New Gold Mountain

by Christopher Cheng

  Uncle has much to occupy his time: writing letters and petitions, and talking to Bosses. The Bosses are often counting their gold to make sure that none has gone missing. Sometimes men are sent back to our Gully to see if it is possible for us to return. I have not been permitted to hear their reports (and we are still here), so it could not be safe for us to return.

  I have to spend time writing. Uncle is making me practise my English writing as well as my Chinese characters. ‘Learning is a treasure which follows its owner everywhere,’ he always says.

  I am not allowed to go anywhere alone. I have to stay here all the time. I can only go where the Chinese men are. Everyone is hoping that things will change and the gods will look favourably on us and grant us a return to the Flat. I think that the gods are playing games with Chinese miners.

  Sunday, February 24

  I counted to three thousand, nine hundred and sixty-two before Ah Goh interrupted me. I was trying to see how far I could count. There is nothing else to do here.

  Monday, February 25—the Lantern Festival

  Being the only Chinese boy in a camp filled with Chinese men is sometimes a very good thing, because often I get to do men things. But there are still times when I wish there was another Chinese boy here. We could play Chinese games the way white boys play their games. We could pretend that we were in China and play those games. But I am here alone.

  I wonder if our tents are still standing. Probably not. Every time they come, they destroy our homes. I said to Uncle that we Chinese should all band together and attack the European miners. We are faster than they are and we work better together as a group than they do—our mining shows that. (I think that it is funny how the Big-Nose miners can leave a mine they say has been ‘worked out’, and then a Chinese miner comes in and finds more gold!) But Uncle just stared at me with icy eyes. Why won’t these people leave us alone to do our own mining? We can’t even work the area where the Gold Commissioner tells us.

  But tonight it was very good being the only boy in the camp—even though we are not at our proper camp in the Gully. Tonight I carried the lead lantern in the Lantern Festival. Some of the very young men were also carrying lanterns, but I was in front and I led the parade. Uncle says to remember that the Lantern Festival is very important. ‘No matter where we are in the world, we Chinese are carrying lanterns tonight, on the first full moon of the Lunar New Year. In your village in China they are releasing sky-lanterns to celebrate the Lantern Festival, and in my village they do the same. So, no matter where we are, on the first full moon of the Lunar New Year we Chinese must celebrate with Lantern Festival. You must remember this, Shu Cheong. You must remember your traditions and where you come from.’

  Some of the men, their lanterns caught fire. I think that they were not concentrating. Lanterns should also rise to the heavens (it brings good luck, Uncle says), but here, we can’t make floating lanterns to rise to heaven. We can only carry lanterns on a long stick. I wonder if this means our luck won’t be so good this year. I hope the gods know that if we were in our own camp in our Gully that we would have made floating lanterns. I hope they will still look favourably on us.

  Tuesday, February 26

  I wonder if Jeremy has been to the tree to see if I have returned. I wonder if his Baba was involved in throwing us off our goldfield. I wonder if Jeremy thinks the same as the other Big-Noses about the Chinese. I don’t think he does, but I must ask him again (if I ever see him again).

  I am writing letters now for some of the men. I do not write the important petitions that Uncle is writing, as they need special words, but there are many letters still to write. They do tell lies though. No-one is telling his family how we are being humiliated and abused here in the Lambing Flat. No-one is telling them how we are surviving. This is occupying my time.

  Wednesday, February 27

  We are still here on the station. Some men are playing fan-tan. They are betting with their gold. They have escaped with their hard-earned gold, and now they are wasting it in gambling. This is not good. Some men are staring at the sky—maybe they are talking to the gods.

  It is too hot to be out here.

  It is too hot to think.

  Thursday, February 28

  I went looking for Ah Goh. I wanted to talk to him, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. He might have gone to another field, but he would surely have told the Bosses or Uncle. I hope that he escaped the attacking and hating Big-Noses.

  Friday, March 1

  It is not safe to return to our Gully yet. Uncle says that we are to stay here for more days. He won’t say how many. I think he does not know. Since we are not in our camp, there are not the usual things for me to do, but still Uncle tries to keep me busy. I have been attending to his requests, and some men still want me to write letters. There is not much paper left. Uncle has little to spare and most of the men do not have any, so few letters are written now.

  But there is not a lot to do, so now, in the early afternoon, I sit and write in my book.

  I wonder, Baba, did you realise how much this is a hating land? The Big-Noses hate the people from another land just because we look different to them and we don’t do the same things that they do. And as I write, sitting beneath this tree, I look at the land around me, and even the animals are fighting. There are birds flying around between the tree where I am resting and the ground nearby. But they are not gathering food or nesting material. They are fighting, pecking and stabbing and attacking with beaks. The land around is very dry and dusty. It is hot. The short, low trees, even they are suffering from the hatred—their leaves do not glisten and their trunks are scarred, peeling away. I long for the deep green of my majestic trees at home, which reach for the heavens and have trunks we can barely see for the thickened branches. Baba, did you really mean for us to come to this place and search for the gold and return to my beautiful China with pockets and sacks of gold riches after enduring this harsh treatment? Did you expect this to be so? Baba, I wish that I could talk to you and know what you were thinking.

  Wednesday, March 6

  There is a lot of bustle in the town, Su San Ling reports. He has been going to our Gully each day to see if it is safe to return. He has found a good place to hide at the edge of the town so he can view what is happening there.

  The news from Su San Ling: An important man has arrived here, the most important man in the colony. It was obvious from the way all the people in the Flat fussed about him, clearing his way and buzzing like bees around a hive. He is surely to be the man Uncle calls the Premier of this colony. He has been visiting the diggings around the Flat these past few days, talking to the miners and storekeepers and anyone else who would listen. There have been big meetings and some very fancy dinners and parties too.

  We Chinese would like to talk to the Premier too and tell him what his Big-Noses are doing to other people who he has a responsibility for.

  I begged Su San to take me with his next trip into the Flat to see for myself what was happening, but Uncle heard me. Su San did not even bother to reply. He gestured to Uncle and I knew that it would not be so.

  I do not understand why no Chinese can talk to the Premier. We are all people living in this land together. Why do we not have as much right as the Big-Noses to talk to him? Boss Chin Yee does not think that we would even get near to the town before the Big-Noses would set upon us. He, like Uncle, thinks that it is better to wait. But all we are doing is waiting.

  Sunday, March 10

  Uncle says that now the Premier has visited the Flat, maybe things might change. Yet no Chinese have talked to this Premier. He has not come out to the area where we are to see how we are living, and he has not asked any of us why we are here. I would tell him—because the Big-Noses hate us. The Big-Noses are jealous of the tenacity and ferocity of the Chinese. The Big-Noses are not as hard-working and attentive as the Chinese miner. They can talk to him but we Chinese are not permitted a meeting with the Premier.

  Monday, Ma
rch 11

  Finally it has happened—we have protection! It is reason for celebration.

  This morning, Su San Ling and some men were hiding near the edge of town, to see what was happening. They counted nearly two hundred military men arriving with cannons and guns and horses. Some of the military men were marching, some were riding horses and others were riding in drays. And they all carried weapons.

  They will stop the miners from attacking us. Now we can continue with the mining and digging for the gold. When Uncle and the Bosses announced the report from Su San Ling, there was much cheering. He was even given gold for his efforts. ‘Tomorrow, we will return to our Gully and reclaim our mines,’ announced one of the Bosses. ‘We shall endeavour to meet the Premier and tell him our grievances. Others may wait here or they may return with us.’

  Tuesday, March 12

  Today, Uncle and a few Bosses and I led the way back to the Gully. We walked proudly through the bush, and approached our destroyed camp late in the afternoon. This would please Baba, to see me standing beside Uncle, walking proudly with him. We are the first Chinamen back into the Gully. Uncle and the Bosses insist that, before any mining begins and before tents are re-established, we erect the temple and pay respects to the gods for our fortune. Only then can the mining resume. Thankfully, once again, all the attackers did was slip the knots that kept the temple standing, so the men just retied the knots and the temple was up once more. I was going to assist, but I was a bit slow (deliberately). By the time that I was at the flattened tent, it was standing. Boss Chin Yee has instructed some of his men to make the temple more solid, so the men are going to do what the Big-Noses are doing in the town and use bark to construct sides for the tent. This will make it strong. It will take the men a few days to do this, I am sure, but then just wait till the next time the Big-Noses try and slip those ropes! It might fall around them, too, and they’ll get squashed by the tree sheets. Maybe we should make a shingle to hang on the front!

  Uncle was told by the military men that the Premier left very early this morning. He was satisfied, with the military now here, that peace would return to the Lambing Flat. Uncle seems more settled now too. He has sent word back to the Chinese left behind along the roadway to return. Safety is here.

  And it is true, for the military men will stop the miners from attacking us. They look very impressive with the shining boots and the caps and the weapons they carry. When they visited us, the first thing that they did was tell us all that the Chinese are restricted to one mining area, Blackguard Gully. ‘That is the Chinese area,’ they said, and the other miners are not allowed to enter our territory. But we aren’t allowed near their areas either. I remember we were told this before. I still do not see why the Chinese miners should have such a small area to mine. But I hope that with all the military here, this time it might be peaceful.

  It is late now, and I am weary from walking all the way back to our Gully, and from sleeping poorly out in the bush. I could not make the rocky ground into a bed even after smoothing away stones and pebbles and layering it with brush. It is no fun lying on the ground and having leaves stick up your nose in the middle of the night.

  Wednesday, March 13

  More Chinese have returned to our Gully. Immediately tents are up, and some of the men even went to the temple to worship and thank the gods for allowing us to return here to our own fields. They did not have to be told. Uncle says that it is good to pay respects to the gods for their assistance.

  I dare not try to leave the camp alone. Uncle won’t let me go anywhere without a Chinese man with me. Jeremy must know that we are back here now. I wonder, has he been looking for me? I hope so. I have many things to ask him.

  The military have begun ploughing a furrow over which we cannot cross. For some parts that are too rough for furrowing they are driving pegs into the ground to mark the boundary lines. I think that this is not fair. The European miners have many more fields and the best gullies to mine in. I hope that the furrow also means that the European miners can’t cross over either. Uncle says that it is acceptable, because at least we can get on with our mining in peace. But I can’t see how it can be peace when we aren’t equal. At least some of the Big-Nose miners have been welcoming. They have brought us some food and given us mining tools to replace ones that were stolen or destroyed, but we need many more. I wonder, do they feel guilty about what they did? Maybe. Are they trying to buy forgiveness from us Chinese with the gifts for their attacks? Possibly. Uncle says that the miners giving the tools were probably not involved in attacking us and that they were ashamed of what their kind did. But when I saw the Big-Noses arriving with their gifts in the cart, just for a moment I was worried that we were about to be attacked again.

  Soon we will return to the town and purchase the equipment that we require. Maybe peace is here. Some of the white miners told the military men to peg out more of our Gully for us to use, so the military men followed their suggestions. This is a very good sign.

  Thursday, March 14

  Today it seems like we were always here and never thrown off. It looks just the same. Tents are up and miners are back mining. Some of the teams have begun digging again, and already there are piles of dirt to wash. Boss Chin Yee’s team has found new gold, and when one miner finds new gold, all the miners work harder—even the Bosses.

  The restriction to mining only at Blackguard Gully has one big problem: there is very little water here. We can’t build good enough dams and raceways and ponds for sluicing. Boss Chun Kang has started his team building a dam and raceways for the water, but I don’t know how he can do this when there is not much water. I wonder when it will rain again.

  I have spent the day helping Mr Fung organise his vegetables again; he has more plantings and he said that he is going to get more seeds from the traders in town. I was also writing the letters that Uncle has no time to do now, running errands for Chin Yee and now I am writing these few words, so I could not go to the tree to see if Jeremy has been there. I will be very glad to sleep now.

  Friday, March 15

  It was very fortunate that I was able to leave camp today—not on my own, but with Boss Chin Yee, his men and Mr Fung. I was very thankful to the gods. We were looking for some bush foods and also any remnants from our camp that the Big-Noses might have dumped there. We passed by my tree. As I searched for the bush foods, I was also able to see if Jeremy had left any stones, which wasn’t easy to do with Mr Fung less than an arm’s distance away from me. There were no stones. Maybe he has left the Flat. Boss Chin Yee has said that some of the European miners have packed up their tents and moved on, probably to another goldfield to begin the mining again.

  Some Big-Noses visited us again today. Some of them even apologised to Uncle and the Bosses for the way that their kind have been behaving. They assure them that not all Big-Noses are like that and that most of them are peaceful and would like to live in harmony with the Chinese miners. Uncle believes them. He must, for today they were asking him to write letters for them once more, and he did. One man even came and asked Mr Fung when he will be selling his delicious vegetables again. It is as if we were always here, and were never thrown out of our Gully. I think that they expect Mr Fung and Uncle to be here just to serve them. We have been back nearly a week now. All is peaceful.

  Saturday, March 16

  A Mr McCulloch Henley (I think that is his name) visited our camp today. This is not unusual, but Mr McCulloch Henley is not Chinese—he is a Big-Nose—and he wants to put up his own tent and live with us Chinese, not here in the Gully but at Spring Creek. He has come not to mine for gold but (he says) to help us, to do interpreting for us, especially when we have to deal with the law and the other miners. Boss Chin Sum Kim thought that it was very strange for a European to want to help us, and he is very suspicious of his motives. He thinks that Mr McCulloch Henley is a spy for the miners, so that they can find out where our gold is hidden. He says that then they will come and attack us forcing us from o
ur camp and then steal our mines. Uncle, though, he doesn’t think like Boss Chin Sum Kim, and he is very pleased to have another man here at the Flats who can assist him with his tasks. And Mr McCulloch Henley is not like the other Big-Noses—he treats Uncle with the respect that is required of leaders and elders.

  Some of the men were not happy when they heard that a Big-Nose could be staying in the Chinese camp. A group of Boss Chin Yee’s men were quite fuming. Boss Chin Yee soon put them straight and they went off to their tent. I bet they were glad to hear that he will live in Spring Creek. Mr Henley said that he can accept this distrust. Uncle is just pleased to have help.

  Mr Henley has come from Victoria, but he has been in China and he can speak Cantonese! He must be the only European in the whole of New Gold Mountain who can speak our words. He says that he is going to set up a store especially for the Chinese, but I couldn’t see if he had any goods. I think that Uncle would prefer to have his help, because there is enough work for two or three men. I would like to talk to Mr Henley. Maybe he can help me get to Sydney, to work and to leave this place.

  Sunday, March 17

  Mr McCulloch Henley stayed last night with us in the Gully. Today he set off with his goods over to Spring Creek. I begged Uncle to let me go with Boss who was taking him there but he refused. He and Uncle and some Bosses talked long into the night. I do not even know when they retired for the night. All I know is that when morning came, Mr McCulloch Henley was sleeping on his roll near the tent flap, so that I had to step over his silent body. And when I came back, he had packed up his roll and was already bound for the Creek.