IN:THE:LAND:OF PEARL:AND : GOLD ALEXANDER: MACDONALD THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES IN THE LAND OF PEARL AND GOLD THE AUTHOR IN THE LAND OF PEARL AND GOLD A PIONEER'S WANDERINGS IN THE BACKBLOCKS AND PEARL- ING GROUNDS OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW GUINEA BY ALEXANDER MACDONALD F.R.G.S. AUTHOR OF "IN SEARCH OF ELDORADO" "THE LOST EXPLORERS" ETC. BLACKIE & SON LIMITED 50 OLD BAILEY LONDON E.G. GLASGOW DUBLIN BOMBAY 1907 DU IO4 l 4 1 TO MY FATHER 1 236830 PREFACE The experiences related in this book are frag- mentary and do not necessarily follow consecutively. They could not be made to do so without a consider- able amount of uninteresting explanation, as the scenes depicted in "In Search of Eldorado" are spread over the same period and chiefly in the same countries. These sketches, therefore, are only meant to be but little pictures that stand out in relief in my memory. They are complete in themselves, but in most cases supplement those contained in my previous travel volume. A wanderer gathers many impressions. In swiftly changing scenes these possibly may be coloured somewhat, as the abruptness of the change does not allow time for his mind to become disassociated from what he may just previously have experienced. Things therefore often appear to him to be incon- gruous when they are not really so. He is always adaptable, however, and soon falls into line with his new environment. When writing of his adventures afterwards, the knowledge of later events, distance from the spots where they happened, and perhaps present interests, may cause them to appear in a more or less distorted perspective, but sometimes, instead, vii viii Land of Pearl and Gold a glamour is cast over them which exercises upon him an intense fascination, and almost compels him to revisit the scenes of his memory-cherished ex- periences. I think the latter feeling is common to all wanderers, and as a result their writings when they do write may be tinged more or less, and somewhat story-like because they deal more with people than with geo- graphical facts. But a book of travel should be accurate, and I have always endeavoured to give my impression of things as at the time when the adventures actually occurred. Indeed most of the papers were written during my travels, and some of them are of very recent date. As a matter of fact, one or two of the adventures the reader, with some trouble, may guess which have not yet reached the conclusions which perhaps the last lines suggest But hope ever leads. CONTENTS Pge THE HOLDING OF PELICAN CREEK i THE RUSH AT CROCODILE CROSSING - - 21 THE SINKING OF THE "GOLDEN PROMISE" MINE - 37 "!N SEARCH OF ELDORADO" - 53 WHITE, BLACK, AND YELLOW - - 73 How WE HELD MACKAY'S FIND 89 PROSPECTING ON THE GEM-FIELDS - 105 A SUGAR EXPERT - - - 121 IN THE LAND OF THE TUGERI - - 151 WITH THE MEN OF THE YODDA VALLEY - - 165 ON A COLONIAL COASTER - - 193 THE GREAT LAND OF GOLD ... _ 227 "WHERE THE MOPOKE CALLS" - - 253 THE PEARLING-GROUNDS OF AUSTRALIA - - 267 UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE LEOPOLDS - 291 CHRISTMAS ISLAND - .... 305 ix ILLUSTRATIONS The Author Murgoona The "Golden Promise" Mine Some of Our Party Big Mackay Old Ruck going out to look for his Breakfast Aboriginals ready for a Corroboree The Underlie of the Admiral An Opal Mine Loading Sugar-Cane on a Queensland Plantation Pine-apple Plantation, Queensland Aboriginal Boys Bathing above Barren Falls, Queensland Native Village near Port Moresby, British New Guinea Dry-blowing for Gold, Kalgoorlie Peak Hill: the Arrival of a Team The Author just Disappearing in Diving Dress The Pearling Lugger "Dorothy" Frontispiece facing page 22 4 > 64 > 7 6 > 7 6 i> 80 128 X 44 1 60 228 288 The Holding of Pelican Creek AUSTRALIA of late years has been undergoing a course of development which is attracting the attention of the world. From her coastal cities and state capitals rail- ways have been creeping steadily out on to the central desert, and very soon the vast mineral treasures of that inhospitable waste will be laid invitingly open to all. It is strange how little really is known of Australia even by Australians, and to the average Briton the great Austral Land consists merely of Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, a few to him unimportant grazing stations, and the gold-fields of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. Perhaps some may also have an idea that Ballarat of the early gold-rush days is now a large Victorian city, and that Geelong is another town somewhere near Melbourne; that New- castle, Broken Hill, Goulbourn, and Bathurst are townships of some kind in New South Wales; that Toowoomba is a health resort about a hundred miles from Brisbane ; and that gold comes from one or two mining camps in Queensland. A comparatively short time ago this was all that was to be known, for the waterless interior was a land (B823) 1 2 2 Land of Pearl and Gold of mystery untrodden by white man. But the Un- known ever exercised a powerful fascination over the Anglo-Saxon race, and when once the road over the coastal ranges became possible, some hardy pioneers, in search of fresh pasture for their stock, pushed out west, and farther west, and finally built Bourke, an isolated outpost on the Darling River. Far-seeing governments backed up the adventurers with rail- ways, laid almost exactly in their tracks, and other towns sprang up along the line as it advanced. Ex- pedition after expedition set out to explore the interior fastnesses from the various outposts now being formed throughout the country; but it seemed as if the limit of country capable of bearing stock had been reached, for those who returned from most of these expeditions reported the near presence of a burnt-up desert shod with iron-stone boulders, over which it was next to impossible to travel, and which was infested with fierce unreasoning hordes of aborigines. The colon- ists, therefore, settled down to develop that which they already possessed, and incidentally to build up a Southern Empire, leaving the natives, reptiles, and innumerable pests to contend for the waterless tracts beyond. At this point, however, another factor came into play in the development of Australia: a new race of men were springing up; children of the soil were they in the true sense, reared in the " back-blocks", hardy, strong, and seasoned, and well fit to wage war with Nature for whatever that fickle dame had in her treasure-store. The capitals on the coast were now ranking among the first-class cities of the British Empire; but to the The Holding of Pelican Creek 3 " back-blockers " they were only names such as Lon- don and Edinburgh. Similarly to the highly polished and sophisticated gentlemen who spent their business hours in Pitt or George Street, Sydney, or Collin, Bourke, or Queen Street, Melbourne, the "back- blockers" were as a semi-savage tribe of people who had to be kept "out back" at any cost. But the men on the desert fringe neither knew nor cared what the city-bred people thought of them. They pursued their avocation which as yet was that of rearing sheep with a careless indifference, in strong contrast to the spasmodic fits of energetic "do something or burst" which occasionally seized them. At length the Wes- tralian gold rushes startled the world, and reckless wanderers from all parts gravitated thither. Here the genuine back-blockers from the eastern colonies first fraternized with kindred spirits from over the seas and elsewhere, and as a result became fired with more ambition than they had had before. They alone were physically able to penetrate the gold-bearing desert from Southern Cross on to Coolgardie, thence to Kalgoorlie, Kanowna, and farther east. Railways followed, then capitalists and limited companies. The thirst for gold had now seized these sons of Australia the early Victorian rushes were before their time and as the powerful combinations of capital and machinery introduced from England and the other states drove them ever inwards, by making it im- possible for men unaided to carry on gold-mining profitably where mechanical appliances existed, they spread north, south, and east, and soon the Westra- lian desert was marked like a huge gridiron by their tracks. In the east the same thing had already hap- 4 Land of Pearl and Gold pened, although from a different cause. Long periods of drought had ruined most of the settlers; the banks had gone down, and altogether matters were very bad for both bush and city people. The back-blockers were augmented by many of the best of the latter, and strange tales of fabulous fortunes made in fever- infested New Guinea, whither many had gone some time previously, instilled the belief among some that out in the heart of their own deserts lay fortunes for all. The reckless pioneering spirit, which has rolled back the confines of the British Empire to its present boundaries, now dominated these men, and soon the mystery of the Terra Incognita was solved. Pros- pecting parties crossed and re-crossed the country, suffering great hardships, but never despairing in their hopes of one day "striking it". Often they found minerals they did not know, and frequently they discovered valuable gem-stones for which they could find no market. When any find was made of more than usual importance, the capi- talists and the railway arrived soon after. Those fortunate enough to have good claims and some who had not sold out to the capitalist and retired no man knows where ; the others packed up their swags again and moved on in disgust to look for more "shows". Thus we arrive at the present time. The back- blocker has developed into an erratic wanderer with a horror of railways, and a hope of one day stumbling across a nugget or winning a Tattersall's sweep. He sleeps where night finds him, and lives on a piece of half-cooked mutton and a chunk of damper. He is a sworn enemy to all capitalists, but would die before The Holding of Pelican Creek 5 "going back on his mate", as he puts it. Meanwhile the whir of machinery, the roar of the smelting fur- nace, and the thud of the crushing batteries resound where but a few years ago the aborigines held high corroboree. Northern Queensland offers, perhaps, one of the best examples of recent mineral development. This is the land of copper, tin, wolfram, lead, silver, molyb- denite, and a variety of other minerals, including, of course, gold, most of which are unknown to the warm- hearted, impulsive, but erratic individual who finds them. Gold was the mighty magnet which first drew humanity to this part of the world, and many and strange are the tales told round the camp fires by the old prospectors of the famous Palmer River Rush. In these tales the mists of time have cast a glamour over the early days of this field, and invariably the miner describes the life there as having been "glo- rious ", and the three-sided battles which took place daily between the hated but energetic and enterprising Chinese, the bloodthirsty aborigines of the Cape York Peninsula, and themselves as "adventures". The annals of Queensland history, however, show that men died there like sheep in the drought season, fever raged, and pestilence was everywhere. The starving remnant of white men had to wage perpetual war against both the murderous natives and the more cunning yellow men, who did not hesitate to use the knife upon any poor being whom they found alone. But those times are gone. The Chinese still wash the sands of the Palmer, and the aborigines still wander about with spear, womerah, and boomerang, but the white man has, in his own language, " given 6 Land of Pearl and Gold it best". About the same time as the Palmer Rush some men found tin over the ranges from Cairns, and Herberton, the centre of the present tin-mining in- dustry, sprang into existence. From Herberton men spread out westward, and copper in rich fissure lodes was found, and then farther out the famous contact deposits of ore in the limestone country around what is now Chillagoe were discovered. Other minerals were soon found, and for a time the prospectors made money. But the railway followed, and then came the period of limited companies and syndicates, with the importation of practical miners from the southern states and elsewhere. So the pioneers rounded up their horses, packed their few belongings, and, with their deeply-furrowed faces towards the setting sun, moved on again. The township of Chillagoe remained the farthest outlying point of the railway in this quarter for some time, and the big copper company of that name absorbed all the smaller "shows" in the vicinity. Then the steel track was pushed westward to Mun- gana, the present terminus, and from that township bush roads and bridle pads extend, like the spokes of a wheel, to the various camps of the still independent miners. But time works marvellous changes in all things, and, to those who know the back-blockers, one of the strangest is the fact that he does not now look upon an organized company as of necessity his enemy. He has found that the wealthy combinations afford a very convenient market for his ore, and may even buy his " show " when it is no longer capable of being worked in primitive fashion at a profit. It has also dawned The Holding of Pelican Creek 7 on him that when a large and prosperous company is at work near him, the value of his own property on the market increases in proportion to the success of his wealthy neighbour. "We don't mind any darned company comin' out to do honest work so long as they come far enough out," one grizzled old prospector said to the writer recently. "It is when they hang into the railway and force us to sell them our darned ore at their price, to bolster up their own crook concerns, that we kick. Let them come out an' live on damper, as we do, an' then those darned white-faced collar-an'-eye-glass Johnnies will have to stay at home with their mothers." Nevertheless, the "white-faced Johnnies" con- tinue to come to the country. Most of them are mine managers of some kind; but frequently one of their number shows he is made of the right stuff despite his effeminate appearance, and, going out among the mining camps, works himself with pick and shovel in an endeavour to develop a property on his own ac- count. He invariably succeeds, too; then the rough- and-ready prospectors, recognizing in him a leader of men, gather round him, and he soon finds himself at the head of a band of men who will accompany him to the ends of the earth. It is, of course, a well-acknow- ledged belief among the older miners that once a man has tasted of the life of untrammelled bush freedom, he will never content himself in cities afterwards. It seems too true, and thus the young white-faced Briton minus the eye-glass and collar develops a stern look about the face, and his eyes become wonderfully true when glancing along the sights of a rifle. He 8 Land of Pearl and Gold acts promptly, too, and will most likely set out on some hazardous prospecting expedition after his first brief holiday in Sydney or Melbourne. Life in the copper or "Gulf" country is not so monotonous as in other parts of Australia. Animals are more abundant, and the presence of a variety of reptiles round one's camp affords sufficient excitement to keep the nerves in order. The rivers, too, some- times have water in their channels, while the frequent devastating sand-storms, bush fires, epidemics, wild- cat plagues, and the probabilities of finding an out- crop of copper oxide ore carrying forty per cent copper, all go to make up a day's work. Personal experiences, however, may convey a better knowledge of the people and things as they are now than general writing, and as mine have been some- what varied, the reader may gather a very fair im- pression. When I first struck the Gulf country I was riding up from the south with a companion of former travels. We were prospecting for anything and everything that might have a value, but at the time were looking for indications that might lead us to a new copper- field said to be in the vicinity, although no one whom we met seemed to know exactly where. Yet all de- clared the ore which had come from it to be marvel- lously good. One day, when our horses were just about dropping under us, we spied some high limestone bluffs a few miles to our right, and, knowing that there must be water in their vicinity, we steered for them, and, to our surprise, discovered a township nestling at their base. The Holding of Pelican Creek 9 " What place is this?" enquired my companion, a wiry Victorian bearing the cognomen of the Shadow, riding up to a solitary individual sitting in the road- way. " What does you think?" responded the inhabitant, a powerfully-built man with a black beard. His face assumed a vacant, or it may have been a thoughtful, expression as he spoke, and he fixed his eyes on the nearest lime bluff. " Darn ye!" roared the Shadow, who often got angry without reason. "I asked you what was the name of this here township." "Can't you see I'm thinking, you fool," mildly remarked he of the black beard. "Pass on, Shadow;" I said to my companion, "the man is drunk". "Lori Boss! how did you know?" cried the in- dividual in question. "Of course I am. I have just busted up fifty sovs in the pub over there, an' the Lor' knows, if I haven't got drunk for my money I have got nothing else." "Yes, you are pretty bad," I said. "Someone will ride over you if you sit there long " "Ah! I have it now! Bill Mauley or Black Bill is my handle. I knew I must have a name." He rose to his feet and ran his hands through his pockets, evidently surprised to find that he could stand. But I could not afford to waste time with such as Bill, so, while he delivered himself at length of his opinion regarding a certain hotel-keeper, the Shadow and I rode over to an erection that adver- tised itself in crudely-painted letters to be the "Star of the West" Hotel. io Land of Pearl and Gold " Can our horses get a feed here?" I asked, after we had fished out the proprietor from among some barrels where he was sleeping. " You bet they can, Boss. How is copper?" " I don't know the present market price of copper. Kindly take these animals in hand." "Lor! Boss! you needn't get oxidized. I know ye, but I'm all right. You are the Government Mine Inspector, and ye are out about the new 'shows' on Pelican Creek, ain't you?" There was a look in the man's eyes as he spoke that I did not like, but perhaps it was natural with him. "Oh, am I? Then it seems as if there were more than Black Bill in this quarter who don't know them- selves?" "That's nothing, Boss. Why, I've had men lying over on the road there for a month who didn't know whether they were out or in." "Out or in," it should be explained, is Queensland vernacular for dead or alive. But as the landlord had now departed with the Shadow to attend to our steeds, I was spared the effort of maintaining further conversation, and idly speculating on what the name of the place might be, the number of degrees the temperature was over a hundred, the locality of Pelican Creek, if the new shows there were what we were looking for, and if once more it was to be our luck to be concerned in the development of a new field, I turned to the door and met Mr. Bill Mauley coming in. " 'Scuse me, Boss," he said. "Have you seen a green-haired, cross-eyed son of a gin vitriol seller about here lately?" The Holding of Pelican Creek u 44 He has just gone round into the yard with our horses," I answered; 4< but you might let him attend to them before you transact your business." 14 Oh, I'm only going to wipe him out. It won't take a minute," he cried reassuringly, turning to go away. I managed to detain him, however. 44 Hadn't you better wait until it is cooler," I sug- gested. 44 Besides, you ought to be grateful for the fact that you are now in your senses, instead of being helplessly intoxicated in the roadway " 44 Stranger," began Bill. 4< Listen and I'll ex- plain- 44 Please don't," I pleaded. 4< It is too hot, and I am tired " 44 But you won't be when you know what I'm going to tell you." 44 Then fire away." I sat on a barrel and lit a cigarette, knowing that a real 4 * stagger-juice" thirst would soon stop Bill's flow of eloquence. 44 It's this way," he started. <4 Everyone here knows me, and I am worth two ordinary men when I'm not drunk. I discovered the Pelican Creek shows oh, Lor! they're good but I kept the secret well, an' dodged everyone who followed me going back, when I came in with a load of thirty-three per cent stuff. The darned fools think the place is south of here 'cause my tracks go that way, but they 44 Be careful, Bill," I broke in. 44 You will be tell- ing me before you know " 44 An' I mean to, Boss," Bill answered; 44 but keep your ears open. I came in last night with another team of ore, which I sold to L 's agent for fifty pounds. I had with me, too, my survey sketch of 12 Land of Pearl and Gold Pelican Creek to send down to Herberton with my application for a lease. Now, I remember comin' in here for a long beer after that, and then I am beat until I saw you and another fellow riding over me out there." 4 'Well?" "Well! Darn ye, Boss, my survey map is gone, and so is my fifty sovs. An' where's Mick Flannigan, the hotel-keeper's brother-in-law, when he isn't here to take your horses, as is his business, if he isn't riding like H to Herberton to post an application for my leases in their ugly old names?" Here Bill's indignation became too much for him, and he, with great feeling, gave vent to his opinions in language which I did not quite understand. He stopped suddenly, however, and began speaking earnestly in a low tone of voice. "Stranger," he said, "will ye stand by me? I have a plan." "I will, Bill," I answered, "if you keep sober." " It's a bargain, then," cried Bill, grasping my hand. " Pelican Creek, as I call the place, is only miles from here. Take the track west until you come to the big lime-bluff shaped like a man's head, then turn up the gully for two miles until you can just sight Tower, Dingo, and Distant peaks in a line. You can't miss the spot, 'cause you'll see a tree blazed with B. M. on it where you leave the creek. Climb up the bluff then, and go into the cave you'll find at the end of the pad, and hug the right wall all through mind you, the right wall, or you'll go down prospecting suddenly deeper than you'll like. After a bit you'll come out again on The Holding of Pelican Creek 13 the other side of New Chum's Ridge right into the middle of my ground, and Pelican Creek runs down the slopes alongside leastways, when there's water in it." I noted down the directions as Bill gave them, and then looked at him for further information regarding his plan. "You get there with your mate as quick as if a plug of gelignite had dropped you there. I'll pretend to be drunk still, and the old thief won't think he needs to start on his claim-jumpin' racket so long as I am here." "But couldn't you go yourself now just as well. His application would be refused if you were on the ground." "No, darn ye, Boss, no! I'm too drunk to get there, and if I moved out now every man in the town would be after me, and the place would be rushed so that it would be no good to anyone. You get there somehow first. The track I take my horses goes right round the ranges out to Moldiva, but you can ride right up to the cave Ah! here the old darn pirate comes " Bill fell on the floor and began snoring, and the landlord and the Shadow entered. " Hallo!" cried the drink dispenser on seeing Bill. "Are you back here again? I beg pardon, Boss, for that thing annoying a guest in my house, but I'll fire him out quickly and lively." "Please don't," I said. "There are worse than drunk men in this part of the world." " That's true, Boss," leered the publican. " By the way, if ye is going to be in this quarter long, I 14 Land of Pearl and Gold would like to get you to look at some shows I am interested in on Pelican Creek." " Ah ! Where is Pelican Creek?" "Out the road there. The last Mine Inspector before you was a great pal of mine." " Was he, indeed?" I answered. But knowing the gentleman referred to well, I felt certain the man lied. " I should have credited him with better judgment." "Oh! fair play, Mr. R . That is your name, ain't it?" laughed Sharkley, which was the hotel- keeper's name. "That is the handle the inspector goes by," put in the Shadow gravely. "But it isn't the Boss's," he added, under his breath. "We'll leave names alone in the meantime," I said coldly. " I have no objection to seeing your mines while I am here, but I do not promise to report on them to your advantage." u Oh, that will be all right!" laughed the man. "The C people will take up the property from me, and there will be some good plunder going for all concerned." " Ah ! When is tea-time?" " Five o'clock in Murgoona." "Then this is Murgoona township?" " It is, Boss. Ain't it Ai? There are about eight hundred men here." " Where? I have only seen two." "Under the ground mining copper. We are on top of them now." "Ah, well, can you let us have a couple of fresh horses, and we'll take a look round for an hour?" The Holding of Pelican Creek 15 The landlord, eager to please the supposed Mine Inspector, soon provided fresh horses. A* few words sufficed to make matters clear to the Shadow, after which we rode out of the town on the east side for the benefit of any who might be watching us, then doubling round one of the lime -bluffs which are scattered promiscuously around this district, were soon on the track to the west, which we followed according to Bill's directions until we sighted the three peaks in line. " I reckon this is going to be a toughish game, Boss," remarked the Shadow, as we left our horses in the shade and scrambled up to the cave entrance. "Old Sharkley has men stationed all along the road. I saw him semaphoring to them when we were out in the yard together." "Well, they are evidently watching or waiting, for they expect someone. But it can't be us, for here's the cave," I said, and, breaking aside a small pandanus, we stooped and crawled through a hole in the limestone formation. "Lor!" gasped the Shadow next moment, when we lit a candle and saw the myriads of shimmering stalactites. "What have we struck?" "Only a limestone cave," I answered; but we were in the largest and most beautiful hall I had ever seen. "Move on and hug the right wall." We made our way cautiously along the glistening floor until it dropped sheer away from under us, and the consequences of another step makes me shudder still. There was a ledge about three feet wide running along the right-hand side, however, and when our candles showed us that, we carefully 16 Land of Pearl and Gold picked our steps over its slippery surface and began gradually to ascend into a dome-shaped upper part. Here the air was simply alive with bats and other flying creatures, and we had to strike out blindly with our hands as they dashed towards the light, and, striking the walls, fell feebly fluttering into the unfathomable abyss of darkness at our feet. "Pelican Creek copper may be all right," spoke the Shadow as we journeyed on, " but I am darned if I like the road to it Lor! What is that? There is a man down there " We paused. A loud thunderous discord reverber- ated through the cold, clammy atmosphere; it raged terrifically for a few seconds, and then died away into a series of faint moans and finally into nothingness. "Shadow!" I cried, and the ejaculation shot from peak to crag like a rifle-shot, and played among the clusters of inverted spires and minarets like a flash of lightning on a ship's mast. "That is merely your voice echoed and re-echoed from the walls of the cave. Hurry on!" The Shadow uttered some words which sounded like Black Bill's tirade, but as we now had trouble in keeping our candles from being blown out by a current of air which had sprung up, we knew we were near an exit, and a few steps farther showed us a white streak of light apparently overhead. This proved to be the passage to the external world, and soon we were standing on a huge copper out- crop surveying the famed Pelican Creek and Black Bill's tent and excavations. "I am darned hungry," was all the Shadow com- mented, and, entering the tent, he found the where- The Holding of Pelican Creek 17 withal to make a meal, and soon we were sitting" on the outcrop waiting for the billy to boil to pro- vide us with tea. It was now half-past four in the afternoon, and the sun was already dipping behind the ridges. "We'll repeg the ground to-morrow," said the Shadow complacently. "There should be enough money in this ground to pay for two or three more exploring trips "We'll repeg it now!" I cried, springing to my feet. " I hear something on wheels coming down the ridges." The Shadow rushed into the tent and brought out Bill's rifle. "It's as well to be prepared, I reckon," he said; "but Lor! it's only a sulky driving tandem an' two men in it. An' one is a ' new chum '. I can see that by his clothes." "That is young M of London!" I exclaimed. " I met him in Singapore three months ago. The other man driving is Sharkley " We sat still, and the sulky came up, and had just deposited its occupants when they saw us." "Good Lor!" cried Sharkley, in amazement. " How did you get here?" " Flying machine," answered the Shadow. "You are just in time for tea, M ," I said, ignoring Sharkley. "Draw in that lump of copper carbonate and sit down." " I have come out to buy this property from this gentleman," M - explained to me, after he had recovered from his astonishment at meeting an old friend. (B823) 3 is Land of Pearl and Gold " I don't think it is for sale," I said. "Don't slate it, Boss," pleaded Sharkley. "It's all O K, and I'll give you a fair thing out of it." " I didn't know it was yours!" "Oh yes, it's mine! I registered it at Herberton by wire this morning." *' But the name on the pegs spells ' Bill Mauley'." " An' he abandoned it. He didn't put in the labour according to regulations an' I I " "Jumped it. Exactly; and never saw the place before. Know this, that if Bill Mauley, the dis- coverer, did not comply with the mining law regula- tions, you certainly have not done so. It so happens that the Shadow and I are in his employment at present, and have been on the ground well within the limit of time." " But you daren't hold ground. You are the Mine Inspector." " Oh no, I am not " " He's my partner, you old thief," interrupted Mauley's voice from the cave entrance; "and if you are not started on the back track over the ridges in two minutes, I'll tie you on top of a case of dynamite and blow you to the devil." Mauley slid down, and without a word Sharkley climbed into the sulky. " Mr. M is not going back with you, Sharkley," I said. " He is staying here to-night." M accepted the invitation willingly. "This is the second time you've got the better of me in a deal," he laughed, as Sharkley drove off. "But I reckon the third is always darned lucky," The Holding of Pelican Creek 19 consoled the Shadow. But he didn't add that he thought it would still be lucky for us. "Well, darn it all, boys," cried Mauley, as we gathered round the fire in the fast-falling darkness, "my partner here bosses this show now, but as far as I am concerned there is enough good ground here for us all. Why can't we form a syndicate among us and work it ourselves?" And we did. The Rush at Crocodile Crossing MURGOONA is a hot sulphurous-smelling township of about eight hundred inhabitants, seven hundred of whom are engaged in the copper-mining industry, or in the dispensing of a certain liquid substance consti- tuted largely of vitriol to those so employed. Of the population not covered by the above description ninety-nine per cent are card-sharpers and such like, who consider it their duty to relieve the miners of their money as fast as they get it, and to receive with open arms the chance "new chum" who forms the remaining one per cent of the people, so long as his money lasts. There is, of course, no law in Murgoona, unless that recognized by each man as best suited to himself. There are no religious bodies not even the Salvation Army and this is a significant fact to those who know the enterprising nature of that organization, and, according to the men, "Sunday never comes farther up the line than C ", many miles off. The miners themselves, however, are in reality as good a body of men as can be found anywhere in the British Empire. They have only one failing, and they know it. 21 22 Land of Pearl and Gold "Lor! Boss! if we didn't drink the stagger juice no one would," said one to me recently, "and then how would Sharkley, Lette, O'Brian, Hetherington, Dunmore, and the other poor publicans live?" I did not suggest that it would make little difference to anyone except the card-sharping fraternity whether they lived or not. I knew that would not be in accordance with the system of logic in vogue in any Queensland mining camp. I pointed out, however, that the gentlemen in question had in all probability already made sufficient capital out of the men to keep them in affluence the rest of their lives. But it was of no use my endeavouring to start an anti-dilute sul- phuric-acid-drinking campaign in Northern Queens- land, and I was well aware of that fact. The miners think it their duty to "stand by the hotel-keeper", as they say, and while in town they certainly do so. They do not wish to be in town, however, for they are mostly wandering back-blockers. The atmosphere of a closely-packed settlement stifles them, and they long for the freedom of the bush with the sky for their roof, their own claims for their own domain, and the chances of wresting a fortune from Nature's grasp, their hope. But they cannot work independently against ad- verse circumstances. Their means of providing life's necessaries become exhausted, and then they are forced to betake themselves to the nearest centre where they can find employment for wages in the service of some of the large mining companies round whose mines the towns are always built. Thus it is that the miners in Murgoona, when they are able to amass sufficient funds to enable them to start out for Rush at Crocodile Crossing 23 themselves again, invariably form into small pro- specting parties and set out for whatever district has yielded the latest favourable reports. Often, too, if a "rush" develops into what pro- mises to be a lasting field, or one that will sell to British capitalists, the hotel - keepers "grubstake" men to work for them. That is, they provide the miners with food and water, pay the working ex- penses, and take half the profits in the venture. This applies on all mineral fields, whether of gold, silver, tin, wolfram, or copper, and, as a result, most famous working mines are owned by the drink-selling gentry of the neighbourhood, for, of course, they soon find means of acquiring the other half when the mine is proved to be good. But all "rushes" do not de- velop into payable fields, although occasionally one stands out prominently as having been the cause of the "rise" of some individual, and many surprise people by results exceeding all expectation. On the other hand, some "rushes" occasion surprise from quite a different reason, and the Crocodile Creek Rush was one of the latter kind. Crocodile Creek is one of the largest tributaries of the Walsh River. It is one of the few channels which carry water all the year round, and flows through a series of mountain gullies over a rocky bottom, in which numerous deep holes are worn by the swirling action of the grit-charged torrents of Christmas time, when deflected from their onward course by a dioritic bluff, the formation of which proved of more than usual hardness. Gold had been found in the sands of Crocodile Creek, but no one troubled about that metal while copper stood at sixty-nine pounds per ton, and 24 Land of Pearl and Gold was steadily rising. But although the country around looked very promising, nothing in the way of copper had been found in any of its many reefs, and conse- quently nearly all those prospecting had gone farther out in hopes of striking the famous Croydon belt. Our mines on Pelican Creek were being developed under the care of our comrades, so, feeling competent to handle successfully some additional properties, the Shadow and I had gone out prospecting. The even- ing of the second day we camped on the banks of a large creek a few hundred yards north of where the track leading from some prosperous mines to Mur- goona crossed. We had hobbled our horses out for the night, and were preparing our evening meal, when a man leading a spare horse rode down the opposite bank, swam the horses across, and galloped away to the east at a great pace. "That fellow is in a hurry, I reckon," said the Shadow, as the rider disappeared over a ridge. " He'll have to ride faster still if he means to catch to-morrow morning's mail at Murgoona," I answered. " I suppose he is a despatch rider from some of the Bonanza group of mines." " Don't know," grunted Shadow; " tucker's ready." It was now dark, and we sat round our camp fire and dined, paying more attention to the snakes and centipedes that insisted on joining our little party than to the plashing in the pool beside us. Suddenly, however, there was a series of louder sounds from the water, as if some heavier body had come out for its supper. "The crocodiles are lively to-night," I remarked. " We'll go and shoot some when the moon rises." Rush at Crocodile Crossing 25 "Darn the crocs!" ejaculated Shadow, helping another snake into the fire with his boot. " I would rather have them around me than most men." "Can yez spare me a bit ov tucker, bhoys. Oi've lost mine in the water, an' oi'm as hungry as a China- man." The speaker was a tattered, corrugated-faced speci- men of humanity, and as he stood before us the water ran away from his clothes in streams. "Great howling centipedes!" exclaimed Shadow, signing to the man to sit down beside us. " Has ye just crossed that pool there among the crocs?" " Oi had to cross somewhere. Me mate left me, and I saw your fire " "Was that your mate who crossed on horseback?" I cried. "Oi don't know, Boss. All oi knows is that me mate cleared out with both our horses, and Pat Regan's left again." "Ah well, Patrick," I said. " Have something to eat in the meantime, and we'll see what can be done for you in the morning." " Oi say, Boss," began Patrick, after satisfying his hunger, " is a claim any good to yez like it is to some ov the other fellows in town?" " I hardly understand you, Pat. It depends largely on the claim." " Oi mean a claim supposed to be good but ain't. Can't you sell that sort of thing to Johnnies that don't know no better, like the way Sharkley and old Flanni- gan does?" "I am afraid not, Pat. You see, our ideas of right and wrong are different from those held 26 Land of Pearl and Gold by such gentlemen. Are you a ' crook ' claim- finder?" " Begorrah, I isn't. But here's me shtory. Me mate Shandy Bob an' me were looking over them ridges for copper outcrops. Bob had been pulling me leg so much that when I went down to the water to fill a water-bag, oi thought it would be grand fun to make Shandy think oi had struck gold. So I took one or two slugs oi got over at Croydon from the lining ov me trousers an' put them in the lid ov me billy with some sand. I took the stuff up to where Shandy was an' tould him to wash it out, as it looked like stuff I had seen before carrying good gold. He called me a fool for not knowing no better, but he washed out the billy lid an' got my slugs an' then, be the powers! you should have seen him. " ' Where did you get it?' he cried. " ' Down there,' I tells him. ' Will we go and peg the place out?' " ' You go and get some more,' he says, an' as I had another slug or two, I goes away laughing to myself. Before I got down though it shtruck me that I would have a share of the work of washing out the river meself, an' that was a mighty big contract to take on for nothing but getting even with Bob. I turned to go back an' tell him all. But, be the powers ! all I saw of him when I got to the foot of the hill was a cloud of dust kicked up by his horse makin' for Murgoona, an' the sand-blasted ould haythen had my horse with him too." The Shadow and I laughed. It was not often that the hotel-keeping crowd and their followers "fell in ", as Shadow put it. But Shandy Bob was known to Rush at Crocodile Crossing 27 be one of Sharkley's satellites, so they were likely to be led into error this time. Of course, there would be a "rush", and they would "grubstake" every man who could not hold out on his own account. And equally certain was it that the thirst-quenching fraternity would lose on the transaction unless they could sell their worthless shows to "new chums", which game I intended to frustrate if possible. During the night we crossed the creek and pegged the banks for half a mile farther up the stream. This we did to draw the " rush " away from our camp, for they would assuredly cluster round the supposed good ground which they would naturally expect Pat to have secured. We did not wish to remove our camp nor have a crowd such as we expected near us while we were prospecting. About noon the following day the "rush" began to arrive. First came Sharkley, mounted on a thoroughbred race-horse. " Where was the gold found?" he yelled to Pat as he came up. Shadow and I kept out of sight. " Didn't Bob tell ye?" enquired Pat, apparently surprised at being asked. " No, you d imbecile!" roared Sharkley, jump- ing off. "Ah! you haven't had the sense to peg it out, I see. I'll soon fix that." He began pacing off the ground on which stood our tent, but stopped when Shadow put in an ap- pearance. " Go on," advised my companion, " I want to know the measurements around the place." " When did you get here?" cried Sharkley. 28 Land of Pearl and Gold " We were here almost as soon as the gold " " Where is it?" " It ain't here." " I know that, you idiot " "An' you won't see it this rush, you galvanized streak of misery " The sound of a blow made me rush from the tent in time to see Sharkley struggling on the ground, where Shadow had sent him headlong with his blow. "Get up, you dingo, till I knock you down again," cried my comrade. " Leave the man alone, Shadow," I ordered. " He called me an idiot, Boss." "Then thrash him afterwards if you like; I need you just now." Shadow turned and saw what I had seen the moment before, and, taking advantage of his oppor- tunity, Sharkley wriggled down the slope, swam the creek, and raced up to where he could now see the ground was pegged. Meanwhile the "rush" had arrived. First came some riders, then Flannigan driving tandem in a sulky, followed by more riders. A crowd of cyclists and people on foot connected them with several buggies and other slower-moving conveyances, and alongside, one camel strode cum- brously with an Afghan upon its back. Some Chinese and loafers made up the rest, but the only genuine miners among the lot were the men on foot and one or two riders. "Where is it?" the leaders sang out as they ap- proached the crossing. The Shadow silently pointed to the pegged ground, Rush at Crocodile Crossing 29 and the heterogeneous mob plunged into the water and followed Sharkley along the other side. "The circus is about to start, I reckon," remarked Shadow, who had now recovered his equanimity, aiming a piece of iron-stone at a crocodile basking on the rocks in the pool. " Well, our pegs will hold all the ground we want," I rejoined. "So we can go on with our own search for copper." " Cyan yez do with an Oirishman in your party?" asked Pat. " Shure an' I know copper as well as any man, for oi've been in North Queensland the last twenty years." "We'll take you in company just now at any rate, Pat; but don't go finding more gold." Pat grinned and shook his fist at the form of his late partner, whom we could see driving in pegs ad- joining our own; and while the men of the "rush" scrambled for what they considered the best ground near the discovery claim, we walked up the slopes on our own side of the creek, and put forth much mus- cular energy in breaking the tops of iron-stone reefs in the hope of finding traces of copper underneath. We continued our efforts until well on in the after- noon, and then Pat uttered an exclamation and threw a piece of some metallic substance to me. " What do yez call that?" he said. I looked at the specimen. It was heavy and of a greenish-grey colour, but it was no copper ore that I knew. " Is there much of this, Pat?" I enquired, scratch- ing its surface with my pocket-knife to determine its hardness. 30 Land of Pearl and Gold "The strike is over a quarter of a mile long, an' it is two feet thick." " An' if the darned stuff goes down to where Jimmy Squarefoot stays," added Shadow, who had gone over to Pat's find, "only the old fellow himself can say how much there is." " What is it, anyhow?" I turned quickly, for the speaker was neither Shadow nor Pat, and beheld a very tall individual with a face the colour of copper, and bare arms like the trunk of a pandanus tree. He had evidently crossed from the "rush" on the other side of the creek. " I beg your pardon," I said. " Don't trouble," the stranger responded. " What is that stuff you have in your hand?" " I don't know." I poured a little nitric acid on the material and applied the blade of my knife. " It isn't copper it isn't wolfram it isn't molybdenite, for that is silvery white, and of the nature of graphite to the touch it does not appear to be silver, for Well, men, I don't know what this is, but I will assay it to-night." Shadow and Pat picked up their tools and went on with their work, but the visitor stood still and assumed a sullen expression. " Have any of your people struck gold yet?" I en- quired, wishing to be sociable. " No; and it ain't likely they ever will on Crocodile Creek." " Do you think there is no gold there?" " I am darned well sure of it; but say, who started this ' rush '? What is the ' rush ' for, anyhow? An' why are your people not in it?" Rush at Crocodile Crossing 31 I explained that we had camped on the creek before the "rush" took place and were prospecting for copper. "Well, all I can say is that if I had the fellows that started this ' rush ' out here I'd put them through as good as a smelting furnace. I've lost the little bit of cash I was savin' over it, an' I suppose other boys are just as bad." " I thought you were all working for the hotel- keepers?" " Not now. The darned skunks promised to back us up, but they left this afternoon when they saw that only iron-sand stuck to the pan. It ain't any good to any man." " Only working miners are here now, then?" "Yes; the poor beggars that work are still here. They won't let their hopes go down, although there ain't any chance of getting gold. We all know what the town life and working for companies is." "Well, come down to our camp with me. I wish to try an experiment." We walked down the hill, followed soon after by Shadow and Pat, who guessed that something was about to happen. Reaching the tent, I gave the stranger a piece of the unknown mineral to "dolly" (crush into powder), and while Shadow prepared tea, I put ten grains of the powder into a small crucible with some nitric acid, and placed it on the ashes beside our billy. Some of the other miners had now given up work in despair, and had wandered down on the other bank of the creek opposite our camp. " Is it a strike?" cried some, seeing the burette and other testing appliances in my hand. There was 32 Land of Pearl and Gold silence for a moment as I added hydrochloric acid and waited for a precipitate to form. " No," cried the tall stranger ruefully. " No such luck. We are on the losing side again, boys, and there is no help for it." "You are in a darned mighty hurry," complained Shadow, who with Pat and the stranger had been hanging over the " test" breathlessly. " The darned stuff hasn't had time to come down yet." " An' it never will, because it ain't there to come," answered the miner. "You seem to know a darned lot too much about it. How do you know what the Boss is looking for?" spoke Shadow aggressively. "He is testing for silver, and there should be a white precipitate, which should turn black on exposure to sunlight and there isn't. No! you needn't think I want to trade on that little knowledge, boys. It was knowing too much that first sent me up here to this God-forsaken country." I looked at the man, surprised at the change in his speech, and it dawned upon me that he was another of that great army of " men with a past" that forms such a large part of the North Queensland population. But Shadow was crushing another sample of the same stone. Pat was smoking, evidently lost in the pro- fundity of his thoughts; the stranger was gloomily silent, and the men opposite discussing the best means of getting back to Murgoona. Soon Shadow sieved the ore and placed another ten grains in a beaker with a solution of cyanide of potas- sium from my portable chemical case, and when he went out and placed the vessel on the ashes again, Rush at Crocodile Crossing 33 most of the men, seeing that an important test of something was being made, came over the creek and clustered round silently. I allowed the suspected ore to digest for ten minutes, then hurriedly removed it and added some nitric acid. All eyes watched the result; then, as several seconds passed and no precipitate came down, a sigh of dis- appointment rose from all. "Give it time, boys," I said; "the solution is too hot yet " "There it goes, boys! Look!" yelled a little miner excitedly, as a white powdery substance began to fall in snowy flakes through the liquid. "It's only lead," spoke another man. "There's five pound fifteen a ton charged on lead for realiza- tion, one pound ten for smelting, and as it will cost over a couple of sovereigns to team it in from here, we'll just lose a sovereign a ton and work for nothing on that stuff, allowing that it goes over thirty per cent " "But it ain't lead!" exclaimed another miner. " Lead would have shown in the first test with the nitric " " It doesn't matter to us what the darned stuff is, anyhow," put in the tall stranger. "It isn't copper, and it isn't silver, it isn't gold, and it isn't wolfram, or molybdenite, and nothing else will pay to work here; and if it did, it isn't ours. It all belongs to these people here " " I wish to know who started this * rush ' to Croco- dile Creek," spoke a bull-necked man known as "the Bruiser" among his fellows. " I would see that they didn't start any more ' rushes' for some time." (B828) 4 34 Land of Pearl and Gold I moved out into the fast-fading daylight with a test- tube of the mineral in my hand. " I don't think you have cause to blame anyone for this ' rush '," I said. "You simply rushed the wrong thing " " What?" yelled all. " What do you mean, Boss?" " Just that the ' rush ' is about to start now. There is as much of this stuff within a few feet of the surface as will pay you all sufficient to enable you to go pros- pecting again." "What is it, Boss? For Heaven's sake tell us! What is it?" I held up the tube in my hand, and as the sun's last rays fell on it, it slowly turned purple, then violet black. "It is what is technically known as embolite," I said, "or in other words, chloro-bromide of silver." " But its value, Boss? What is it worth?" "The latest quotation for silver is two shillings and fourpence an ounce, and," I filtered the black powder from its solution and made a rough calcula- tion "as nearly as I can figure out just now without more accurate testing, there are over fifty ounces of this to the ton." Crocodile Creek silver mines are at present worked by the best community of miners in the district. They formed themselves into a syndicate so as to concentrate part of their labour on one or two deep level shafts, while the others kept the whole party in funds by the ore derived from the surface workings. What those deep levels will develop into no man can yet tell, but the prospects are highly encouraging. Rush at Crocodile Crossing 35 There is much sorrow and bewailing among a certain fraternity in Murgoona over the "hard luck" at losing both the share in a good property and twenty men's thirst at the same time. One of them made an attempt to open a saloon at the creek workings, but the team bringing out the vile fluid met with an accident, for which (I suspect, although I do not absolutely know) my tall friend and the Shadow were responsible. The Sinking of the " Golden Promise " Mine COPPER-MINING has a fascination peculiarly its own. Like mining for gold, the industry is more or less of a gambling nature; but whereas the seeker after auri- ferous treasure speculates his time and labour on the chances of finding gold, his brother of the copper- fields gambles on what his property may be worth underneath the ground after he has found it. When gold is met with on the surface, the prospector usually considers his work as good as accomplished. But one may find an outcrop of rich copper ore running along a ridge for several miles, and yet it is only a chance if the lode proves worth working. On the other hand, a shaft sunk where there were almost no surface indications of copper might ''bottom" on a large body of copper sulphide averaging twenty-five per cent copper, which would pay better than most gold mines. Thus it comes that the copper prospector never knows his luck. One moment he may be sinking on a lode carrying poor copper carbonate ore, not worth the price of the explosives used in getting it, and then, as suddenly as the gold miner, might drive his pick into a nugget, and 87 38 Land of Pearl and Gold certainly, outside story-books, a great deal oftener, the lode may "make" into an oxide of copper worth twenty pounds a ton. This may extend underneath a few feet or there is no reason why it should not down to the sulphide zones. It might fall away into a poor rubble again, or, after changing into sulphides at the water level, go down into the bowels of the earth farther than man or machinery has ever followed. It is this uncertainty that lends the industry its fascination, and makes the poor individual miner hold on to his ground long after it has ceased to be payable. Before this some big company, con- sidering the property "a good prospect", may have made the miner an offer to purchase his ground, but their price being based on what the "show" is, and not what " the chances are that it will be ", the offer is usually declined. In time, however, the miner gets his shaft down deeper, and still the "oxide" evades him, and he is compelled for lack of funds to cease operations. No one would entertain a proposal to buy the "show" now, for the miner's own work has made it impossible to hide the fact that the country has been barren, perhaps, for the last forty feet. Nothing now remains for the unlucky prospector but to abandon the scene of his hopes and labours and take hateful employment from the very company who at one time offered to buy his mine. But now the irresistible gambling fascination exer- cises its fateful spell. The news that old MacPherson was forced to abandon his "show" spreads through- out the country, and men, when passing in to town with ore or for stores, will ride over to have a look at it. The " Golden Promise " Mine 39 " It is a true fissure lode," one will reason with his mate, "and may turn good at any depth." "That is a fact," his comrade will respond. "It might be good thirty -per- cent stuff just one shot down." He doesn't add what in reasoning moments he will admit: "That the blanky stuff might just as well go down all the way to old Jimmy Squarefoot an' there turn into brimstone." At any rate, they agree to give the " show " a trial, and commence shooting the shaft down farther. They may strike the rich ore in the first foot for undoubtedly the lode carries it at some depth or they may work a month and have nothing but a deeper hole for their pains. Eventually they too abandon it, and another couple have a try with no better results. Half a dozen different parties may own the property in succession for to own it one has merely to occupy it and give each corner boundary peg a tap with a hammer to signify repegging and still the desired ore may apparently be as far off as ever. Then one day, when the shaft is down a hundred feet or so into the heart of Queensland, a shout will come up from the depths, and the man on top at the windlass will know that they have at last "struck it". But even now Nature does not give up the struggle, and the good fortune of the miners may prove to be a form of cruellest irony, for, while they are estimating the value of the supposed solid body of " black ore " per foot in depth, and putting in another shot to square the sides of their shaft, water may break in, and the men are beaten again. The never-despairing spirit of the Anglo-Saxon, in whatever clime, rises 40 Land of Pearl and Gold strongly in the poor human footballs of fate, however, and they rig up some sort of pump, with horse haul- age, or, if they have still funds, an engine to work it. The water may be gaining slowly, in which case the men win ; but when they put in another shot it may prove to be an underground river they have broken into, and then, with fortune in sight, the luckless miners have of necessity to accept what any power- ful company owning the best appliances will give them for their mine, or abandon it as did the first owner. Such is the "glorious" uncertainty about copper. But that same uncertainty is its great attraction, for first-class ore may be struck in the first few feet in fact it is frequently found as high as forty per cent in assay value outcropping on the surface. These are termed " promising shows", and such a one was the outcrop we named "The Golden Promise", which soon became the chief mine in our Pelican Creek possessions. The Golden Promise mine was situated on a slight slope above Pelican Creek, and as we could trace the "strike" i.e. length of copper-carrying formation on the surface for half a mile, we calculated that if it did go down and only extended the same underneath as it did on top most mines widen out underneath if they go down at all there must be many thousands of tons of copper ore in the mine. We had several other most promising "prospects" on Pelican Creek, but we decided to work them on the "underlie", that is, to follow the ore down at its own angle of dip while we would make the Golden Promise shaft prove the value of the deeper levels by sinking it The " Golden Promise " Mine 41 vertically to cut the calculated lode angle at a depth of eighty feet. Our party at this time consisted of Philip Morris, a young Englishman of an adventurous disposition, the Shadow and Black Bill, two typical Australian wanderers, and myself. We had also enlisted the services of five of the best of the miners, who were in temporary financial straits through having spent all their money on "shows" which they had been com- pelled to abandon. We promised them a share in any profits in addition to the wages we paid, and they, being thus interested in results, did all that men could do to bring about a success. The lode of the "Golden Promise" dipped into the earth at an angle of forty-five degrees from the hori- zontal ; but being on the slope I calculated that if we started our vertical shaft sixty feet farther down, we would hit the lode after it had travelled about one hundred and twenty feet. Old Ruck, a prospector of much experience, and I marked off the site of the shaft, and the Shadow and Big Mackay, a brawny Scot, started it. Needless to say, they went at it with a will, and by pick and shovel where the ground was soft, and gelignite where it was hard, sent it down six feet the first day. A copper-prospecting shaft, it should be said, is usually made six feet by four, about twice the size of an aver- age gold -prospecting shaft. The second day they only managed an additional three feet, for the ground was now almost of solid iron-stone formation. The third day, to hasten matters, they erected a windlass for hauling the "mullock", and added another two feet to the depth. At this point Black Bill and his 42 Land of Pearl and Gold working partner, a little man who rejoiced in the cognomen of Bunyip Bill, finished the payable work that, with two men, could be done on the " Admiral ", and pending the knowledge as to whether the deep levels were good or not, I put them on the "Golden Promise " as a second shift. Thus we shot her down it was all shooting now night and day, and when Ginger Bob, a stalwart fiery-faced Queenslander, and the M.P., a broken-down member of the Queensland Parliament, "cut out" their oxide ore on the "under- lie" of the " Caledonia", we did not sink another foot on the chance of it " making" again, but drafted the men at once on to the "Golden Promise", and thus, as the M.P. said, we had three shifts of eight hours each shooting one great hole into the heart of Queens- land. The men at first wondered at our lack of spirit in not sinking the "underlies" a foot or two farther, seeing that the probabilities were that they would speedily "make good" again. But when they realized that we were actually sinking our only deep shaft sixty feet away from the copper lode, and gamb- ling on the chances of hitting it on the "sulphide level", they changed their minds, and reckoned Morris and I were born speculators. Perhaps we were. At any rate, it was an expensive experiment; yet, if fortune favoured us, it would pay correspondingly. Meanwhile, from one week's end to another work never ceased, and at all hours of day and night heavy charges of gelignite blew tons of solid country into the air, and the shaft was driven slowly but surely down. At length the measuring-tape in- dicated that we had reached seventy-nine feet, and, on The " Golden Promise " Mine 43 testing some of the stained formation brought up, I got two per cent of copper, which was a good sign that we were near a lode of some kind. Excitement now ran high, and each shift strove to have the glory of first hitting the lode. The eighty-feet level was reached and passed, and Morris and I began to think many things, while down below the men gave vent to their feelings in a picturesque language that would have made a Liverpool stevedore gasp. Still we continued our labours. But now I was in the shaft all day with the men, and Mowbray all night. Foot by foot the bottom receded until ninety feet was touched, and still we were apparently as far from the lode if it existed at all as the first day we started. " I reckon the lode has cut out, Boss," said Bunyip Bill one day, as I went down with Mowbray to see the last exposed face of the work. " An' it's just robbery for us to be taking wages for sinking any farther," added the M.P., who, with all the men, had come out to hear what was next to be done. "Give it best, Boss, an' dig out the ore from 'The Princess'," cried Old Ruck from above. "She'll pay you all right for your work." "The lode must be here," said Morris, who was an expert geologist. " Both the hanging and foot walls are perfect. It must have continued down ' "An' that's just where ye are wrong," interrupted Bunyip Bill. " In this darned country everything is just exactly opposite to what it should be, an' if the lode should be there, then you can bet your tucker it ain't." "Let me gang doon anither foot or twa," pleaded 44 Land of Pearl and Gold Big Mackay. "Ginger an' me dinna want wages, an' we'll gang doon tae Auld Nick if ye think she's there." " I sign my name to that, Boss," cried Ginger Bob. " We'll burst her out though we go to H for her." Ginger Bob did not mean his words to be taken as they are generally understood when specifying the place he named. He believed it had a geographical position the same as Sydney, New York, or Port Said, and reckoned that at three foot a day he would get there some time. " We'll give her a week yet," I said. " Surely our luck has not deserted us completely, and the lode may have altered its angle of descent slightly." " What I fear is, that we will tap the water held in these limestone caverns around if we have to go much deeper," spoke Morris; "and then we might as well try to bail out the Walsh River as to keep our mine dry." "Well, we'll take our chance of that. We'll go down now and take careful measurements, and see if by any possibility we have made some mistake in our original calculations." "There is not much hope of that," smiled Morris wearily, " but we'll go down." The Shadow and Big Mackay were already drilling another hole in the bottom preparatory to shooting when we descended, and while they finished their operations we examined very carefully the wall of the shaft on the side next where the lode should be. " I can't make out these copper stains here," said Morris as, suspended in a mullock bucket ten feet from bottom, he struck at the wall with a pick. The " Golden Promise " Mine 45 "They indicate the near presence of some copper- carrying formation," I replied. "Then cannot that be our lode slightly faulted, perhaps?" " I fear not, for these stains extend all the way down, and if the lode was as close as they indicate up there, we ought to have struck it by this time in any case. No, I fear the main copper deposits are inside these limestone bluffs, and we are sinking through country impregnated with copper probably precipi- tated from solution " "Do you mind going up, Boss?" cried Shadow. "I am going to fire this shot." "Don't be in such a desperate hurry," I remon- strated. "Can't help it," he said, lighting a match; "my fingers are fairly burning to put a light to this fuse, 'cos I feel there's copper under it." We did not care to take any risks, so Big Mackay and I went to the surface, and the rope was lowered again for Morris. " Now, New Chum, in ye get," I heard Shadow's voice cry from below; "I've fired it. We're both feather-weights, and can go up together." At that moment there was a fierce tug at the hang- ing rope, the windlass-barrel ran out, and, gaining momentum rapidly, it reeled out the length of rope still on it, and then with a great jerk, before anyone could do anything to stop it, jumped out of its bear- ings and fell down the shaft. A sickly feeling came over me, as with the men I rushed to the mouth and looked down through the flying debris. Well every man knew that a windlass- 46 Land of Pearl and Gold barrel falling ninety feet would leave nothing alive under it. "Say, Shadow, is ye killed?" cried Bunyip Bill; and to our relief, after a moment's silence, there floated up the choicest words in the Queensland mining vernacular, the purport of which was, " Not yet, but will be in forty seconds". "Clear away from the top, boys," cried Morris; "the fuse is fired, and it is all over with us." "O Lor!" gasped the men, "an' we can do nothing! " "Get a rope, quick!" I cried, but in the same instant remembered that we had no rope long enough to reach the bottom excepting the one which had gone down with the windlass. " It's no use, Boss," growled Old Ruck. " All the ropes in camp together can't reach that length, even if there was time." "Good-bye, boys!" came up faintly from the shaft, and I could also distinguish the sound of pick strokes. "Hang into the off wall!" roared the men in chorus ; but they knew themselves that there was not a chance in a thousand of those below being saved that way. There was considerable danger to those on top of being struck by boulders flung clear of the shaft in the explosion, but not a man moved to save himself, and even Old Ruck ceased swearing, for the first time, it is said, in his life. The seconds passed in grim silence, and then we looked vaguely at each other. What had happened ? ' ' Lor ! " cried Ginger. ' ' Listen ! " The "Golden Promise" Mine 4 7 We did, and this is what we heard coming up from the ninety feet: "I tell you, Shadow, you put that shot in the wrong place " " An' I tell ye I didn't, New Chum." "The ground was soft enough to be picked where you drilled your hole." " No it wasn't " It was, or I couldn't have picked in and nipped the fuse before it burnt down to the gelignite " " Did ye cut the fuse, New Chum?" " I did, or we should not be here now " "No, darn it! I forgot that. I suppose we would be little angels now Say, New Chum, do you think a man, even if he were an angel, could fly like a brolga?" (a large bird sometimes known as a native companion). But the men on top, now that they knew the danger was past, were not disposed to listen to a pro- longed discussion on the laws of aerial navigation, angelic or otherwise, and they speedily showed their dissent in the torrent of language poured down the shaft. "How in tarnation did the windlass -barrel not knock ye out?" demanded Bunyip Bill in a reproach- ful tone of voice, when his stock of expletives had been exhausted. " The darned thing got jammed in the walls afore it got down to us," replied Shadow, in an equally grieved voice. "Shadow," I called, "what on earth made you light that fuse before you saw that all was ready for hauling you up ?" 48 Land of Pearl and Gold "Lor! Boss, ye needn't be skeered about that so long as the New Chum is about," answered that worthy. " He dug the fuse out in two winks of a mosquito's eyelid afore it got down to the circus ' "It was my fault," cried Morris. "I sprang at the hanging rope when Shadow told me he had fired, and my weight caused the barrel to run out and jerk over the bearing-forks " "Good Lord!" exclaimed the M.P. "The man that was so excited when the fuse was fired that he jumped at the rope before it was down, actually was cool enough next second to dig between it and the dynamite!" "Well, men, there will be no more copper-mining in this shaft to-day," I said, "and I very much doubt if there will ever be any further work done by us. Go and get all the ropes in camp, so that we can haul them out." The men departed to gather all the ropes from the various windlasses of the "underlie" shafts, and I shouted down a caution to the reckless Shadow not to take any liberties where he was, as six plugs of unexploded gelignite underneath his feet were liable to resent rough treatment. Shadow did not answer. He was gingerly digging out the half-burnt fuse, and by the time the men came back with ropes he had fitted another, and the shot was all ready for firing again. We lowered Big Mackay on one rope made of several shorter lengths, and he took another down with him to fasten to the windlass-barrel. " Don't be too long on the job," remarked Shadow, " 'cos I has got to fire a shot this time or burst." The " Golden Promise " Mine 49 "An' if ye licht a match, or speak a word wi' ony reference tae a hot place A'll no mention," answered the Scot, as, hanging ten feet from bottom, he hitched the second rope round the barrel, "A'll come doon an' hammer ye into yer ain drill-hole." "You needn't be afraid, Mac," reassured Morris. "I'll keep an eye on him." "Afraid!" snorted the big one, as he completed his work and signalled to be hauled up. "Man, A'm no' feared o' onything except that that skeletonized streak o' misery doon beside ye will no' live lang enough for me tae deal wi' him " Big Mackay's indignation was great, but the light- hearted Shadow only laughed. Exerting his strength as he was being pulled up, Mac braced himself against the walls of the shaft and jerked the windlass-barrel from its locked position. It remained suspended on the rope, but a shower of stones and "mullock" fell down, and, as Big Mackay admitted afterwards, he thought the Shadow's words would have fired any fuse. When he reached the surface all hands tackled the windlass-drum, and, after a severe struggle, got it up and remounted in its position, and next minute the rope was down for Morris. "I have a two-minute length of fuse in this time, New Chum," began Shadow, as Morris was hauled up the shaft. "Don't fire! For Heaven's sake don't fire, you idiot!" roared Morris; and, hearing the purport of his words, we put forth all our strength and brought him to the top in record time. The Shadow was still talking when the rope came down for him. (B823) 6 50 Land of Pearl and Gold "No nonsense, now," I ordered, as he bent over the fuse with a lighted match. "Here now, Boss, does I deserve that?" he ex- postulated, as he applied the light, and, not wishing to argue with him just then, we straightway began hauling him up. "Hold on, boys!" he suddenly shouted, and we paused in trembling surprise. " Can copper sulphide ever be mixed with azurite?" he enquired, and we yanked him upwards angrily. " Ye darned son of a gin, does ye not know what's under ye!" roared Old Ruck. "Six plugs," answered the Shadow as he came in sight. "But Lor! boys, what's the hurry? It is a two-minute fuse, and I reckon I have found " "Oh, shut up!" roared the men; and he became silent. I began to lecture the Shadow on his conduct as soon as he came off the rope, but the explosion below interrupted, and he dodged away without saying a word. As soon as the gases had cleared, Old Ruck and I descended to see the result of the shot, and, to our dismay, found that we had at length tapped water. "It's all over now," I said. "These limestone caverns must contain a lot of water, and this shaft will now drain them all." Ruck did not answer. He had always been of a hopeful disposition, but now he could offer no consolation. We went aloft again without troubling to send the "mullock" up, and I informed the men that there was now no hope of going farther, as the The " Golden Promise " Mine 51 water had broken in and we could not risk putting pumps on. For a minute the men said nothing, then Ginger Bob spoke. "It are darned hard lines," he said. "And it are all that darned Shadow's fault " " Yes, of course it is," agreed Bunyip. " He would fire that last shot in spite of what we all said." " Whaur is he? Let me get ma hauns on the skeleton," growled Big Mackay. "Come here, ye " It is not the Shadow's fault that we have lost the lode," I put in; "but all the same, Pelican Creek camp is now broken up " "I say, Boss, does ye mind telling me now if ye ever get black ore and azurite in a lode forma- tion?" The speaker was the imperturbable Shadow. "Of course you can," I replied irritably. "But this is no time for a school of mines class. We have no lode " " Bet ye the M.P.'s whiskers we have." " What do you mean?" " I found the lode, an' it comes in rich azurite amongst black ore." "You're dreaming," said Morris; and the men laughed wearily. " No I ain't, New Chum. I ain't so all-fired skeert coming up a rope, even though them six plugs of gelignite were under me. I saw the lode there " " For Heaven's sake explain !" I cried. I'm trying to, Boss. I saw the stuff in the hole t 52 Land of Pearl and Gold the windlass made, and I shouted to ye to stop haul- ing, but ye wouldn't wait." " Why didn't you say that before, Shadow?" "You wouldn't let me " I waited to hear no more, and in a few seconds was dangling in front of the wall face that the iron-flanged drum of the windlass had broken in its impetuous descent. A pick was lowered to me, and a minute or so's work sufficed to show that the lode was there right enough, a few feet below where we had origi- nally calculated that it would be. It had altered its angle near that point, and had run down nearly vertical thence about a foot from our walls. Big Mackay then took my place, and in a short time erected a platform across the shaft, and the Shadow and he smashed into the wall with an energy worthy of a steam-engine. Before nightfall we knew that we had a lode of twenty-five per cent of copper sulphide, and, calculat- ing on being able to remove only that above water- level, we estimated that there was sufficient ore to repay us tenfold for our outlay and labour. Events proved we were correct, and the Golden Promise mine is now the deepest in the country. The Shadow did not get the promised thrashing from Big Mackay. " In Search of Eldorado " THE season wore on, and things went well with us. We had now two camps in working order, Pelican Creek Copper and Crocodile Crossing Silver mines. The former workings were now generally considered to be one of the most valuable group of mines in Northern Queensland, and the syndicate at home, whom I represented, had completed the arrangements necessary for taking them over and working them with the latest and most improved machinery them- selves. This fact, although in a way pleasing to me, because of my work having turned out so successful, was not hailed by my comrades with the unbounded delight one might naturally expect from men about to receive a substantial sum of money. Indeed, as the P. and O. steamer China, with the new mine manager on board, neared the Australian coast, their murmurs of dissent amounted almost to mutiny. " I am darned if I think it is fair for a man to come out here and play at being mine manager after another fellow has done all the work," growled Old Ruck one night, as we sat round our camp fire and discussed matters. " He'll be a darned clothes-prop of a new chum 68 54 Land of Pearl and Gold too," added the Shadow dismally, "an' won't know carbonate of copper from baking powder." " But you men can soon instruct him in all things pertaining to copper," I said. " Can we?" roared Bunyip Bill aggressively. " An' you can just bet the whole darned Australian Labour Party that we won't." " My sentiments too," cried the M.P., " but I'm off the bet. I consider the Labour Party " "Hang the Labour Party," snorted Big Mackay. " Here we've been living a life o' untrammelled independence. We were a' guid freens in this camp, an' noo a stranger is comin' oot tae break us up." "Darn it, Boss!" burst out the Shadow, who had been boiling over for the last few minutes, "you take it mighty quiet. Does ye not see that they is hittin' you too. You and Black Bill here found the place, an' now you are allowing another darned fool to come out and boss things. Why don't you or Morris manage the mines?" "Oh, I am a prospector, Shadow. My business is to find minerals. Any man can work them after they are found. But I can't afford to waste my life doing what other people can be paid to do." "There is something in that," mused the M.P., " for it would strike me as very funny to see the Boss writing out long mining reports for any board of directors in London or any other township." The men laughed as the supposed humour of the situation struck them, and I smiled also. I had written reports before. " But where do we come in?" enquired Black Bill. " In Search of Eldorado " 55 " It's all darned fine for you to go out prospecting, but what are we to do?" "Well, if you don't wish to stay here and assist the new mine manager to develop the properties you are all interested in, why, come with me." " Does ye mean it, Boss?" " Certainly." " Does the invitation apply to us all?" enquired the M.P. " It does, although I understood that you were standing for Murgoona again." "Oh, Murgoona can get the other fellow now. I'll teach the aborigines the fundamental principles of Socialism." "Will you have room for me in your party?" asked Morris, who had been more than usually silent during the evening. " Oh, Lor! we must have the New Chum with us," cried the men. " He can always help the cook if we don't get no mines for him to boss," added Ginger Bob. "You see there is room for you, Morris," I laughed. "You are our man of parts." "When will we start, then?" asked the Shadow, springing to his feet. " I must gather our horses in." " Not to-night, in any case," I replied; and he sat down again sorrowfully. Here Ginger Bob began to make preparations for supper, and before that meal was over, we had settled all our plans for the forthcoming prospecting expedi- tion, and arranged that we would start as soon as possible after the arrival of the new man from home. He came, a medium-sized, over-dressed young man, 56 Land of Pearl and Gold wearing eye-glasses and a three-inch collar, which, in the temperature of Pelican Creek, would choke him in a day. His language, too, was of that affected mincing nature which a certain section of Britons cultivate, and after the first hour of his company Morris and I felt sorry for him, and the life he would have among the unvarnished, outspoken miners. It was none of our business, however, although we won- dered why he had been chosen by the home people to represent their interests, seeing that he apparently knew next to nothing about copper. When we had done what we could to ensure success for him, Morris, who had been my deputy while I was at Crocodile Crossing, resigned command, and next day our party set out on a N.N.W. course, in- tending to go through to the Gulf by the Palmer River, if nothing worth stopping for was encountered. The new manager rode out with us the first few miles, and on saying good-bye, added: "You aw will let me know aw how you get along?" " I am afraid the postal service does not extend in the direction we are going," I said, " but if we do have any opportunity, we shall let you know of our movements." "Aw thank you aw if you don't turn up, or I do not hear from you aw in three months, I shall come out after you." " Oh, don't worry about us," I said, with as straight a face as I could assume. "We are strong enough to defend ourselves against the natives." " And your mother might be angry if you left home without telling her," added the M.P., with a look ot abstraction in his eyes. " In Search of Eldorado " 57 "Well, good-bye, and good luck to you!" I said hurriedly, as we shook hands all round and turned away. "Aw au revoir and aw good luck to you!" floated back to us; and we rode forward rapidly, so that we might allow our facial muscles to relax. "Good Lor!" gasped Shadow, when he was able to speak, "an' that is what is going to boss the miners. I'll bet three kicks at Bunyip there, old Sharkley will jump Pelican Creek in a week." " He's a long way worse than our own New Chum," said Old Ruck, gazing at Morris fondly. " Oh, he'll develop in time," spoke the M.P. " I have no doubt Mr. Morris was as green when he first struck this country." " No, darn ye, no," exclaimed the men in chorus angrily, while Morris protested that he at least never wore a stiff shirt. I had dim recollections, however, that Morris, when first I met him on the gold-fields of Western Australia, was extremely like the new manager in every way. Light-hearted and careless we rode on, and camped that night on the Walsh River, intending next day to cross and begin prospecting in earnest the country on this side having been gone over too many times previously to allow of our finding any- thing of value. Next morning, therefore, we divided ourselves into two parties, the one consisting of Morris, old Ruck, Ginger Bob, and Black Bill taking the western side of the ranges, while the other comprising the Shadow, the M.P., Bunyip Bill, Big Mackay, and myself negotiated the eastern and more broken -up slope. 58 Land of Pearl and Gold Each party carried its own supplies on pack-horses, and the arrangements were that each would push along on its own account to the Mitchell River, where, at an old camping-ground known to old Ruck and Bunyip Bill, the one arriving first would await the other. Morris's men soon got out of our range of vision, and spreading out so as to take in as much ground as possible, with Bunyip Bill on the left flank, while I formed the right about a mile off, we plunged into the wild bush that fringed the lower slopes of the ranges. Half an hour after losing sight of the other party, Big Mackay set up a series of shouts that would have done credit to a band of natives, and riding in on him, we found him wrenching huge irony -looking boulders from a long out -cropping reef. " A've struck it!" he roared. " The bonniest blue- an'-green copper formation man could wish for an' there's tons of it." 1 ' Get out ! " laughed the Shadow derisively. ' ' That isn't copper. That's antimony that's colourin' the formation." " Ma man," began Mackay, rising in his wrath, " dae ye think I need a streak o' concentrated bones like you tae tell me onything aboot copper?" "Don't argue about that just now," I interrupted. " Peg out the reef, and I'll chart it for future refer- ence. It happens to be a bismuth lode." Half an hour sufficed to measure, peg out, and place our first property to the credit of the expedition, then we moved on again. Several times during the next hour Bunyip Bill and the Shadow gave vent to " In Search of Eldorado " 59 sundry exclamations, which caused the others to turn towards them, until they were near enough to hear the tenor of their remarks. It was then presumed that they were merely passing their respective opinions anent each other, and had no desire to at- tract our attention, and we resumed our line of ad- vance again. Just about noon, however, Big Mac, who occupied the centre of our line, raised his voice in a stentorian shout, and we closed in once more. " More copper, Mac?" sang out the M.P., as he and I got within speaking distance. "Copper! Dae ye think there's naething but copper in this God-forsaken country?" bellowed the Scot, pointing to a pile of detached boulders. "There's a crocodile in there as big as a hoose, an' it barks like a dog." "Lor!" cried the Shadow in disgust, "has we come over to see a darned croc?" "It can't be a crocodile," I said. "Although amphibious, they would scarcely be so far from water. We are at least fifteen miles from the nearest water now." Mackay cast some of the rocks aside. "A'm gaun tae hae a look at the deevil noo, ony- way," he said. " Hallo! there he goes. Noo, what dae ye ca' that thing?" A long ungainly creature not unlike a crocodile waddled out and glared round at us defiantly, its forked tongue shooting out and in more quickly than the eye could follow, and all insects within a yard disappearing, as if magically, down its throat. Clearly the creature was of the lizard family, but it was by far the largest I had ever seen. 60 Land of Pearl and Gold " Lor!" cried the Shadow, as we dismounted, " Big Mackay has struck an outcrop of iguanas." "Never mind the poor wee animal," rejoined the big one, as the creature evaded the efforts of Bunyip and the M.P. to catch it. "Look at the stuff its hoose is made of!" He held up a piece of stone taken from the rocks just vacated. "That's plumbago," I said, noting the lead-like streak which the substance left on his hand. "Ye can start a lead-pencil factory now, Mac," laughed Bunyip Bill. " All ye want is wood now ye has got the graphite, and there's any amount of cedar trees back on the river." "Ma man," began Mackay, "if ye had half the sense o' an eediot ye wad ken enough tae haud yer tongue whiles. Noo, I had a dream last night, an' I dreamt that I was tae find something guid the day when I wadna be lookin' for it. What are ye a' laughing at?" Mackay looked as if he meant to deal drastically with his tormentors, who were now showering advice upon him in reference to dreams with an amazing fertility of imagination. There was something about the supposed graphite, however, which puzzled me, and the M.P. also seemed not quite satisfied. "Here's a bee's nest in this tree, Mackay," sang out Shadow. "Maybe these fellows make Scotch whisky out here. I knew a fellow who dreamt that one time down in Cloncurry, an' it must have been a true dream, for he was always cutting out bees' nests after that." "An' here is a bed of white ants," cried Bunyip. " In Search of Eldorado " 61 " I reckon I once dreamt they always camp on top of gold." " Ye pair o' unceevilized insults tae Nature," roared Mac, rushing at the two worthies. " I'll "Get out my porcelain crucible, Mac," I ordered; "this is not graphite." Big Mac instantly forgot his anger and hastened to unstrap my testing appliances from a pack-horse, and the Shadow and Bunyip came closer. The M.P. had broken off another piece of the formation in which the iguana had its home, and my pocket-microscope had revealed several peculiarities in the pearly - grey foliated mass that should not be graphite. "What can it be?" spoke the M.P. "It's too light for wolfram." " Molybdenite streaks porcelain green, according to the text-books," I answered, "but in all other easily- applied tests it is similar to plumbago or graphite. Give me the crucible, Mac. Ah ! there it is A faint greenish streak on the porcelain surface remained where I drew the material across, and I held it up to view. " Molybdenite! Great howling Bunyip!" exclaimed the Shadow. " Mac, I apologize," cried Bunyip Bill. " I reckon you're the best hand at dreams I knows." "Lor!" muttered the Shadow, "molybdenite is worth a hundred and thirty pounds a ton, too. We'll be bloated millionaires if Mackay sees any more iguanas." "Can you dream again to-night, Mac?" asked the M.P., with immovable face. And after satisfying himself that the late Member of Parliament was really 62 Land of Pearl and Gold desiring an answer to his question, Mac thought that if the Shadow and Bunyip would take his turn at camp work and cooking he would try. No one would listen to his proposal, however, so Mac resolved to dream no more. We spent the rest of the day in tracing the "strike" of the lode and in securing the ground according to regulations, but next day, having no water except that remaining in our water-bags, we had to move on. Two days after we reached the Mitchell River, and found that the other party had not yet arrived. They came in during the night, however, and reported the finding of a phenomenal copper "show", the testing and pegging of which had detained them. They brought some surface samples with them, which, on assaying, proved to be copper oxide ore carrying forty per cent metallic copper. We had thus found three properties which might prove of any value in four days, and felt very pleased with ourselves and things in general. So much so, indeed, that we spent the following week in hunting crocodiles and fishing along the banks of the river; but growing tired of an amphibious life although under a temperature of one hundred and twenty de- grees it was very pleasant we continued our pro- specting journey. Our method of advance was similar to that adopted at first. Both parties separated so as to prospect both sides of the north and south running ranges, with the intention of converging on the Palmer River. The first three days we travelled fast, preferring, if we were to find good mineral country, to do so in some valley open either to the Gulf of Carpentaria or " In Search of Eldorado " 63 to the coast via Laura and Cooktown, as any mines, except gold and osmiridium, could not be made pay- able in such inaccessible country as that we now traversed. Nevertheless, we were continually dis- covering lodes of different minerals, and often it took me half a day determining by exhaustive analysis what our finds really were. Thus we proceeded until we had fourteen properties added to our list on our own account, and the men were beginning to think we might as well save time by annexing Northern Queens- land at once, when we struck the Palmer. Finding we were some miles to the east of the appointed place of meeting, we started to move down the river. But the country here was almost impassable, owing to the broken-up nature of the surface and the impeding characteristics of the tropical vegetation. When within a mile of the prearranged camp, Bunyip Bill suddenly startled us by exclaiming: "Lor! boys, we've struck the Chinkies. Look! here's a mob of them comin'; get out yer guns " "Would you shoot a poor Chinaman, Bunyip?" said the Shadow reproachfully. 44 1 just reckon I would. They are the dirtiest thieves that ever lived. They would even steal tucker from a nigger; an' what right have they in this coun- try, anyhow? Isn't this Ostralya?" Bunyip was beginning to wax eloquent on the sub- ject, but the M.P., seeing his chance, imperiously ordered him to be silent, and commenced an address on the necessity of a white Australia. His lecture was never finished, however, for Big Mackay suddenly shouted: "A see ane dirty deevil wearing Mr. Morris's 64 Land of Pearl and Gold helmet," and rode to the left to intercept the oncom- ing rush of yellow men. " We must have struck one of the abandoned gold- fields of early days," I remarked. "It is well known down south that the Chinamen still work them at a profit." " I don't care a shandy what they does," yelled the Shadow. "They has been stealing from some white fellows' camp, an' Lor! I'll bet the M.P.'s hat I have seen the pants that fellow leading is wearing be- fore- " Of course you have," cried Bunyip, as the Shadow seemed lost in the profound depths of recollection. "They was once your own " " Lor! an' how did a Chinkey come to have them?" gasped the astonished Shadow. " I reckon I'll see into this." He galloped after Big Mackay, and recognizing now, as the Chinamen came nearer, several familiar articles, we all started to head them off and investi- gate. We soon rounded them into a clump of screw pines, and the M.P. demanded where they got his shirt. "An' whaur did ye steel ma breeks, ye ungodly crew?" Big Mackay roared. "An' that book on 'How to Feed Children'?" added Bunyip. "I reckon I got it with some pain killer I bought in Murgoona." "Come on, ye confounded Chinkies!" yelled the Shadow, riding among them and assuming posses- sion of some garments by force. " Out with the yarn afore ye has time to think of any Sunday-school stories " " In Search of Eldorado " 65 "We no confoundee chinkie," cried one of the Celestials in a high falsetto voice. " We all payee poll taxee. We Ostralian allee samee you. No stealee bleeks no know nothing about feeding childlen. We fight and killee you d d white fellows you comee hele." The speaker displayed a revolver as he spoke, and his comrades suddenly produced ferocious-looking knives from some recesses in their garments. There were about a dozen of them altogether, and it looked as if we might have our hands full in dealing with them. "That is Morris's revolver," I cried. "Give it to me." " Me see you d d." "What!" roared Big Mackay, seizing the China- man by his pigtail and throwing him to the ground, "you would speak that way to the Boss, would you, ye monkey-faced lisper?" "Killee him, killee him!" shrieked the fallen man; and his comrades made a rush at the big Scot. "Don't shoot until they draw blood," shouted the M.P.; "remember the law " "Which you darned well helped to make, you fat- headed fool," rejoined Bunyip Bill, clubbing one of the aliens with his rifle. Meanwhile we had all joined in the fray, and as strange a battle as was ever fought raged for five minutes. The Bunyip and Shadow each fought his oppo- nents in the latest approved fashion. The M.P. threw his man down anyhow, and wherever I saw a yellow head I brought my rifle stock down upon it with an energy I mentally calculated to be more than (B823) 6 66 Land of Pearl and Gold equal to four thousand foot-pounds per minute. But it was Big Mackay who saved the situation. He caught a Chinaman in each hand as they threw them- selves upon him, and, after knocking their heads to- gether, and giving them some advice in a wonderful kind of Scotch dialect, threw them into the river. This operation he repeated until he had handled twice as many Chinamen as there were in the original party, then he paused in amazement. " Michty me!" he exclaimed. " Hoo many deevils are there?" " Don't stop, Mac," I called out. "They must be getting less." The others were too much engaged to make any comment bearing on the subject. They did say several things, however, in that crisp, emphatic lan- guage they so often used, and I do hope the Celestials profited thereby. Big Mac continued to throw the slippery, sleek individuals into the river, and I began to wonder if they were coming out of the ground. I was also getting very tired, and the perspiration streamed from my face in torrents, although I did not seem to be as warm as most of the enemy who came under my clubbed rifle they being so greasy with moisture that the Shadow complained of his difficulty in getting his blow to stop where he wanted it. At length, however, the enigma was solved, and again it was the observant Mac who shone. "Here's ane A've seen before," he cried, poising one in mid-air. " I wonder what's familiar aboot him? " He cast him after the others and watched him. " Ah, A've got it noo!" he yelled. " That's the ane " In Search of Eldorado " 67 wi' ma breeks. Gie me back ma breeks, ye deevil. Hallo! " He rushed down to the water's edge and then gave vent to an ejaculation of surprise. "He's no here!" he cried. "Ah! they're comin' oot o' the water as fast as I fling them in, an' joining in the fecht again!" " Oh, Lor!" gasped the Shadow. " What can we do with them?" "I reckon we'll have to kill them," said Bunyip Bill. "You can't," cried the Shadow. "A Chinkey won't kill. Let us tie them to the palm-trees with their pigtails. Or how would it do to tie all their pigtails together?" "Good idea, Shadow!" cried the M.P. "And a hitch round each with a rope afterwards will just about fix them." This plan was at once acted upon, and very soon the Chinamen were tethered together in a screaming, struggling mass. "Shut up, ye darned skunks!" roared Bunyip threateningly. "We killee you. No doing nothing wlong. You no light touchee us. We payee poll taxee ow " The shrieking ceased suddenly, for the Shadow had drawn his sheath knife and made a significant gesture with it. "This circus has got to stop," he said, "or off come all your darned pigtails." And the circus did stop, for in Australia, whatever he may think elsewhere, the loss of his pigtail is the greatest calamity that can befall a Celestial. " Now," I said, addressing the leader, when they 68 Land of Pearl and Gold realized their position, " tell us how you came to be in possession of these articles, and if you explain satis- factorily we will let you go." "You givee you wold?" "I give my word." "Oh," began the Chinaman, and we clustered round eagerly, "white fellows come along an' camp along Chinaman's camp. We mine gole hele By an' by up comes big mob of niggels an' wipe out white fellows " "What!" we roared. " Not wipe out zactly. We go help them an' wipe out niggels, an' they give us these plesents." "And where are they now?" "Camped down the river all light. You let us go now? You wold!" "Let them go, boys," I said. "We'll push on." " Hadn't we better see if they are telling the truth first?" suggested the M.P. "A'll hae ma breeks, onyway," muttered Mackay. " Nae man had a richt to gie awa' what he only bor- rowed." " But we get them plesents," expostulated the Celestial, as my comrades resumed possession of their own. "And when we hear our comrades' story you will receive their equivalent in cash if you call for it," I said. "It so happens that most of these articles belong to this party, and were only loaned to the others " The Chinamen jabbered to themselves in their own language, apparently afraid that we would adopt a speedy method of setting them free. But we carefully " In Search of Eldorado " 69 loosened them by hand, and, after repeating our pro- mise to make a cash payment for our goods if they called for it, we proceeded down the river, whilst they remained watching us. It soon became evident that they had made a mistake in the distance between our comrades' camp and us, for we had left at least six miles behind us ere we came into an area of aban- doned surface workings, amidst which were some rude erections fantastically adorned, and which, from the hieroglyphics painted above the doorways, we knew were Chinese stores. "This place has not been long abandoned," I observed, pointing to the smouldering embers of a fire on which hung a billy. "What crook game is the darned Chinkies play- ing?" demanded the Shadow. "An* whaur is Morris and the boys?" asked Big Mac suspiciously. "Here is the track of Black Bill's horse," cried Bunyip. " I know it, 'cos one of its shoes is broken." " Then follow it," I ordered ; and we at once headed through the deserted mines farther down the river. We were now in a great state of excitement, and feared that our comrades had been treacherously dealt with by the Chinese, for on no other supposi- tion could we account for the deserted gold mines. But our suspense was ended before we saw our comrades, for, as we climbed a bluff which barred our progress, we heard Old Ruck's voice blending with Black Bill's and Ginger Bob's in a poetical flow of language which, although unprintable, was as music to us. The Shadow, Bunyip, and the M.P. took up the chorus, actuated by a sort of sympathetic feeling, 70 Land of Pearl and Gold I suppose, and in the midst of the concert we rode into our comrades' camp, and I enquired what was wrong. "Wrong!" growled Black Bill. " We've been bested by darned Chinkies." "An' there was no aborigines?" queried the Shadow. " Nary a one. The Chinks hocussed us, and that's all." "We have been fortunate in finding mineral pro- perties," began Morris, "but unfortunate otherwise. We struck this camp last night, and knowing that there was a Chinese encampment somewhere near, and being out of one or two little conveniences, we rode into their place and purchased what we required at their store. We all bought some tobacco, and it must have been drugged, for I remember nothing more after lighting a cigarette I made when we came back until an hour or so ago, when I awoke and found our camp had been robbed. I have just assayed I mean, analysed the tobacco, and find that there is some foreign substance in it, but not opium." " No," I said, examining the tobacco; "it contains pidcherie, one of the most potent drugs known. It is found only by the aborigines, from whom the Chinese doubtless stole it. It is a wonder you are alive " "Here's your property, anyhow. We got it back for you," said the M.P. ; and we handed back the articles we had recovered. They were, however, only a part of what had been stolen. "An' now we've got to go an' get square with the darned thieves for this," cried Black Bill gleefully. "Come on, boys!"