The Big-Nose miners were very quiet today, and I found out why when I went over the bank into the Flat with Boss Chin Yee’s men. We stood near the side entrance to the troopers’ camp site; about twenty miners were at their religious meeting. It is a strange custom. They have religious meetings but they don’t have a temple to pay respects to their ancestors or worship their god.
This afternoon Uncle and I and Boss Chin Yee walked with Mr McCulloch Henley into town. We saw many miners gathered at a store in the Flat. They had another religious man there for a service. And most of them were dressed up in fine clothes. That’s good for paying respect. The religious man had gowns and cloaks and there was much singing and praying from the miners. I have never seen so much money at one time, when they passed round a large mining pan to collect money. I think it was to pay their religious man. It must cost a lot to get him here because every man put some money or some gift into the pan. It made such noise when the people dropped money into the pan! Maybe that is why they use a metal pan—so that all know who is putting the money in!
We don’t have a religious man like they do. Uncle is like their religious man I think, but he doesn’t take money. I couldn’t see Jeremy in the crowd. I have not seen him for many, many days and I have lots of questions to ask him. I should write them down so that I don’t forget.
Ask Jeremy:
Why do they have a religious meeting in the troopers’ camp?
Why are there two religious men?
What is the money for?
Why do the religious men wear funny clothes?
Why did the man spend so long talking while the people were falling asleep?
Monday, March 18
The miners prepared for a party tonight. Boss Chun Kang noticed this when he went into town late in the afternoon and saw preparations for a ball. People were arriving in very fine clothes. Of course the Chinese were not invited to the ball, but that is okay—I don’t think that any of us have their fancy clothes. The women have dresses that are like floating tents with patterns and lots of frills. It must be strange having women around camps. I do miss my Mama, and I even miss my sisters.
I was just thinking about Mr McCulloch Henley walking into town with us yesterday. He did not mind walking with the Chinese. And none of the Big-Noses that I could see seemed to notice that he was with us. He was even wearing some Chinese clothes, and some of us were wearing the clothes that Big-Noses wear. Maybe it was because we did not see many of them. Maybe I was not looking.
Wednesday, March 20
The weather is very hot. Today, one of the men collapsed as he was walking along the track. I think that we need rain to cool us down and make goldmining better. The Bosses tell the miners to pile up their wash-dirt, but the piles are getting very big.
I expect that Mr McCulloch Henley has settled in at the Creek by now. He has not been here for a few days, but Uncle says that he will be back soon. I want to ask him about his time in China and why he was there and what he did.
Thursday, March 21
I wondered why Uncle was spending more and more time writing letters—now I know. There is now an official post office in the town. Now he has more letters to write than he can do on his own. Mr McCulloch Henley came to the Gully this morning, and straightaway he was writing letters to the government too. These require special words. I am spending more time with Uncle, writing the letters for the Chinese miners as well as some letters for the European miners. Uncle says that this will help to better my English. The Chinese letters are easy to write, but not so the English ones.
A few of the Big-Noses get annoyed at me for taking so long to write, but I am improving. If they complain too much I think to myself, ‘At least I am smart enough to write your words and my own Chinese too,’ and then I offer them to find someone else to write the letters if they can’t be patient. They stop complaining and wait. Uncle told me later that I must not show disrespect even to the Big-Noses by saying these things. Most of the European miners who visit us are just as Uncle says—good people—and they are patient with me. I think that it is funny that a Chinese boy is writing a letter for a Big-Nose miner in the English language.
More importantly than learning to write English words, I am permitted to keep the gold or the coins that I am paid for the writing! Uncle says that I am not to waste it. He reminds me that Baba is not yet home. Writing letters, he says, is just like selling vegetables or meat. It is a job (and it is a clean job, much cleaner than mining).
Chok Chum came today and wanted a letter written to his father. (He doesn’t think that a boy should be on the goldfields with the men, and he gets very impatient with me. Maybe he is embarrassed that a boy is writing his letters.) This is what I wrote:
My esteemed and honourable progenitor (ever-honoured progenitor),
It pleases me to send to you greetings from this land, Xin Jin Shan. I wish to let you know that I have applied myself diligently to my work of the diggings. I have amassed a small gathering of the gold. I should be able to return to our beautiful China [I told him that—he was going to write ‘land’] within a few moons, and then we can rest. The ground here is filled with the gold, nearly so easy that I am able to sweep it together [I did not tell him that]. I should like to tell you too that I have been kept in the best of health and am being a good citizen.
Your honourable son,
As I wrote the letter, I knew why he wanted me to write it and not Uncle. This letter I wrote for him is a lie, created to make his father think that he is doing well and will soon be home with much gold. Mr Fung and Uncle have more gold than many of the miners (except for the Bosses). All the time I was writing this letter I was remembering what Chok Chum has really been doing. Last night he lost more of his gold dust in a game of fan-tan. He cannot afford to lose this gold. Some days he does not mine at all, especially after losing fan-tan. Then he smokes too much and he drinks too much and he behaves badly towards all others. I think that he will not do too well.
Friday, March 22
Now, I do agree with Uncle—we need to keep the peace here. If we follow the rules set down by the Commissioner then we will remain undisturbed by the European miners. But some Chinese don’t want to do that; they want to mine wherever they like.
‘We have Miner’s Right!’ exclaimed Chok Chum today, when he and a few others crossed the furrow and began mining near some Big-Noses a short distance away. The Big-Noses rushed off and they returned with the military. When he saw the military men, Chok Chum shouted, ‘We have Miner’s Right! We have protection by the law and we allowed to enter and remain and mine on any part of the field. You have to protect us and let us mine wherever we want.’ But the military men did not listen and they forced them back to our mining area. Some Chinamen are so stubborn. ‘Pigheaded,’ Uncle calls them.
But sometimes I think they are right. Why do we have to buy a Miner’s Right to mine the goldfields if we don’t have access to all the goldfields?
Saturday, March 23
It is early evening, and only a little light remains for me to write. I can hear the Big-Nose miners in a camp nearby drinking. I hope they drink lots of their drink. That way they won’t come and disturb us. I still don’t trust the Big-Noses, especially when they drink too much. Just to make sure they don’t disturb us, the Bosses have set men on guard duty; they are watching the road into our Gully. They will stop any strangers coming in. Some men are saying that if any of the Big-Noses want to fight us then they will be ready to fight back.
This morning I watered the vegetables in Mr Fung’s garden. The water in the barrel was low, so Mr Fung says that we must fill it again as soon as possible. Uncle said that I must collect all the toilet water from the tents, that this will be my job too. Uncle says that boys should always be busy and that way they will keep out of trouble. I don’t like collecting water from the tents. I especially do not like it when I spill it onto my pants.
This afternoon I helped write a letter for Wong Kow. He wanted to
tell his sponsor that he was still alive and working hard and that he will soon be able to pay back all of his debt. This is what he told me to write:
I am earning much gold here in Xin Jin Shan. You don’t even dig for some of it. It is lying here on the ground waiting to be picked up just like fallen grain. Pleased to say that I shall be able to repay all my debt and more to you in very short time.
Wong Kow lost all his gold last week in a fan-tan game.
Sunday, March 24
Late this afternoon, some Big-Nose miners came across the furrow and ransacked a few tents at the edge of our camp. We have only been back in the Gully for six or seven weeks. Thanks to the gods, the attacking men were disturbed and could not do too much damage. But I feel stupid when I look back at the words I wrote two days ago, that we need to keep the peace. The Big-Noses are the ones who need to keep the peace. They broke beds and tossed over tables, and they smashed Chow Ching’s ancestors’ altar. It was only good fortune that it was late in the afternoon and we were returning from our diggings. Why do they do this? We are not so different to them. We have Miners’ Rights; they have Miners’ Rights. We are mining for the gold; they are mining for the gold. It would be better to work together, not fight.
As soon as Chow Ching saw the Big-Noses and his fallen tents, he started screaming and ran towards the destroyers. I think his screaming might have scared them because they looked at the running Chinaman, and at the other Chinamen who were with him, holding shovels and picks, and their faces went white, like they had seen a ghost. They started running away from Chow Ching and his friends, back across to their camp, but they were very slow. Chow Ching was catching up with them, so the Big-Noses turned around and threw the things that they were stealing. But Chow Ching, he was like a raging dragon, and he kept chasing the men. He was near the furrow when one miner fired a gun. The shot missed Chow Ching, but he did stop running. He started yelling at the miners in Chinese, with words that Uncle says I shouldn’t use.
From the safety of their side of the furrow, the thieves kept yelling out to us, saying ‘Go home’ or ‘Go back to China’, along with other things I didn’t understand. They called us ‘celestials’ and ‘moon-faced barbarians’, which Uncle says is because they just do not understand the Chinese people.
The troopers came later to find out what happened, but they always come after the trouble. They should be here before it happens. They should be protecting us. We have rights too.
Monday, March 25
Uncle was very anxious today. It might have been the Big-Noses who attacked our camp yesterday causing him to be this way. They also attacked Wing Hop as he was returning from his mine. He was beaten, but they weren’t able to steal his gold, because other Chinese miners arrived to help him. Since the Big-Noses have been attacking our camps, most Chinese carry their gold with them in pouches next to their skin.
Uncle says that now we Chinese have to stay together, and that I must never walk across the furrow alone. Even around the camp it is important for me to be wary. Sometimes I think I am a responsibility that he does not want.
I told him that I could go and live with the Wing Hop or Chow Ching. They like how I help them at their mining, when he lets me go. But he turned around and glared at me.
‘The Society has made you my responsibility and you will learn from me all that I can teach you,’ he yelled.
Baba never yelled at me.
Tuesday, March 26
I asked Uncle about his family and his ancestors and the village where he came from. I know he has ancestors, because he could not be here without them. He ignored me so I asked him again. Maybe he didn’t hear me clearly. That time he just stared at me. I did not ask again.
I asked Mr Fung when I went to water his garden. He told me that some Chinese don’t come here to mine but to escape. I wanted to find out more, but he said no—there would be no more discussion.
Uncle is too clever to have done anything wrong. He knows the Almanac. He can write for people. He can talk to the European miners. But Uncle has no ancestors to attend to. I have ancestors. All Chinese have ancestors. Where, I wonder, are Uncle’s ancestors?
Wednesday, March 27
Finally I have found Jeremy! I did what Uncle told me not to do, and left the camp alone. I was thinking much about Baba and my beautiful China and leaving this place, when I found myself at the edge of the furrow, then near the crest of the mound, then over the pathway—and then there were the bushes. I had not planned to come here, but this is where I ended up—at the tree. I wanted to be alone. But the gods, they must have had other plans.
I had not expected to see Jeremy again, but I was very pleased. Jeremy had come to see if I had been leaving stones for him. He had one in his hand to leave for me when I appeared. He was very pleased that I came too. His father took the family to another goldfield for a while, but they found hardly any gold there, so they have come back here. Jeremy says that if his father does not find any gold in the next few weeks then that will be the end of goldmining for the family. Then they will be worse than broke (although I can’t see what could be worse than not having any money … unless his father owes lots of money).
We quickly played a game of jacks. Again I was not very good, but I did sweep up two jacks. I am getting better. Jeremy also showed me his marbles. These are treasures that glisten and shine and are precious. He even let me hold the biggest one, a blue ‘conker’. I couldn’t see how they were so precious—they are just balls of glass—but the blue conker was his best.
‘Next time, I will teach you how to play marbles,’ he said as he left.
I forgot to ask Jeremy questions.
Thursday, March 28
The military men came to the Gully today and demanded to see everyone’s licence to mine in the fields. Some of the men had protested about having to buy a licence when we are only permitted to mine in the Gully and nowhere else, but they showed their licences anyway.
Friday, March 29
I think Uncle might know about my meetings with Jeremy. He didn’t ask me directly and I have not told him, but today, like yesterday, he has watched me like a mongoose. Whenever I am moving away, he asks me where I am going. When I return, he asks me why I was so long. I am never out of his sight for more than a short time.
Saturday, March 30
Talked today with Mr McCulloch Henley—not much, because Uncle and he had work to do, but I asked a few questions:
‘Why do you like Chinese food?’
‘Because I do. That’s all I ate when I was in China. I love ginger—ginger in everything suits me fine.’
‘What did you do there?’
‘Some things just like now: I was speaking for the Chinese people with the white people who were there. Most white people don’t speak Chinese and most Chinese people don’t speak English. You are doing very well to speak both.’
‘Don’t you think Chinese people are strange, just like most of the Big-Noses around here think we are strange?’
‘Strange? What do you mean strange? Chinese have arms and legs and have families and wear clothes, don’t they? And they eat food like the Big-Noses, don’t they? And they go to the toilet too, don’t they? Remember, Shu Cheong, not all the people you call Big-Noses think Chinese are strange. If they were, they wouldn’t be coming to your Uncle for help or eating Mr Fung’s vegetables. And remember, too, that not all Big-Noses are hating people.’
More gardening.
More writing letters for miners, both Chinese and European. I wonder if Jeremy’s father can write. I think that Jeremy can’t write very well, because he was really amazed when I told him that I can write his words and mine. Maybe I should teach him to write.
More preparing meals.
Went to the temple with Uncle. I burnt incense for our gods and prayed for the ancestors. Uncle said, ‘This is good. This is the right thing to do. Always show respect for your ancestors,’ and then he added slowly, ‘and respect too for your elders.’
/> No mining visits.
No time to get away to our tree.
Sunday, March 31
The Big-Noses look down on us because we don’t worship their god. But they don’t understand.
Because it is their religious day, many of the Big-Noses don’t mine on Sundays. And if they do, they try to conceal their mining, and only sift through the dirt. But most Big-Noses dress up in their fine clothes and go to the church tent to pray and sing songs. Uncle says that their praying is good and it should make them more peaceful—if they follow what they pray. It is like what we do for our ancestors. On the Sundays when the religious man isn’t here, the Big-Noses walk around their camp. Sometimes they come and call out strange names at the Chinese miners.
‘Some Chinese have become Christian, just like the miners are Christian,’ said Uncle. ‘I can accept that, because they want to get on with the miners. They might even want to stay and live here in Xin Jin Shan, so to adopt some of their customs is good. But they are Chinese, and they must not forget their ancestors. They must always remember where they come from. Always remember where you come from. Always remember your ancestors, Shu Cheong.’
If we have to learn to accept their strange ways, then I think those Big-Nose miners should try to learn about our ways. They should stop calling us names and they should leave us alone to mine for the gold. And they are not so clever. None of those miners can speak Chinese, only Mr McCulloch Henley, and he is not a miner. They have to send one of their own to talk to Uncle, and Uncle even writes for them. They are not very clever at all.
New Gold Mountain Page 9