnatural life 
 for any man to lead quite alone in the bush. 
 
 When at last the floods subsided I had the 
 greatest trouble in making my way, because there 
 would be the most treacherous boggy holes where 
 one least expected them. I had also fared hard on 
 very short rations, so as to make what I had last 
 until I could purchase more, and when I started 
 away from my camping-place I had only one more 
 loaf of bread ; all the rest was gone. I was, there- 
 fore, very sorry to hear at the nearest station that 
 they would sell me nothing whatever, and when I 
 came to the next one again it was just as bad. 
 I travelled for some days in this way, and had had 
 scarcely what would make half a meal for each 
 day, when at last I arrived at a place only twenty- 
 four miles from town where I should have to cross 
 the river if I could so as to get on the main road 
 leading into the settlement. It was about ten 
 o'clock in the morning when I neared this place. 
 It was only a small cattle station, but I thought 
 that whatever happened I must try to get some
 
 294 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 rations here. I came along at a pretty brisk 
 gallop, but when I was about twenty chains from 
 the houses which formed the place my horses shied 
 violently at a man who was lying in the middle of 
 the road. I was, on the spur of the moment, put 
 out of temper, and began to rate the fellow for 
 choosing his camping-place there. 
 
 " Oh, let me lie ! " he cried. " Accursed be the 
 day I came to Queensland ! I have laid myself 
 down to die here. Shall I not be allowed to lie ? 
 Leave me alone. God, God ! " 
 
 I looked closer at him. It seemed that he was 
 in earnest, and the wonder was that he was not 
 dead already, as he was lying there in the terrible 
 sun without the least attempt to get into the 
 shade. He was a short, slightly built man and had 
 a terribly emaciated, woe-begone face. It took a 
 long time and much persuasion before I could get 
 him to tell me what was the matter. Then he 
 said he was dying from hunger. " Pshaw," I 
 said, " right here in front of tbe station ! I am 
 hungry too, but in half an hour I shall be back to 
 you with something to eat." 
 
 He laughed bitterly. " Have you got it with 
 you? " said he. " No ; but I have money, and I 
 will buy some up here." " You might save your- 
 self the trouble to ask for it," said he ; " you will 
 get nothing." " Why," cried I, " I will tell them 
 that a man is dying with hunger outside the door." 
 " They know it. The squatter hunted me yester- 
 day when I told him that I could not cross the
 
 TRAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 295 
 
 river or get further without food. Oh, accursed 
 Queensland, and the day I saw it first ! Let me 
 lie ; I only want to die." 
 
 I could not understand it, and I came to the 
 
 conclusion that it must be the man's own fault, 
 
 and that the people on the station had no idea 
 
 about the despairing state he was in. I looked at 
 
 the river. It was swollen yet, and not fordable on 
 
 foot, but I had no fear but that I could get over 
 
 with the horses, and I was, therefore, in a position 
 
 to promise him that he should be with me in 
 
 town that same evening. On hearing that he 
 
 brightened up a little, but I was myself so hungry 
 
 that I thought I would go up to the station and 
 
 get some food for both of us. I therefore hobbled 
 
 out the pack-horse after the swag was off him, and 
 
 rode up to the place, promising my despairing 
 
 friend to be back to him with all possible speed. 
 
 When I came into the yard my horse made a 
 
 dead stop outside an old stable. I got off, and 
 
 looking into the stable saw another man lying on 
 
 his face in one of the stalls. " Halloa," thought I, 
 
 " it appears that all the people here are off their 
 
 legs ! " and I sang out to him, asking him whether 
 
 he was dying of hunger too. " No ; but I am 
 
 blind," said he. " Who is that? " I told him I 
 
 was a traveller, and that I just wanted to buy a few 
 
 rations. " It is not you who were here yesterday ? ' 
 
 inquired he. " No," said I, " that poor fellow is 
 
 lying out in the road, and says he is dying for 
 
 hunger. Surely it has not come to that ! " u I
 
 296 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 was awfully sorry for that man yesterday," cried 
 he, " and only that I cannot see at all, for I got 
 the sand-blight a fortnight ago, I should have 
 given him something." Then, as with a sudden 
 inspiration, he said, "Are you his mate?" 
 No, I was not his mate, I was only sorry for 
 him and very hungry myself. "Will you swear 
 you will give him the half of what I will give you ? " 
 Yes, I would swear. " All right ! Then look 
 in that other stall there under the bags and you 
 will find a piece of bread, but remember he is to 
 have the half." "Yes, yes," cried I, while I 
 looked under the bags and found about half a 
 pound of stale bread. "But are you really so 
 very hard up here ? Surely you must have plenty 
 of beef." "So we have," said he, "but I have 
 been blind for two weeks and cannot kill a beast if 
 we run out, and the super himself is a bad hand. 
 We are nearly out of flour and everything else, and 
 there is a party of fencers cut off by the flood 
 that we expect in now every day. We must keep 
 something for them ; still, that super is a skunk, or 
 he would have given the man a piece of beef, but 
 he won't give anything or sell either, so there is 
 an end to it. You might save yourself the trouble 
 of asking him. Are you gone ? " "No," said I, 
 " I am here yet. I am only looking at an old 
 grey-bearded man who is coming out of the house 
 and putting a saddle on a horse." " That is 
 he." "Is he the only one at the place besides 
 yourself?" "Yes, unless you reckon the old
 
 TEAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 297 
 
 woman in the kitchen." " Could I not get round 
 her after he is away ? " " Not you ; you will get 
 nothing out of either of them." 
 
 I then went up to the squatter and saluted him. 
 Would he kindly sell a few rations ? " No, I 
 will do nothing of the sort," cried he. " You do 
 not know how short we are here. I have got no 
 rations." "But," said I, " you surely do not 
 know that there is a man lying out there on the 
 road who says that he is dying of hunger. Just 
 sell me a piece of beef." "Dying of hunger. 
 Ha ! ha ! ha ! that is too good. Why, he is a 
 regular loafer. He was here for rations a fortnight 
 ago, and he was here yesterday. Let him go into 
 town. I cannot keep him." 
 
 " That is all very well," said I, " and I cannot 
 pretend to say what the man is. But how can 
 you get to town, when you cannot cross the 
 river ? He told me he has been lying about in 
 all this rain and flood, and the wonder to me is 
 that he is not dead already." "Is that your 
 horse ? " inquired he, pointing to where I left it 
 standing. "Yes." "Well, then, just take my 
 advice and get into town yourself." " And won't 
 you sell me a piece of meat ? " " No." " Not if 
 a man were dying of hunger ? " "Don't talk to me 
 about dying of hunger. It is too rich, it is 
 indeed! Good-morning." With that he rode 
 away, and left me standing there meditating upon 
 what he had said and at free liberty to decide in 
 my own mind whether, after all, I had any right to
 
 298 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 expect people in a place like that to provide the 
 necessaries of life for travellers. 
 
 But one cannot argue with the stomach, and, 
 ravenously hungry as I was, my sympathy was 
 with myself and with the man whom I left out on 
 the road, and I therefore thought I would make 
 one more attack, this time on the old woman in 
 the kitchen, who, during my conversation with the 
 super, had twice come round the corner to empty 
 slops, and who, I suppose, as a mark of the respect 
 in which she held me, had thrown them so close to 
 me that it had sprinkled me all over. She did 
 not look very hospitable, but I had at that time 
 great faith in my power to charm the fair sex, or, 
 as Englishmen less gallantly call them, the weaker 
 sex. I, therefore, wreathed my face in smiles 
 and put myself into the most graceful position I 
 could assume, while I knocked at the kitchen door. 
 No one answered my knock, so I went inside, still 
 retaining my charming appearance. On the other 
 side of the kitchen stood a row of saucepans with 
 something cooking in them, which emitted an 
 odour that did not go far to prove the theory of 
 want raging in the place. Here is my luck again, 
 thought I, I will get a good meal at last. The old 
 lady now came running in from one of the rooms 
 a most forbidding object to make love to ! 
 " You can't get no rations here," cried she. 
 " Clear out of the kitchen ! " Then she took up a 
 piece of firewood and struck at me with it. How 
 could any one expect me to look happy under the
 
 TRAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 299 
 
 circumstances ? I knew I was getting to look 
 ugly. Then I pulled out my large knife and rolled 
 my eyes in my head. That seemed to please her. 
 She now only mildly protested, while I took the 
 lid off one of the saucepans and lifted out five or 
 six pounds of meat, with which I made my escape. 
 When I came out with this to the traveller on the 
 road his joy was a pleasure to look at. He could 
 not understand how I had got it. So weak was he 
 that he cried like a baby. 
 
 The tea, of which I had yet a supply, was made, 
 and then the feast began. I counselled him not 
 to eat too much, but between the two of us there 
 was scarcely anything left when we were both 
 satisfied. Then he began to tell me his story, of 
 which I can only give the general outlines as I 
 have forgotten the details ; but a more terrible tale 
 of misery I had never heard, and any one who 
 will fill in the picture for himself might easily 
 understand that he must have suffered almost 
 enough to justify him in lying down to die at last, 
 when all hope seemed gone. 
 
 He said that travelling along he had been over- 
 taken by the flood, and had camped by himself 
 in a similar place to the one where I had been a 
 prisoner, only with this difference that he had had 
 no tent. He had managed to keep a log on fire all 
 the time, and had hung his blanket over a pole to 
 form a fly, but of course he had been as wet all the 
 time as if he had been hauled out of the sea. By 
 the time the water went down he had eaten every
 
 300 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 scrap of provision he had, but had nevertheless 
 reached this station about a fortnight since. 
 Here, as already stated, they would neither sell 
 nor give him anything. He could not cross the 
 river to get into town, so, in a terrible condition 
 from hunger, he had turned back in another direc- 
 tion, some twenty miles or more to where there 
 was another small station. The country was all 
 flooded on his way, and for five miles in one 
 stretch he had waded through water to his 
 shoulders, only being able to know the direction 
 in which he wanted to go by following along a 
 fence, the top of the posts of which were out of 
 water. I forget how long it took him to reach 
 this place, but when he did arrive there it was only 
 to be told that he could get nothing. Being ap- 
 parently the sort of man who would bend his neck 
 to any stroke of misfortune, he had meekly turned 
 away, he did not know himself w-hither, when by 
 good luck as the issue proved, he had fainted when 
 close to the house. A man had then come ou 
 and given him something to eat, besides a little to 
 take with him, and had told him that twenty-five 
 miles in another direction was a place where he 
 could procure supplies. He had gone thither, but 
 as the people there had proved but one degree more 
 merciful than their neighbours, they had only kept 
 him alive a couple of days, and then started him 
 back here to where I found him. All his money 
 was seven shillings. The squatter here, as already 
 stated, would neither sell nor give him anything,
 
 TRAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER " LAND. 301 
 
 and as he saw he could not cross the river for 
 several days on foot, not being able to swim, he 
 had laid himself down to die when I arrived on the 
 scene. While he told me all this, he was gradually 
 getting very sick. The sweat hung in large drops on 
 his pale face, and he threw himself about writhing 
 in agony. I need scarcely say, perhaps, that he 
 had eaten with less moderation than he ought. I 
 bustled about him, trying or wishing to do him 
 good, but I did not know how. I was also very 
 anxious for us both to be off, because I heard the 
 squatter fire a gun in the yard, and I concluded 
 that he had come back and that the old woman 
 had told him what had happened perhaps, or most 
 likely drawn on her imagination at the same time. 
 As the bishop said when he saw a criminal on 
 the road to the scaffold : " But for the grace of 
 God, there go I." The reader of this truthful 
 narrative may decide for himself who deserved 
 hanging most the squatter or I; but whatever 
 the opinion may be, I had undoubtedly committed 
 robbery under arms, and, in my opinion, the man 
 who would see another die outside his door if he 
 had it in his power to save him, might also add 
 such small particulars to the tale as would make 
 his case strong and interesting especially as 
 there was a lady in the case. I had doubtless 
 committed a crime which, according both to the 
 spirit and the letter of Queensland law as among 
 the greatest for which a criminal is punished. 
 Just imagine how the case might have appeared
 
 302 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 in court. There the old grey- bearded super, the 
 worthy pioneer, and the interesting, inoffensive 
 old lady, who in a fainting condition, would tell 
 her horrible tales ; here a fat, bouncing Crown 
 Prosecutor ; and lastly the two loafers in the dock, 
 whom nobody knew or would have believed. As. 
 after events proved, the super was either too much 
 of a gentleman or too much of a coward, as he 
 neither came out and remonstrated with rne nor 
 prosecuted me afterwards. 
 
 Six weeks after this event happened I was an 
 employer of over a dozen men, and as time went 
 on I was looked upon as a rising man in that 
 town toward which I was now going, and no one 
 thought themselves too good to know me. Among 
 my acquaintances was this same super. He did 
 not at all recollect me from this adventure ; but 
 one day I reminded him, and told him what I 
 thought about him. 
 
 Begging the reader's pardon for this digression, 
 I will return to where we still sat in the road. 
 While I, for the above-named reasons, perhaps not 
 clearly denned in my mind, was anxious to be off, 
 and my travelling companion was writhing with 
 pain before me, an accident happened which I at 
 the time thought one of the greatest possible mis- 
 fortunes. My best horse my saddle-horse got 
 drowned in the river. It came about in this way : 
 ever since the flood the air had been thick with 
 countless millions of sand-flies ; it was so bad that 
 one could scarcely exist unless when sitting with
 
 TRAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 303 
 
 the head over a fire enveloped in smoke. The 
 horses suffered fearfully from their attacks, and 
 just then they both became as it were quite 
 maddened, and galloped straight for the river. I 
 managed to catch the one, but the other, as if it 
 premeditated suicide, jumped right in, and beino- 
 hobbled could not well drown just then, but was 
 swept down the current and away. Next morning 
 we had eaten all our provisions and were as 
 hungry as ever. The river, however, was falling 
 fast. I got on the one horse and tried the river in 
 several places, but nowhere was it so low that the 
 horse could walk across. I could get across my- 
 self on the horse, but it reared and bucked when 
 the other man tried to climb on it too ; as he could 
 not ride he began his lamentations again, implor- 
 ing me not to leave him behind. I had no idea of 
 doing that, but it cost me not a little trouble to 
 think out what was best to do. Unfortunately 
 neither of us could swim, and as he was of very 
 short stature, the river would have to fall until he 
 could walk over almost dry-footed before he would 
 dare to attempt it. I was a head taller than he, and 
 as the day went on I kept walking in the river and 
 trying it with a long pole to find the shallowest 
 place. The current was very strong, but the 
 water was falling fast, and tired out by my com- 
 panion's lamentations and the whole misery of the 
 situation, I told him that we would a couple of 
 hours before sundown try to cross the river or die. 
 It was a dangerous undertaking, because not only
 
 304 DANISH EMIGBANT. 
 
 was the water still very deep, and I had only a 
 general idea of it being fordable, but the current 
 was so strong that I did not know whether I should 
 be able to keep on my feet when I came to the 
 deepest part. First of all I wrote a few words in 
 pencil to the manager of the bank in which I had 
 my money, telling him what to do with my ac- 
 count in case I should not claim it. After having 
 put it into an envelope, because I always carried 
 these things, I gave it to my fellow-traveller, and 
 without letting him know what it contained, 
 exacted from him a promise that he should post 
 it in case I got drowned. It was the least he 
 could do certainly, because as a reward I said he 
 might have all the rest of my belongings, always 
 supposing, of course, that I should have no further 
 use for them. Then I helped him on to the horse, 
 and told him just to sit still until he saw me safe 
 on the other side, and that the horse would come 
 to me when I called it as long as he did not pull it 
 about. Having done all this, I took off all my 
 clothes and strapped them on to the pack-saddle, 
 and lifted the whole burden on to my head so as 
 to give me extra weight. I also got a pole about 
 fifteen feet in length to stand against, and then I 
 faced the river. The river was not very broad I 
 should say about three chains. From the side 
 where I was it gradually sloped towards its 
 deepest part which was near the other side, and 
 there was at least one chain in width where I did 
 not exactly know the depth more than that the
 
 TRAVELS IN THE "NEVER NEVER" LAND. 305 
 
 horse so far had had to swim across earlier in the 
 day when I had tried it. The river was still falling 
 every hour, and I was determined for both of us to 
 get across then. I waded into the water, and it 
 all went well until I came to the middle. Some- 
 how I thought I must have got to shallower 
 ground than where I had tried it before. The 
 water rushed round my sides, and every time I 
 had to lift the pole and put it forward it took me all 
 my strength to do it. The last step forward had 
 brought me into still deeper water, and my 
 strength seemed exhausted perhaps it would be 
 more correct to say that to hold the pole in posi- 
 tion and keep myself on my feet demanded as 
 much force as I ever had. I seemed to stand 
 dancing on the top of the big toe while I could 
 feel with the other foot that it was still deeper 
 in front of me. I pressed on the pole to keep me 
 down, but I felt that I had neither strength nor 
 pluck enough to shift it either forwards or back- 
 wards, nor even to keep standing where I was very 
 long. Yet how tantalizing; in front of me, just 
 another step, and I might grasp the boughs of a 
 large tree hanging out over the water. And must 
 I die there ? 
 
 As in a panorama my whole life seemed to pass 
 before me in review : At home my schoolmates, I 
 saw them all then Hamburg the emigrant ship 
 Thorkill the gold-diggings the South Seas 
 Brisbane all along this miserable journey and 
 back where I stood. I turned my head and looked 
 
 21
 
 306 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 behind me to where the Englishman sat on my 
 horse. He laughed loud an unpleasant ha ! ha ! 
 ha ! ha ! It was his way to cheer me on, but it 
 jarred on my ear. My heart began to beat as if it 
 would burst. Have you travelled so far, I thought, 
 and have you seen and suffered so many things on 
 purpose only to drown in this muggy stream ? 
 Never ! I gathered myself together for a supreme 
 effort. I threw the pole from me, rushed forward, 
 rolled, lost the saddle, but grasped a bough, and 
 the next moment I climbed up the other side, 
 when I fainted for the first and only time in all my 
 life. When I recovered the other man had come 
 over and stood alongside of me with my horse. 
 We intended to travel all night, so as to be in 
 town as soon as possible, and my friend seemed 
 quite gay at the prospect before us. Where we 
 stood, however, was only on a sort of by-road, and 
 
 I understood that the main road to was a 
 
 couple of miles distant. I, therefore, suggested to 
 my companion that he should walk off as fast as 
 he could, while I was pulling myself a little 
 together, and that I would overtake him on the 
 horse before it got dark. But I had not got a 
 stitch of clothes to put on ! and I had to ask him 
 to let me have some of his. Then he began to 
 talk while he pulled his swag open. He had only 
 two shirts and two pairs of breeches that he had 
 paid fourteen shillings for in Liverpool, but of 
 course I should have them. Were they worth ten 
 shillings ? Was the shirt worth five shillings ? I
 
 TRAVELS IN THE " NEVER NEVER" LAND. 307 
 
 would not get the like under eight shillings. If I 
 thought it was too much, I might have the 
 breeches he had on for five shillings. 
 
 I was completely amazed. Was this the man 
 for whom I had risked my life, and as nearly as 
 possible lost it ? For whom call it what you like 
 I had begged and taken by force at the station 
 what I thought necessary to save his life ? For 
 whom I had lost my horse which had carried me 
 so many hundred miles, and the saddle and all my 
 clothes ? Here I sat as naked as the day I was 
 born, all to save his life, and my reward was to see 
 him in front of me ; but he had not perception 
 enough to know that he owed me anything. The 
 money I had three or four pounds I had on 
 purpose taken out of the swag before I crossed the 
 river, and given to him so that it might not be 
 unnecessarily lost. I had, therefore, that, but I 
 wondered whether he would give me any clothes 
 without money if I had none, or whether, if so, I 
 would have to force them from him. I asked him, 
 and said, " What if I have no money ? " " Oh, 
 but you have," said he; "I saw in your purse 
 you have plenty of money." Then I bought the 
 clothes and paid him what he asked for his 
 breeches, for which he had given fourteen shil- 
 lings in Liverpool. I bought his shirt also for 
 five shillings, and a dirty, nasty towel he had was 
 thrown in as a present for me to wind round my 
 head instead of a hat. 
 
 Then he went away quite happy, asking me not to
 
 308 DANISH EMIGBANT. 
 
 be long behind, as he was to ride half-way on my 
 horse, and I dressed myself in my new clothes. I 
 did look a terrible picture. The breeches were six 
 inches too short, the shirt would not button round 
 my throat, I had neither socks nor boots and then 
 the towel as a turban round the head ! The horse 
 fairly snorted at me with terror. I sat where I was 
 till it was nearly dark. I had no wish to see the 
 other fellow any more. But I made a vow, never, if 
 it was possible to avoid it, would I travel like this 
 again. But I was in dejected spirits not, I believe, 
 so much for what money value I had lost, or for 
 any fear that I could not put a stop to this sort of 
 travelling about almost whenever I liked, but for 
 the conduct of that man. As I rode along I kept 
 saying to myself, " It shall be a valuable lesson." 
 Still, I fear that that sort of lessons are generally 
 more sad than valuable. 
 
 It was now all but dark, and when I had ridden 
 so far as to make me wonder that there was no 
 sign of the main road yet, I got off the horse 
 and began to look closely at the track along 
 which I had come. I then found that it was 
 only a cattle track, and that the horse must have 
 left the right road without my noticing it. Then 
 I began to run the tracks of the horse back again. 
 But the tracks were confusing, crossing and re- 
 crossing each other so much that I lost my cue, 
 and by the time it was quite dark I stood in dense 
 brigalow scrub and had to acknowledge myself 
 lost. I tied the horse to a tree and sat down
 
 TRAVELS IN THE " NEVER NEVER" LAND. 309 
 
 alongside. It was no use to walk about further 
 before daylight. I had a general idea where the 
 town was lying, but I knew there were no houses 
 or people living between where I was and there. 
 I was also afraid that if I did not strike the road 
 I might pass the town within half a mile and not 
 know it. As for making back for the river and 
 station, that would be out of the question, because 
 it w r ould have made me no better off. But on the 
 whole I was not afraid that I should be unable to 
 find my way somewhere, the question was really 
 how long could I keep up without food ? The idea 
 occurred to me that I could at all events eat the 
 horse as a last extremity, but I drove the thought 
 away as soon as it came. To be there, and look 
 up at the horse my only friend and to think 
 that I intended to kill it, seemed to me both 
 criminal and impossible. I sat the whole night 
 smoking my pipe and waiting for the sun to rise 
 so that I might take the bearings of the country, 
 and make up my mind in which direction I would 
 look for the road and town. 
 
 At sunrise I started, leading the horse after me, 
 because it was no use now to follow the cattle 
 tracks, and where I had to go was through the 
 brigalow, where I had quite work enough to do in 
 twining in and out among the trees and the 
 brambles. As the day wore on I came into 
 country a little more open, but yet I could not 
 ride among the trees. The sun shone with terrible 
 force, and the sand-flies followed us in clouds.
 
 310 DANISH EMIGRANT. 
 
 There was a ringing sound in my ears. I kepb 
 arranging and rearranging the towel on my head ; 
 still, I feared that I had sunstroke, or that some- 
 thing serious was the matter with me. The air 
 seemed full of phantoms vicious-looking creatures. 
 Then I saw a whole army of ladies and gentlemen 
 riding past, jeering me and lolling out their tongues 
 at me. I knew it was delusions, and I kept walk- 
 ing as fast and, as it proved, as straight as possible, 
 but still I felt myself laughing, crying, and yell- 
 ing at all these phantoms or at the unoffending 
 horse. 
 
 " Shoeskin," cried I to the horse, " you old 
 dog, do you know that it was to save you from 
 hunger's dread that I went on this journey ? And 
 now you have enough to eat, while I must die of 
 hunger ! bat to-night I will kill you do you know 
 that ? Oh, Peter, Peter ! is it not strange, so 
 vicious as you have got to be ? Holloa, is that a 
 frying-pan over there on that log ? So it is ; and 
 full of fried eggs and potatoes. Good luck. Look 
 at him eating it all. Stop, you rascal ! No, it is a 
 woman. Do you call yourself a lady ? You are 
 no woman at all ; only a devil. It is all devilry. 
 Peter, take no notice." About noon I had a bath 
 in a water-hole I came to, and ate some snails I 
 found in the water. After that I felt somewhat 
 better, and shortly after I came on to the road. I 
 became quite collected in my mind at once, and 
 jumping on to the horse tore away at full gallop 
 for the town, which proved to be only five or six
 
 TRAVELS IN TEE "NEVER NEVER'' LAND. 311 
 
 luiles distant. As I came riding up the street at 
 a sharp trot I knew myself to be quite sane, but I 
 had a suspicion that I looked very much the other 
 way with the towel round my head and the short 
 tartan plaid breeches.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 THE END.
 
 CHAPTEK XIII. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 WITH this John Gilpin's ride the present part 
 of my adventures, which are contained in the 
 manuscript I wrote to my father, comes to an end. 
 So does practically what I care to publish. I have 
 seen many tips and downs since then, but from 
 this point in my narrative I could no longer lay 
 claim to be a " missing friend." I am not a novel 
 writer, and I could not continue the history of 
 my life and still preserve my incognito unless I 
 wrote fiction. As my object in publishing these 
 papers is to give a faithful picture of Australian 
 life, I should feel very doubtful of attaining the 
 desired end. To the reader who has kindly 
 followed me so far, I would say that he may 
 believe that Australia is full of young men who, 
 like myself at that tim3, travel about from place to 
 place, and that similar scenes to those I have 
 described happen every day in all parts of 
 Queensland. If I have been able to rouse the 
 reader's interest an 1 sympathy with myself in these 
 pages, I shall feel proud, and think that after all I 
 did not travel and suffer so many hardships in 
 vain.
 
 W& recant 
 
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