The Eureka Stockade Part 17

Thomas Allen examined.--(See Report of the n.i.g.g.e.r-Rebel State Trial, in 'The Age', February 24th, 1855.)

"This witness was so very deaf that the Attorney-General had actually to bawl out (oh! pity the lungs!) the questions necessary to his examination. He stated, he kept the Waterloo coffee-house and store at the Eureka. He had just returned from Melbourne on the Sat.u.r.day, December 2nd. He heard inside the stockade the word to 'fall in' for drill. Saw them go through several military evolutions. They did not exactly go through them in a military manner, but in the way in which what call an 'awkward squad' might do.-- (I believe you, Old Waterloo; go a-head). He had been at the battle of Waterloo, and knew what military evolutions were. Saw one squad with pikes and another with rifles. He heard one of them say, 'Shoulder poles,'

then he said, 'Order poles,' 'Ground arms,'

'Stand at ease,' 'Pick up poles,' 'Shoulder arms,'

'Right face,' 'Quick march,' 'Right counter march,'

and they were then marched for more than two hours.

After that he saw them 'fall in three deep,' and were then told (by Captain Hanrahan) to prepare to 'receive cavalry,' and 'charge cavalry'--Poke your pike into the guts of the horse, and draw it out from under their tail.

" After that, in the evening, he saw the man who was in command again form his men around him, and he seemed to be reading a general order for the night. After it got night, one of them came up to him and said, 'Now, Old Waterloo, you must come and join us,' and he threw down a pike which he told him to take. He said, 'No; it is such a d----d ugly one, I'll have nothing to do with it.' Another came, and witness asked what bounty he gave, saying 50 pounds was little enough for an old Waterloo man. Because he would not join them he was taken into custody by them, and was guarded by three men with pikes at his door. (Great works!) All this was on Sat.u.r.day. His tent was the second inside the stockade. His tent and all his property was destroyed by fire, it all amounted to 200 pounds. He believed it was set fire to by the police." (And so it was, old Waterloo-no-bolter, good-hearted old man as ever lived in the world. If you wish call for a copy of this book; do.)

NOTICE

GREAT WORKS!!

This day, Sat.u.r.day, November 10th, 1855. A glorious day for Ballaarat: Peter Lalor, our late Commander-in-Chief, being elected by unanimous acclamation, Member of the Legislative Council for this 'El Dorado.'

I spoke at the Camp face to face with James M`Gill. We shook hands with mutual respect and friends.h.i.+p.

M`Gill, at my request, looked full in my eyes, and a.s.sured me, that the order old Waterloo speaks of, was to the effect of appointing officers for watch at the stockade, for 'out-posts' to keep a sharp look-out, for march to intercept reinforcements; in short, an order for military discipline, very necessary under the prevailing excitement. Said order for the night (Sat.u.r.day, December 2nd) was drawn up by his command, and written black on white by Alfred, the brother of George Black.

M`Gill further stated that the supposed 'Declaration of Independence,'

on the model of the American one, is a gratuitous falsehood, which must have originated from some well-disposed for, or well-affected to, Toorak small-beer.

Hence,

James M`Gill hereby directs me to challenge the production of the doc.u.ment in question, either the original or copy of it, of course with satisfactory evidence of its being a genuine article.

I express the hope that H. R. Nicholls, ex-member of the Local Court, Ballaarat, will take notice of the above.

Let us return to the Eureka stockade.

Chapter LII.

Quadrupedante Putrem Sonitu Quat.i.t Ungula Campum.

The excitement was of Satan. It was reported, the whole of the Melbourne road was swarming with fresh reinforcements. The military would soon attack the stockade, but Vern would lead the diggers to death or glory.

I went out to get positive information, and I did see some two hundred red-coats stationed under arms at the foot of Black hill. The general impression spread like wild-fire that the diggers would now all be slaughtered.

I returned, and was anxious to communicate with Lalor. The council room was guarded by Californian faces, perfect strangers to me. The 'pa.s.s-word'

had been changed, and I was refused admittance.

Old colonial-looking fellows rode to and fro from all parts: some brought canisters of gunpowder and bags of shot; others, fire-arms and boxes of caps.

They had been pressing stores.

All at once burst out a clamorous shouting. Captain Ross was entering the stockade in triumph with some old fire-arms and a splendid horse.

They had been sticking up some three or four tents, called the Eureka government camp. Great Works! that could have been done long before, without so much fuss about it; and, forsooth, what a benefit to mankind in general, that Commissioner Amos, ever since, was so frightened as to get his large eyes involuntary squinting after his mare!!

Sly-grog sellers got also a little profit out of the Eureka Stockade.

A fellow was selling n.o.bblers out of a keg of brandy hanging from his neck.

It required Peter Lalor in person to order this devil-send out of the stockade.

'Press for,' was the order of the hour. Two men on horseback were crossing the gully below. Young Black--the identical one with a red s.h.i.+rt and blue cap, who took down the names round Lalor's stump, on Bakery-hill on Thursday morning, and who, to the best of my knowledge never had yet been within the stockade--came out of the committee-room, and hastened up to me with the order to pick out some men and press those two horses in.

I gave him a violent look, and made him understand that 'I won't do the bushranger yet.' The order was however executed by fresh hands entirely unknown to me, who rushed towards the hors.e.m.e.n, shouted to both of them to stop, and with the threat of the revolver compelled them to ride their horses within the stockade. I felt disgusted at the violence.

The reign of terror will not strike root among Britons because the Austrian rule does not thrive under the British flag; and so here is a crab-hole that brave Lalor alone can properly log up.

I asked in German from Vern the 'pa.s.s-word,' and on whispering 'Vinegar-hill'

to the sentinels, I was allowed to get out of the Stockade.

"Nein, sagte ich mirselbst, nein, eine solche eckliche Wirthschaft habe ich noch nie geseh'n.

"Nom d'un nom! c'est affreux. Ces malheureuf sont-ils donc possedes?

"Odi profanum vulgus et arceo.

"Por vida deDios! por supuesto jo fuera el Duke de Alba, esos Gavachos, carajo, yo los pegaria de bueno.

"Che casa del diavolo, per Dio! Che ti pare! niente meno si spalanca l'inferno. Alla larga! Sor Fattorone: p.r.o.nti denari, Fan patti chiari.

Minca coglione!"

Such were more or less the expressions to give vent to my feelings on my way to the Prince Albert Hotel, Bakery-hill, to meet there a friend or two, especially my old mate, Adolphus Lessman, Lieutenant of the Rifle-men.

Chapter LIII.

Turbatus Est A Furore Oculus Meus.

The following is the scene, so characteristic of the times, as it was going on at the Prince Albert:--

"Who's the landlord here?" was the growl from a sulky ruffian, some five feet high, with the head of a bull-dog, the eyes of a vulture, sunken in a ma.s.s of bones, neglected beard, sun-burnt, grog-worn, as dirty as a brute,--the known cast, as called here in this colony, of a 'Vandemonian,' made up of low, vulgar manners and hard talk, spiked at each word, with their characteristic B, and infamous B again; whilst a vile oath begins and ends any of their foul conceits. Their glory to stand oceans of grog, joined to their benevolence of 'shouting'

for all hands, and their boast of black-eye giving, nose-smas.h.i.+ng, knocking in of teeth, are the three marks of their aristocracy.

Naturally cowards, they have learned the secret that 'Pluck,' does just as well for their foul jobs. Grog is pluck, and the more grog they swallow, the more they count on success. Hence their frame, however robust by nature, wears out through hard drink, and goes the way of all flesh, rarely with grey hairs. It is dangerous to approach them; they know the dodge how to pick up a quarrel for the sake of gratifying their appet.i.te for fighting. You cannot avoid them in this colony; they are too numerous.

I saw hundreds of these Vandemonians, during my four months in gaol.

Their heart must be of the same stuff as that of vultures, because they are of the same trade. In a word, they are the living witnesses among us, of the terrible saying of Isaiah, 'The heart of man is desperately wicked.'

Through such did Satan plant his standard to rule this southern land, before Christ could show his Cross; hence, before famous Ballaarat could point at a barn, and call it a church, on the towns.h.i.+p, old Satan had three palaces to boast of, the first of which--a match for any in the world--has made the landlord as wealthy and proud as a merchant-prince of the City of London.

'Non ex illis Mecoenates,'--that's the secret how this land has produced so many first-rate bullock-drivers.