The Gold Hunters' Adventures; Or, Life in Australia
E-text prepared by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Josephine Paolucci, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.
NEW YORK: CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM.
Since my return from Australia, I have been solicited by a number of friends to give them a history of my adventures in that land of gold, where kangaroos are supposed to be as plenty as natives, and jump ten times as far, and where natives are imagined to be continually lying in ambush for the purpose of making a hearty meal upon the bodies of those unfortunate travellers who venture far into the interior of the country—where bushrangers are continually hanging about camp fires, ready to cut the weasands of those who close their eyes for a moment—and lastly, where every other man that you meet is expected to be a convict, transported from the mother country for such petty crimes as forgery, house-breaking, and manslaughter in the second degree.
My friends have all desired to hear me relate these particulars, and have honored me with a large attendance at my rooms, and sat late at night, and drank my wine and water, and smoked my cigars, with a relish that did me great credit, as it showed that I am something of a connoisseur in the choice of such luxuries. And then they laughed so loudly at my jokes, no matter how poor they were, that, for a few days after my arrival home, I really thought the air of Australia had improved and sharpened my wit.
I should, no doubt, have continued feasting those who listened so patiently to my yarns, had not a sudden idea entered my head, one night, when the company were the most boisterous. I was in the act of raising a glass of wine to my mouth, when it occurred to me that before I left this country for Australia, via California, scarcely one of those present had assembled on the dock to bid me farewell.
I placed the untasted wine upon the table again, lighted a cigar, and was soon buried in smoke and reflection. I thought of the time when I had not money enough to pay my passage to the Golden State—of the exertions I had made to raise the amount necessary, and the many refusals that I had met with at the hands of those who now professed to be my friends.
William Henry Thomes
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WILLIAM H. THOMES
CONTENTS.
FIRST THOUGHTS OF GOING TO AUSTRALIA.—DEPARTURE FROM CALIFORNIA.—LIFE ON BOARD SHIP.—ARRIVAL AT WILLIAMS TOWN.—DESCRIPTION OF MELBOURNE.—A CONVICT'S HUT.
A MORNING IN AUSTRALIA.—JOURNEY TO THE MINES OF BALLARAT.—THE CONVICT'S STORY.—BLACK DARNLEY, THE BUSHRANGER.
TRAVELLING IN AUSTRALIA.—AN ADVENTURE WITH SNAKES.—CARRYING THE MAILS.
EATING BROILED KANGAROO MEAT.—AUSTRALIAN SPEARS AND AMERICAN RIFLES.
THE SOLITARY STOCKMAN.—SHOOTING A KANGAROO.
ADVENTURE WITH A DOG.—THE MURDER IN THE RAVINE.—STORY OF AN OUTRAGED WOMAN.
BLACK DARNLEY'S VILLANY.—THE CONVICT STOCKMAN.
AN EXPEDITION.—A FIGHT WITH BUSHRANGERS.—DEATH OF BLACK DARNLEY.
THE STOCKMAN'S DAUGHTER.—MOUNTED POLICE OF MELBOURNE.
DESPERATE DEEDS OF TWO CONVICTS.—LIEUT. MURDEN'S STORY.
SAGACITY OF A DOG.—A NIGHT'S ADVENTURES.
DISCOVERY OF A MASONIC RING.—FUNERAL PYRE OF BLACK DARNLEY.
THE STOCKMAN AND HIS PARROT.—DARING PLOT OF A ROBBER CHIEFTAIN.
DISCOVERY OF STOLEN TREASURES IN THE STOCKMAN'S CELLAR.
DYING CONFESSION OF JIM GULPIN, THE ROBBER.
A FORCED MARCH TOWARDS MELBOURNE.
TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO MELBOURNE.
LARGE FIRE IN MELBOURNE.—ENGLISH MACHINES AT FAULT.
PARDON OF SMITH AND THE OLD STOCKMAN.—GRAND DINNER AT THE GOVERNOR'S.
DUEL BETWEEN FRED AND AN ENGLISH LIEUTENANT.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE SEARCH FOR GULPIN'S BURIED TREASURES.
DEPARTURE FROM MELBOURNE.—FIGHT WITH THE NATIVES.
ARRIVAL AT THE OLD STOCKMAN'S HUT.—MYSTERIOUS INTERRUPTIONS DURING THE HUNT.
ROBBERY OF THE CART.—CAPTURE OF STEEL SPRING.
STEEL SPRING'S HISTORY
FINDING OF THE TREASURE.
CAPTURE OF ALL HANDS, BY THE BUSHRANGERS.
OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL OF LIEUTENANT MURDEN AND HIS FORCE, ROUT OF THE BUSHRANGERS.
REVENGE OF THE BUSHRANGERS.—FIRING OF THE FOREST.
PERILOUS SITUATION DURING THE FIRE.—STEEL SPRING TURNS UP.
CAPTURE OF THE BUSHRANGERS, AND DEATH OF NOSEY.
RETURN TO THE STOCKMAN'S HUT.—SMITH IN LOVE.
RECOVERY OF THE GOLD.—ARRIVAL AT BALLARAT.
THE BULLY OF BALLARAT.—FRED FIGHTS A DUEL.
BALLARAT CUSTOMS, AFTER A DUEL.
ARRIVAL AT BALLARAT.—MR. BROWN'S STORY.
FINDING OF A 110 LB. NUGGET.—CAVING IN OF A MINE.
INCIDENTS IN LIFE AT BALLARAT.
ATTEMPT OF THE HOUSEBREAKER.—ATTACK BY THE SNAKE.
DEATH OF THE BURGLAR BY THE SNAKE.
VISIT TO SNAKES' PARADISE.
FLIGHT FROM THE SNAKES.—ATTACKED BY THE BUSHRANGERS.
TRIUMPHANT ENTRY INTO BALLARAT, WITH THE BUSHRANGERS.
THRASHING A BULLY.
A YOUNG GIRL'S ADVENTURES IN SEARCH OF HER LOVER.
A MARRIAGE, AND AN ELOPEMENT.
COLLECTING TAXES OF THE MINERS.
Murden and Steel Spring arrive from Melbourne.
CATCHING A TARL AS WELL AS A CASSIOWARY.
ARRIVAL OF SMITH.—ATTEMPT TO BURN THE STORE.
ATTEMPT TO BURN THE STORE.
THE ATTEMPT TO MURDER MR. CRITCHET.
OPPORTUNE ARRIVAL OF MR. BROWN.—THEY SEND FOR STEEL SPRING.
THE WAY THE COLONISTS OBTAIN WIVES IN AUSTRALIA.
ADVENTURES AT DAN BRIAN'S DRINKING-HOUSE.
ADVENTURES CONTINUED.
MORE OF THE SAME SORT.
CONVALESCENCE OF MR. CRITCHET, AND OUR DISCHARGE FROM THE CRIMINAL DOCKET.
OUR TEAMSTER BARNEY, AND HIS WIFE.
MIKE FINDS THE LARGE "NUGGET."
THE RESULT OF GROWING RICH TOO RAPIDLY.
THE FLOUR SPECULATION.—MR. CRITCHET'S STORY.
THE SAME, CONTINUED.
MR. BROWN'S DISCHARGE FROM THE POLICE FORCE.—BILL SWINTON'S CONFESSION.
THE EXPEDITION AFTER BILL SWINTON'S BURIED TREASURES.
JOURNEY AFTER THE BURIED TREASURE.
THE HUNT FOR THE BURIED TREASURE.
THE ISLAND GHOST.—NARROW ESCAPE OF MR. BROWN.
CAPTURE OF THE GHOST.
THE GHOST AND THE BUSHRANGERS.
SAM TYRELL AND THE GHOST.
FINDING THE BURIED TREASURE.
THE ESCAPE FROM THE FIRE.
ARRIVAL AT MR. WRIGHT'S STATION.
SUPPER.—RETURN OF MR. WRIGHT'S SCOUTS.
MIKE TUMBLES INTO THE RIVER.—ARRIVAL OF THE BUSHRANGERS.
CAPTURE OF THE BUSHRANGERS.
PUNISHING THE BULLY.
MR. WRIGHT'S FARM.—DEATH OF KELLY.
JOURNEY BACK TO BALLARAT.
STEEL SPRING IN THE FIELD.—ATTEMPT OF THE COMMISSIONER TO CONFISCATE OUR HORSES.
SAME CONTINUED.—DEATH OF ROSS.
ARREST OF FRED.—TRIP TO MELBOURNE, AND ITS RESULTS.