TOWNSVILLE: MORE COLONIAL EXPERIENCES.
I had now paid out to me twelve pounds sterling as the balance of wages
due, so it will be perceived that I had not been extravagant. Yet I am
afraid that if I had been taking my wages up weekly I should not have
had so much, if, indeed, anything. Yet here were the twelve pounds now,
and that was the main thing. It made over a hundred Danish dollars,
quite a large sum to me. Then I considered where I should go next. There
were some gold mines inland within one or two hundred miles, but I did
not know the road, or else I should have gone there. Just then there had
been opened another port north of Port Denison, viz., Townsville. I
understood that if a man wanted to make money, he should go there; or
rather I understood the further north I went the more pay I should get,
on account of its being hotter there, but that down south, were the
climate was supposed to be better, carpenters where not in demand. So,
"Northwards, ho!" was my cry. The steamer left Port Denison the next day
for Townsville, and I was among the passengers. It is on leaving one of
these small ports on the Queensland coast that I have always more than
at any other time been impressed with the utter loneliness in which they
lie. One sees the few houses and appurtenances like a speck on the
coast, and north and south the long vast coastline. We steamed along all
the evening, night, and next morning, and towards noon my attention was
directed to some small white specks on the beach. That was Townsville,
the new settlement where money was to be made. The steamer I was in
could not run close, but lay out in the bay until another very small
steamer came out and took us all on board. Then in another half-hour we
ran into a small creek, past three or four galvanized iron sheds, and
here we were at the wharf in the middle of the main street of the town.
Townsville lies on the bank of a small river or creek called Ross Creek,
which when I was there was remarkable for being stocked with alligators.
One could not very well, therefore, cross the creek without some danger,
and at that time all the people and all the houses without a single
exception, lay on the south side of the creek. Ross Creek formed, I
might say, one side of the main street. Facing it lay a number of small
shanties, some made of packing cases and old tin; others again, built
with a view to permanency, of nicely dressed sawn timber, and looking
like rich relations in contrast to their poor neighbours. This was
Flinders Street, or Townsville proper. For about ten chains this row of
houses ran, and facing it, on the other side of the creek, was one vast
wilderness of swamp, long grass and trees. When one had passed the row
of houses composing the street there were turns off to the bush in all
directions, and tents, huts, or sheets of galvanized iron stood all
about the street. Up behind the street were some tremendous-looking
mountains, and here such people as the doctors, civil servants, &c.
seemed to have fixed their abode. The most splendid views could be
obtained up there right over the sea and the numerous small islands.
Then the climate, which at least at that time was supposed to be
somewhat unhealthy down below, was very much better on the highlands.
While I was in Townsville my greatest pleasure was to take my lunch with
me in a morning and then scramble up there to some place from which the
best view could be had, and sit there all day. That was a cheap and
harmless pleasure, but to do so at the present time would be trespass,
because all the land about there is now sold at so much per foot, and no
one but the owners have a right either to the soil or the air, or even
the view. It seems wrong to me that it should be so. I wonder what will
become of poor people when the day arrives when all the world is thus
cut up into freehold property! If I had at that time invested the ten
pounds I carried in my pocket in a piece of land, it would certainly
have been worth thousands of pounds to-day, and I believe I might even
have been worth tens of thousands. Then I might without further trouble
have been myself a "leading Colonist" to-day!
On looking around one would scarcely think that this place and Bowen
were in the same country. In Bowen everybody seemed to have plenty of
time. The shopkeepers there would stand in their doorways most of their
time, or go visiting one another. Then, although Bowen was so much
larger than Townsville, there seemed to be no people in it. But here
there were crowds everywhere, and seemingly not an idle man. People
appeared rather to run than to walk. I walked up the street and looked
into a half-finished building where half a dozen carpenters were at
work. I watched them well. They were all men in their prime, and if they
did not work above their strength they were good men assuredly! There
was quite a din of hammers and saws. It was terrible! I felt very much
afraid that I should not be able to match myself against any one of
them, but on the principle of not leaving until to-morrow what might be
done to-day, I asked one where the "boss" was? He pointed to a man
alongside who also was working terribly hard, and this gentleman sang
out to me from the scaffold, "What do you want, young fellow?" So I said
that I wanted work.
"All right," cried he, "I'll give you a job, but I have no time to talk
before five o'clock; you can wait." Then I stood waiting, and feeling
half afraid to tackle the work, until the "boss" sang out "five
o'clock."
What a relief every man must have felt. Each seemed to drop his tool
like a hot potato. I remember well my feelings. I knew before the
contractor spoke to me that he was a bully, from the way he spoke to the
other man. He came up to me.
"Well, what is it you can do?"
"I am a carpenter and joiner."
"Oh, you are a German."
"No, I am not."
"What sort of a new chum are you then?"
"I asked you if you wanted a carpenter."
"Where were you working before?"
"In Bowen."
"What wages did you get there?"
"Thirty pounds a year."
"Do you know that I expect my men to earn fourteen shillings a day?"
"I will do as much work as I can, and I do not expect you to pay me more
than I can earn."
"Got any tools?"
"No."
"I do not want you then!"
Did ever any one get such an unprovoked insult? I felt as if I could
never ask another man for work again. Although I had learned a little
English, it was far from sufficient to allow me to set up and work on my
own account. I knew that very well, and although I kept telling myself
that most likely here there would be plenty of other contractors to go
to, yet I was in very low spirits as I went off looking for a suitable
boarding-house. The place I came to did not impress me as being either
clean or comfortable. I went in at the door only because I saw on the
signboard the words "Diggers' home," or "Bushman's home." I forget
exactly what it was, but I understood there was "home" about it, and as
I was just then longing very much for such comforts as the word "home"
is associated with, I went in. It was just tea-time and about thirty men
were sitting on two wooden forms around the one table, eating. The
uncouth way in which they were gormandizing was terrible to witness.
English working people show, I think, greater anxiety to possess what
are popularly called "table manners" than does the same class where I
came from. The former hold their knives and forks in faultless style,
but they seem never to have learned what is the great point in table
manners. This is a point on which I was very strictly brought up, and as
one cannot very well criticise another's manner of eating while sitting
alongside him at table, I think I might without offence give valuable
advice here. It is this. Close your lips while you are eating,
gentlemen. It does not matter half so much to some people how you hold
your fork.
There were among the others at the table two of my shipmates, who, as
they told me, were working at their trade for four pounds a week. They
were dressed in the height of fashion, and would not speak Danish at all
to me. One of them informed me in a sort of language that I am sure no
Englishman could have understood, that he had almost quite forgotten
Danish. As I had a craving just then for sympathy, I told them how I had
fared when I had asked for work, but all the sympathy I received was the
remark that it was smart fellows only who were needed in Townsville.
They agreed thoroughly about that, and then whenever they could repeat
the formula "I get four pounds per week," they did it _ore rotundo_.
Evidently they had a heartfelt contempt for one like me, who had been
working for only a few shillings a week. After tea, I was, on stating
that I wanted to stay for a week, shown into a small room wherein stood
six stretchers, or beds, as close as could be. One had scarcely room to
squeeze about among them. The middle of the room seemed to be a sort of
main passage two feet wide between the beds on each side, leading to
rooms beyond, and there the rest of the thirty boarders would tramp in
and out. The landlord, on showing me one of these beds as mine, demanded
a pound sterling of me in advance as one week's payment. "Beautiful
home." "Comfortable abode." I regretted that I had left Bowen, as I
thought of my clean private room there. I did not, however, pay for a
week beforehand. I paid only for my supper and a shilling for the use of
the bed or "home" for that night. I sat there on the bed for a quarter
of an hour, listening to all the noises around me. Then I felt that I
could not suffer it any longer, so I went out. It was a beautiful
moonlight night. To get out past the houses was only the work of five
minutes, and I kept walking on along a road I came to until I was well
past all signs of civilization. I had taken my flute with me as the best
means which yet remained to soothe my troubles, and then I sat down to
play. How much better I felt out there under the gum-trees! That
foul-smelling boarding-house seemed to trouble me no longer. I would not
return to it. Better by far to sleep out there under the open sky! I
sang and played and worked myself into quite a romantic feeling. At last
I fell soundly asleep.
The next day I began more carefully to look out for a boarding-house,
but it was all one. There were enough of them indeed, but in all there
was not one which did not to my mind look more like a rabbit warren than
a "home" or a "rest," or whatever the name might be that was put over
the door. A couple of places were kept by Chinamen. They at least seemed
more honest, because they made no pretence of offering their guests what
they had not got. All the accommodation they offered was a shelf for
each man, and there seemed to be an air of "take it or leave it alone"
about them which I liked. But none of these suited me, and so I went to
the hotels, and for one pound ten shillings per week I got white man's
accommodation: a room for myself and every civility. How anybody like my
two grandly-dressed countrymen could, if they earned four pounds a
week, prefer the other place to this, I did not understand.
I might now with much satisfaction have finished my writing here by
telling the reader how I obtained work the next day for fourteen
shillings per day, and how I saved and persevered until I myself became
a contractor--if such had been the case. But the truth must be told, and
that is that I kept delaying day by day to ask any one for a job. Every
day I would walk about the town, and passed and re-passed houses under
erection, but I could not bring myself to go and speak to any one for
fear of meeting the same fate that befell me the day I arrived. When I
came home to the hotel from such an expedition, I would console myself
by recounting my money and reckoning up how many Danish dollars it was.
That seemed to reassure me. Certainly it went fast, but on the whole I
was in no way alarmed over myself, because I knew very well that when
the necessity came a little nearer I should easily get something to do.
Meanwhile I could go out every day shooting, fishing, and enjoying
myself as best I could.
One of the first days I was in Townsville, I went out in the main road
leading to the gold diggings, and when I was about a mile or two out of
town I came to a house which attracted my attention. It was very small,
the walls were built of saplings, the roof was covered with bark, tin,
and all sorts of odd materials. The door was made of a sapling frame
with bagging stretched across it. Yet the place had a cool, clean sort
of appearance, and under the verandah in a home-made squatter's chair
sat a man smoking a long pipe. Yet I should probably have passed by
without taking notice of any of these details if it had not been that in
front of the house, but close to the road, was erected a sort of frame
like a gallows, and from it dangled in a most conspicuous way an empty
bottle. Underneath was a piece of board nailed to a tree, and on it was
written with chalk the one word thrice repeated: "Bier. Bier. Bier."
That caused me to look at the man, and I perceived it was one of my
shipmates. This man was between fifty and sixty years old when he landed
nine months before with his wife and eight children. I am very certain
that he did not then own more than I did myself, but he had on the
voyage exhibited such a cheerful disposition, and had such a happy knack
of always trying to explain things in a way that would make one think
that any misfortune that might happen would have been just the very
thing wanted, that he had been a general favourite. But when we came to
Bowen nobody had engaged him and his eight children, and so he had been
sent here, and now I saw him sitting smoking his pipe under the verandah
with great gusto. He seemed as glad to see me as I was to see him, and
asked me to come and sit on a box which stood alongside him, and to have
a smoke out of his long pipe. Then he began to spin his yarn. His girls
were at service, the two of them, and had each ten shillings per week,
and they brought it all home, for they were good girls. He had got
somebody to apply for this land for him on his land order, "and here,"
he said, "right and left is all mine. Me and mother built the house
ourselves; come inside and see."
"But," said I, "what is the meaning of that empty bottle you have hung
up there?"
"Oh," cried he, "did you not see my signboard. I sell beer. I cannot
understand their blessed language, but I thought if I showed them the
bottle they would know what it meant, and Annie drew that signboard
herself last Sunday she was home; she is a splendid scholar, you
know--you should only hear her talk English. It fetches them right
enough. You will see nearly everybody who comes along the road must be
in here and have his beer."
Then we went inside, and there were the old lady and her children, as
happy as could be. Now I had to tell my history, and after much argument
my friend made me believe that the reason the contractor had not given
me a job was because I had told him the truth. "You should have said you
earned fifteen shillings a day in Bowen, that you would not work under
sixteen shillings now; that is the way. Always tell them you can do
anything."
Good old fellow! How cheerful I felt when at last I went away. I laughed
to myself, too, at his important self-confident air. If he has kept his
land and sold beer to this day, I am sure he can smoke his pipe now with
great complacency--unless, indeed, riches, a circumstance over which he
had no control, have spoiled him.
In the hotel in which I stayed were several other lodgers, among them an
elderly man with a long beard and a most fatherly air. He became daily
more friendly to me, and at the end of the first week he told me he was
himself a Dane, and that he had been in the Colonies a great many years.
He said he had watched me with growing interest; that he generally was
chary of offering his friendship to anybody, but that he now was
satisfied that I was a respectable, well-meaning youth, and that his
heart went out towards me. Of course the least I, under the
circumstances, could do was to accept his proffered friendship in the
same spirit in which it was offered, and I told him frankly all my
business, and how I was still smarting under the insult I had received
on my first arrival in Townsville to such a degree that from day to day
I could not bring myself to ask for work again, and how, I added, my bit
of money was going fast. He, on his part, gave me to understand that he
was not a rich man, although several times he had made his fortune.
"But," said he, "I never let the left hand know what the right hand is
doing. Sometimes, as for instance now, I run myself quite short; it does
not matter, I can always make enough for myself as long as God gives me
strength."
I went with him to church on the Sunday, although I did not understand a
word of what the parson said, but my ancient friend had already acquired
a sort of proprietorship over me, and as he seemed to be intensely
religious, it imparted a kind of holy feeling to me to sit near him.
After church, he lectured me on religion very severely, and all the time
I knew him he prayed devoutly both morning and evening. A few days
after, he told me he had taken a contract from one of the storekeepers
in town to cut hay. He said that a man could cut a load of hay in a day,
and that he was to get thirty shillings a load for it. He would now,
said he, have to buy a horse and dray, and would also have to look out
for a partner. I asked him if he thought I might do, and said that if I
could not work as much as he I should not expect the same pay, but that
I was confident that I would not be far behind.
"Well, I might do;" he would like to have me for a partner, but he
understood that I had very little money. It would be necessary for his
partner to have at least thirty pounds, as the horse and dray alone
would cost forty pounds, and we should have to buy tools and to keep
ourselves in rations for some time. I was very sorry that I had got only
something like eight pounds. "All right;" he would take me if I would do
the best I could. He had already an offer for a horse and dray. Then we
set about buying a tent and a lot of rations in a store, also scythes
and one thing and another necessary for the job. My partner advised me
that we should not pay for it just then, as we were to deliver hay for
the money. The same day we left with all our things packed in our swags,
and went into the bush about four miles, where there was plenty of long
grass suitable for haymaking, and there we pitched our tent.
Here I worked for a couple of months with the utmost eagerness. It was a
time of long summer days, and from daylight to dark was I at it, doing
my level best. My partner had bought a horse and a dray, and was taking
hay into town every day, but he did not work much at home. Of course, as
he said, he was getting to be old, and could not work as formerly; but
then he did all the business, and, according to his estimate, we earned
a couple of pounds every day. As for me, I worked contented and happy,
although we had not yet taken any money for the hay and I had given my
partner every sixpence I possessed to help in buying the horse and dray.
We lived very frugally, too--at least, I did; my partner had his dinner
in town, but that was only a necessity when he was bringing hay
in--because, as he said, he did not believe in all this gorging and
over-feeding which was customary in these latter days. As for smoking
tobacco, he was much against it, and declared it to be not only a wicked
but a dirty habit; so, to please him, I had given up the pipe. I made
breakfast for him in the morning, and was at work before he rose. I had
supper ready for him when he came home at night, and I never spared
myself or gave a thought to the unequal distribution of work between us.
One evening my partner did not come home. I was very anxious, picturing
to myself all sorts of dreadful calamities which might have happened to
him. In the morning I went into the town to the storekeeper, whom I
understood bought the hay, but I could get no satisfaction there. They
had not seen him for a week, they said, and only bought hay
occasionally. I thought they did not understand me, and I went to
another storekeeper, and got a similar answer. As I stood quite
bewildered in the street, I saw the horse and dray coming past, and a
stranger driving. On inquiry, I learnt that the man who was driving had
bought the whole concern the day before for thirty-five pounds. While we
were yet talking one of my countrymen came up and wanted to know about
the horse and cart too, and, to make a long story short, it appeared
that my mate had borrowed, on one pretext and another, from the Danes in
town nearly a hundred pounds in small sums. He had also bought the horse
and dray with a very small cash deposit, and sold them for cash, got
paid for all the hay we had cut, and owing for our rations in one of the
stores besides, he had cleared out. Benevolent-looking old hypocrite,
when I found it all out, I felt as if I could have----never mind--what
is the good? say no more. I had not got a copper. I went up to the hotel
where I had been staying before I had started haymaking, and began to
pour out my tale of woe to the publican, with no other object than to
get sympathy. The publican looked absent-minded, then he smiled: he
always thought old ---- had a "smart look" about him. "And so he has
done all of you new chums, eh! Say it again. How was it he did it? You
are too soft for this country."
I was on the point of leaving, when a man came in and asked me if I was
old ----'s partner. I said "yes." Would I be so good as to pay this bill
for two pounds odd shillings at once, or if I did not he would make me
into sausages. This was too much. I know myself to be good-natured, and
I told him so, but if he had any evil designs on me, why I would pull
his nose. We had a long conversation on this matter, and at last he
agreed not to annihilate me there and then, and I on my part declared
myself satisfied if he would give me his pipe and tobacco and let me
have a good long smoke as a sort of proof to me that he bore me no
ill-will. When peace was thus restored, he became very friendly, and
explained to me that he had misunderstood the matter before, and that he
was very sorry for me, but that he would yet make my partner pay us all
if I would only leave it to him and go home. "Only leave it to him"? I
had nothing else to do but to go home, because in the camp there was at
least a bit to eat. So home I went. But what a change had now come about
in my fortune! Not only the loss of the money--although that was
serious enough, but there was the shock to my faith in human nature! Who
could I put faith in after this? I began in a sort of mechanical way to
cut hay again just to get away from my thoughts. Then I threw the tools
as far as I could, and went to lie down in the tent with my mind in a
state of blank. Where would I go, and what should I do next? After a
while, the man who had wanted me to pay a bill came and posted a bill on
a tree. He inquired of me if I had a horse, and seemed very sorry for me
when I told him "no." He informed me also that I must not remove
anything, as to do so would be stealing. I understood sufficient of the
proceedings to know that he also would be very "smart" if he could, and
he was scarcely gone, before a man came with another summons, which was
pasted underneath the first. This would never do, thought I. Was I to
allow myself to be made a cricket-ball of by every one who chose to play
with me. I must be "smart" too, and as soon as I got the idea, it struck
me as an immense joke. Would it have been wicked, thought I, if I had
been able to work a double game on the old swindler who had taken me in?
They seemed to show respect for the swindler, and contempt for the dupe;
but then there was the risk of cheating honest people, and that I could
never do. No, that must not be. But talking about cheating and stealing,
as the fellows who had posted the summonses on the trees had done, now
they were trying to get paid their score out of the few things which
were left in the camp without regard to me, and had the impudence to
tell me that I must not remove anything. Bosh! Was it not paid for with
my own money? Certainly all there might not fetch ten shillings, but who
had a better right or more need of it than I? So, as the first step in
"smartness," I remembered that possession amounts to nine points of the
law, and for the rest I would in my mind keep a sort of profit and loss
account, and I began at once by writing down my present score and
leaving open the opposite page for such circumstances as the future
might have in store. Dangerous thoughts, I admit, but this is the truth,
and having found a weapon in this determination, it did not take me ten
minutes to make up my mind what to do.
There was a settler living not far away from where we had been cutting
hay. This man always seemed to me to have a friendly air about him as he
would come past occasionally, and he had always made a point of stopping
to speak to me at such times. He had several times invited me to come
and visit him, but I had never yet done so. I now thought I would go and
see him and ask him his advice, whether he thought that I had a right to
claim what there was in the camp, and if so, try to induce him to buy
what there was. I accordingly went over to his place and told him all
about my trouble. He was an Irishman. "Bad luck to the ould offinder!"
cried he, "and so he has run away. This is an awful wurld. Ah, me lad,
take my advice, never have anything to do with them Germans. Well, never
mind, you are a German too, but that one was worse than a native dog
anyhow, and so he was."
I asked him what he thought about the things in the camp, whether I
might have them: there was an axe, besides two scythes, a bucket, billy,
frying-pan, some old blankets and other articles, and then there was the
tent. "Oh, that was all right." I could bring it all over to his place,
and he would swear to any one that it was his, and he would like to see
the man who would dispute it. I might come too, he said, and live with
him until I got something to do. He would do much more than that, only
that he had no money. This seemed to suit me in every respect, and I
began at once carrying over all that was in the tent to my new friend's
place; but the tent itself I let stand for any one to fight about as
they thought fit, or for the Government to inherit--I did not care
which. The next few days I passed with the Irishman. He was not married,
and lived quite alone on this piece of land which he had taken up as a
selection. The hut had only one room, and the absence of that refining
influence which is generally supposed to pervade a place where women
live, was painfully apparent. The Irishman knew this very well, for he
had always a way of excusing the rampant disorder in the hut by saying
"that the Missis was not at home, bad luck."
Under the bunk were two bags of corn piled up in the cobs, in another
corner lay some turnips and seed-potatoes; we boiled the corned beef and
the tea in the one billy, and if the billy was full of meat or potatoes,
when we wanted to make tea, it was only the work of a second to topple
it all out into the bunk and fill the billy up with water for the tea. I
am sure I now ask my friend's pardon for repaying his hospitality by
describing these matters, but as I hope this history of my life will be
published, it may possibly be read by young ladies, and I cannot resist
the temptation to show them the faithful picture of a bachelor's den in
the Queensland bush. If it were a singular instance I should not think
it worth relating, but it is not; it would be more correct to say it is
the general rule.
Every day I went into town and looked out for something to do, but I
found great difficulty. Work was plentiful, but wherever I inquired if
they wanted a carpenter, their first question was about my tools. I had
no tools, and they would not engage me. One evening I was in town on
purpose to speak to a contractor who had told me to call at his private
residence at nine o'clock with a view to engaging me. As I was walking
about trying to kill the time, I found myself standing down on the
wharf, where I had come ashore the first day I landed in Townsville. I
was watching the little steamer that used to run between the town and
the bay, and which now seemed to be getting steam up, and in a vague
sort of way I wondered whether the steamer out in the bay was going
north or south, so I asked one of the sailors. "North," said he; "they
go to Batavia, but they call at the pearl fisheries at Cape Somerset.
Are you going?"
I had, of course, never thought of it till that moment, but as he said
"pearl fisheries" it struck me that it must be a delightful occupation
to sit fishing for pearls, and that it would be worth running a risk to
try to get to that place. Besides, it would be a splendid adventure. So
I said, "Yes, I am going." "Have you been there before?" said he;
"perhaps you are a diver?"
"Yes, I was a diver." I found out next that I should just have time to
go out to my camp in the bush, to collect my swag and be back in time
for the steamer. I ran all the way there and back, laughing to myself
all the time, because there seemed to myself such a splendid uncertainty
about how the adventure would turn out. I had got no money, but it only
troubled me so far as perhaps it might make it impracticable to get on
board. Anyhow, I meant to have a hard try for it. When I came back I
stood watching the little steamer until the moment they were about to
cast off. Then with a hue and cry I rushed on board.
As we sailed down the river the captain said to me, "Are you the diver?"
"No savey." "Are you going up to the pearl fisheries?" "No savey." "Have
you got a ticket?" "No savey." "Dang that fellow! Are you----Deutcher?"
"No savey." "Well, if you 'no savey,' all I can tell you is that you
shall not get on board the steamer without a ticket. You savey swim?"
"Oh yes, I savey swim belong de pearl all de time?" "Oh, well, I think
you had better go back with us again, because they will only give you to
the sharks up there, if you try any tricks on them."
Here the conversation was interrupted by the captain having to attend to
the ship, and I scrambled out of his way. It did not take long before we
were out alongside the large steamer, and so as it was very close I
watched my opportunity and climbed up the side and on board. There was a
large coil of rope lying on the deck, and into that I crept without a
thought for the morrow. I heard the ship getting under weigh and then I
slept, if not the sleep of the just, at least without dreams.
Next day was Sunday. I only woke up as the sun was shining in my face,
and then I got up and looked around me. We were steaming along the
coast; there seemed to be nobody about but the sailors. I had a walk
about the deck and a wash at the pump. Nobody spoke to me for some time,
until the steward came and in a most natural way told me breakfast was
ready. "Good!" He is a sensible man, thought I, and I went below and had
a good meal. As soon as I had well finished, the mate came in and asked
me for my ticket. I had formed no particular plan of campaign, but I
felt so self-confident and happy, that I was perfectly convinced within
myself that it would be impossible for any one to be out of temper with
me. It is necessary to bear this in mind to believe what follows. Mirth
is catching, and is irresistible when natural, but nothing but the
genuine article will do here. So now the mate came up to me and said,
"Ticket." I laughed and cried "No ticle." He looked rather surprised at
me, and held out his hand saying, "Ticket." "Oh," cried I, laughing,
while I grasped his hand, "Ticket--oh I savey you give me ticket?"
"Oh, this won't do," said he, although I could perceive my mirth was
working on him. "Money, money or ticket"--at the same time he took out
half a crown and showed it me. I tried to take the half-crown from him
and patted him on the shoulder, saying, "Good fellow you," and when he
would not give it me, I told him he was too much gammon for me
altogether. At last I got him to laugh properly, and then he said I was
too much gammon for him too, but that now I should have to go off with
him to the captain, because he could not give me a free passage and
could make neither head nor tail of me in the bargain.
"Come on," cried he; "to the captain you go."
My whole frame shook with laughter. I do not know why, I simply relate
the fact. It seemed to me so strange and comical that I was now here, a
regular loafer, a sort of criminal, and unemployed, a--what not, not
knowing where I was going and not caring; and what would this blessed
captain do with me, or think of me? On we came, the mate and I, up to
the quarter-deck. There was a good-looking man of thirty odd years of
age reclining at his ease in a sort of chair, more in a lying than a
sitting posture. He was playing with the hand of a lady who was sitting
alongside of him, and they looked so affectionately at one another that
I made sure at once they were not husband and wife! Besides these, the
only other person on deck was the man at the wheel. On we came, and the
mate presented me as a stowaway. I saluted the lady and the captain
airily, and he spoke to me, but I paid no attention to what he was
saying. I was looking at the lady and thinking of my adventure in Bowen,
the first time I saluted a lady in Queensland. My sides shook with
laughter until I saw the lady in the same condition; then I exploded.
The lady, the captain, the mate, and the man at the wheel all followed
suit! I beat my chest and called on all the saints to give me strength
to stop, but I could not, and we all kept laughing until, from utter
exhaustion, the lady and the captain were lying back in their chairs
with averted faces, the mate was hanging over the gunwale, and I was
lying on my elbow on the deck, regularly sick. Every time the captain or
any of them were looking at me they made me laugh again. At last the
captain, after several attempts to speak to me cried, "Go away, go away;
I speak to you by and by."
I had not been gone half an hour before I was called back again. The
lady was this time sitting with her back to me. The captain said, "What
have you got to say for yourself?"
I somehow felt sure that it was all right, and that the lady was going
to say a good word for me, or had done so already. Anyhow I altered my
tactics, and told them how it was that I had no money, and how I
somehow, perhaps recklessly, but on the spur of the moment, had got on
board. When I had finished speaking I felt very foolish, and as the lady
turned round and looked at me, I blushed up to the roots of my hair, and
felt very much ashamed. Then the captain said, "And what do you want to
do at Cape Somerset?"
I did not know. "Have you no money?" "No." "No friends there?" "No."
"You have been very foolish."
After a while he said: "There will be nothing for you to do at Cape
Somerset and as little at Batavia. The only thing I can do for you is to
put you ashore at Cardwell, here, on the coast. There is a settlement
there and some sugar plantations up the river. I will do that for you,
if you like."
I thanked him very much, and said I did not know what to do with myself.
"All right, you can hold yourself in readiness to go ashore."
A couple of hours afterwards, the steamer was very close to land, and I
saw some houses on the beach. A boat was lowered and manned by sailors,
and I was told to get in. But so benevolent did the captain prove, that
they bundled in after me a lot of flour, tea, sugar, and meat, also a
tent. I felt completely crushed: I sat in the boat and dared not look
around; only after they put me ashore I waved my handkerchief, and
there, yes, they were waving their handkerchiefs back to me. There
seemed to be a big lump in my throat. Was I in love? Perhaps I was, I do
not know, but I felt very sure that if just then I had thought that I
could have obliged either the captain or the lady on board by drowning
myself, I would have done it. They had put me ashore in a place where
the houses which formed the settlement were hidden from my view, and I
was glad of it, because I did not want to see everybody. I found a
little stream of water close by, then I pitched the tent and laid myself
down outside, looking after the smoke of the steamer as long as I could
see the slightest sign of it. An unspeakable longing for home, a craving
for sympathy, was all over me. I suppose most people have felt the same
emotion. I did not go up to town for two or three days after; I remained
lying on the beach all day looking out over the sea, and half the night
I would walk up and down thinking, or, perhaps it would be more correct
to say, _feeling_ all sorts of things.
If we would all only always remember the value of a kind word, or a
little genuine sympathy, how much better the world would be! Who shall
say what I might have been to-day, or into what channels my mind might
have been led, if the captain had acted towards me as he would have
been quite justified in doing--that is, if he had given me in charge of
the police when we came to a shore, and if I had been just a week or two
in the lock-up? I had been wronged in Townsville, and afterwards I had
received the impression that it was a case of each man for himself
without fear or favour. What this impression would have led to if it had
not been in this happy way checked in the very beginning, is hard to
say, but when at last I bent my steps towards the dozen or two of houses
which formed the township of Cardwell, it was with a resolution to do my
best, but not to sail again under false colours.