by Mayne Reid
depth of onehundred and twenty feet from the surface of the earth. One of mymates--as the readiest place to get clear of it--had thrown hisoil-cloth coat over the windlass. The coat, thus carelessly placed,slipped off; and came down the shaft--in its descent causing a rustling,roaring noise, that, to me below, sounded somewhat like thunder!
I looked up. All was dark above; and the idea occurred to me, that theshaft had given way at the "drift"--a place about sixty feet above myhead, where we had gone through a strata of wet sand. The noisy coat atlength reached the bottom, and I found myself unhurt; but, so frightenedhad I been, that I was unable to go on with my work--until after I hadgone up to the surface, swallowed a glass of brandy, and taken a fewdraws of the pipe!
The business of mining, in the Victoria diggings, is attended withconsiderable danger; and those who conduct it should be men of temperatehabits--as well as possessed of some judgment. Every one on the goldfields, being his own master--and guided only by his own will--of coursethere are many who work in a reckless manner, and often under theinfluence of drink. As a consequence, accidents are, or were at thattime, of daily occurrence.
When an accident resulted from intoxication, it was generally not thedrunken man himself--but his mate--who was the sufferer--the latterhaving a bucket, or some heavy implement, dropped upon his head, from aheight of a hundred feet.
Gold miners, as a class, are exceedingly indifferent to danger; andcareless about the means of avoiding it. They will often continue towork in a shaft, that they know must soon "cave" in; but they do sounder the hope, that the accident will occur during the night, or whilethey are at dinner. So long as there is a possibility of theirescaping, hope tells them they are "all right"--too often a deceitfultale.
While engaged in gold-digging, I had frequent opportunities of testing adoctrine often put forward by tobacco-smokers: that the "weed" is apowerful antidote to fear. Several times have I been under ground,where I believed myself in danger; and have been haunted by fear thatkept me in continued agony, until my pipe was lit--when my apprehensionsseemed at once to vanish literally in a cloud of smoke!
There is something in the use of tobacco, that is unexplained, oruntaught, in any work of philosophy, natural or unnatural, that I haveyet read. The practice of smoking is generally condemned, by those whodo not smoke. But certainly, there are times, when a man is the betterfor burning a little tobacco, although the immoderate use of it, likeall other earthly blessings, may be converted into a curse.
My readers may think, that a disquisition on tobacco can have but littleto do with the Adventures of a Rolling Stone. But why should theyobject to knowing my opinions on things in general, since the adventuresthemselves have been often either caused or controlled by these veryopinions? I have entered into a minute detail of my experience inmining affairs, under the belief, that no sensible reader will think ituninteresting; and, still continuing in this belief, I purpose going a_little_ farther into the subject.
While engaged in gold-digging, I have often been led to notice theinfluence of the mind over the physical system.
In washing dirt that contains but little gold, the body soon becomesweary--so much so, that the work is indeed toil. On the other hand,when the "dirt" is "rich," the digger can exert himself energeticallyfrom sunrise to sunset, without feeling fatigue at the termination ofsuch a long spell of labour.
In the business of mining--as in most other occupations--there arecertain schemes and tricks, by which men may deceive each other, andsometimes themselves. Gold is often very ingeniously inserted intofragments of quartz rock--in order to facilitate the sale of shares in a"reef."
I made the acquaintance of several diggers who had been deceived in thisway; and whose eyes became opened to the trick, only after thetricksters had got out of their reach. On the other hand, I once saw adigger refuse to purchase a share in a reef, from which "splendidspecimens" had been procured--fearing that some trickery was about to bepractised upon him. One month afterwards, I saw him give, for the sameshare, just twenty times the amount that he had been first asked for it!
I remember a party of "Tasmanians," who had turned up a large extent ofground, in a claim on Bendigo. The richest of the earth they washed asit was got out; and of the rest they had made a large heap, of what iscalled "wash dirt, Number 2."
This, they knew, would not much more than pay for the washing; and, as anew "rush" had just been heard of, at a place some miles off, theyresolved to sell their "wash dirt, Number 2."
Living near by the diggings was a sort of doctor, who used to speculate,in various ways, in the business of gold-mining. To this individual theTasmanian diggers betook themselves; and told him, that they hadreceived private intelligence, from the new rush; and that they muststart for it immediately, or lose the chance of making their fortunes.For that reason, they wished to sell their "wash dirt," which they knewto be worth at least two ounces to the "load;" but, as they must be offto the "new rush," they were not going to haggle about price; and wouldtake twelve ounces for the pile--they thought, in all, about thirtyloads.
The doctor promised to go down the next morning, and have a look at it.In the evening the "Tasmanians" repaired to an acquaintance, who wasunknown to the doctor; and requested him to be sauntering about theirdirt-heap in the morning, and to have with him a washing-dish. Theyfurther instructed him--in the event of his being asked to wash a dishof the dirt--that he was to take a handful from that part of the heap,where he might observe a few specks of white quartz.
Next morning the doctor came, as he had promised; but declined tonegotiate, without first having some of the dirt washed, andascertaining the "prospect."
"We have no objection to that," said one of the proprietors of thedirt-heap, speaking in a confident tone.
"Oh! not the slightest, doctor," added a second of the party.
"Yonder's a man with a washing-dish," remarked a third. "Suppose youget him to prove some of it?"
The man, apparently unconnected with any of the party, was at oncecalled up; and was told, that the dirt was to be sold; and that theintending purchaser wished to see a "prospect" washed, by some personnot interested in the sale. He was then asked, if he had any objectionsto wash a dish or two from the heap.
Of course he had not--not the slightest--anything to oblige them.
"Take a little from everywhere," said one of the owners, "and that willshow what the average will yield."
The confederate did as requested; and obtained a "prospect" thatproclaimed the dirt probably to contain about four ounces to the load.
The doctor was in a great hurry to give the diggers their price--and inless than ten minutes became the owner of the heap.
The dirt had been, what the diggers call, "salted," and, as wasafterwards proved, the speculating doctor did not get from it enoughgold to pay the expenses of washing!
At Ballarat my partners and I were successful in our attempts at goldhunting; and yet we were not satisfied with the place. Very few diggersare ever contented with the spot upon which they happen to be. Rumoursof richer fields elsewhere are always floating about on the air; andthese are too easily credited.
In the latter part of the year 1853, a report reached the diggings ofVictoria: that very rich "placers" had been discovered in Peru.
There is now good reason for believing, that these stories wereoriginated in Melbourne; that they were set afoot, and propagated byship agents and skippers, who wished to send their ships to Callao, andwanted passengers to take in them--or, rather, wanted the money whichthese passengers would have to pay.
Private letters were shown--purporting to have come from Peru--that gaveglowing descriptions of the abundance of gold glittering among the"barrancas" of the Andes.
The Colonial papers did what they could to restrain the risingexcitement; and, although they were partly successful, theircounter-statements did not prevent many hundreds from becoming victims,to the trickery of the dishonest persons, at that time engaged in theshipping b
usiness of Melbourne.
A majority of those, who were deluded into going to Peru, wereAmericans, Canadians, and Frenchmen--probably for the reason that theywere more dissatisfied with Australia, than the colonists themselves.
Amongst the victims of the "Callao fever" I have to record myself--alongwith two of my partners--Edmund Lea and another. All three of us beingtoo simple-minded to suspect the trick, or too ready to yield totemptation, we set off for Melbourne; and thence set sail across thefar-stretching Pacific.
Volume Two, Chapter XXIII.
THE CALLAO GOLD FEVER.
There could not well have been a more uninteresting voyage, than the onewe made to Callao. There was about one hundred and fifty passengers onboard--most of them young and wild adventurers.
The master of the vessel had the good sense