Narravere Patres Nostri
Et Nos Narravimus Omnes.
Was it then the long, long-looked for German Rifle Brigade? Here is
it's four-horned name--I copy from a slip of paper I wrote in pencil
on that very Saturday, as the name was too long and difficult for me
to remember--'The Independent Californian Rangers' Revolver Brigade.'
I should say they numbered a couple of hundred, looking Californian enough,
armed with a Colt's revolver of large size, and many had a Mexican knife
at the hip.
Here is the very circumstance when M`Gill made his appearance for the first
time within the stockade; I recollect perfectly well the circumstance
when a Mr. Smith, of the American Adams's Express, was holding the bridle
of the horse, from which said M`Gill dismounted.
James M`Gill is of the breed on the other side of the Pacific. He is thought
to have been educated in a military academy, and certainly, he has the manners
of a young gentleman of our days. He is rather short, not so much
healthy-looking as wide awake. 'What's up?' is his motto. This colony
will sober him down, and then he will attend more to 'what's to be done.'
His complexion bears the stamp of one born of a good family, but you can read
in the white of his eyes, in the colouring of his cheeks, in the paleness
of his lips, that his heart is for violence. When he gets a pair
of solid whiskers, he may pass for a Scotchman, for he has already a nose
as if moulded in Scotland. He speaks the English language correctly,
and when not prompted by the audacity of his heart, shows good sense,
delicate feelings, a pleasing way of conversation. His honour was impeached
by Vern, who never came up to the scratch, though; witness, Mr. John Campbell,
of 'The Age' office.
When a man is dead, there and then he is himself the horrible evidence
of corruption; but, as long as he lives there is hopes for fair play,
and hear his evidence on the resurrection of life: hence the moral courage
to assert the truth, shuts out the physical strength for blather to shampoo
the lie; and an honest upright man of education and a Christian leaves
'duelering' to fools.
M`Gill is not wicked in heart, though he may not yet have settled-principles.
If this world be such a puzzle even for grey-heads, who have seen enough of it,
what then must it be for one, come out of College and learning life
on the gold-fields? Hence, if I say that he helped with others to draw
the chestnuts out of the Eureka Stockade, for some old Fox, I cannot
offend him.--Who was the accursed old Fox? Patience, there is a God.--
When I was in gaol, I was not vexed at hearing him at liberty and happy:
I could not possibly wish my misery to any one; but his boast on Ballaarat
that his friend Dr. Kenworthy had procured him a 'written free pardon'
did smother me with bitterness.