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[Illustration: ROBERT O'HARA BURKE.

_From Photo_--HILL, Melbourne.]




    AUSTRALIAN HEROES

    AND

    ADVENTURERS.


    LONDON:
    WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE,
    AND MELBOURNE.
    1889.




PREFACE.


This book is the first of a series which the Publisher intends to issue,
illustrative of life and adventure in the Australian Colonies and the
Islands of the Pacific. It has been carefully compiled from reliable
sources of information--viz., _Wills's Diary_, _King's Narrative_,
_Howitt's Diary_, Wood's _Explorations in Australia_, Withers's _History
of Ballarat_, Sutherland's _Tales of the Gold-fields_, Raffello's
_Account of the Ballarat Riots_, McCombie's _History of Victoria_, etc.,
etc. Most of these books are very expensive or out of print, and
therefore not easily procurable at the booksellers.

In the succeeding volumes of the series it is proposed to
give--"Buckley, the Runaway Convict, and his Black Friends," "John
Batman, the Founder of Melbourne," "Fawkner, the Pioneer," "Early Days
of Tasmania," "Botany Bay Tales," "Remarkable Convicts," "Notorious
Bushrangers," "Brave Deeds," "Squatting Tales," "Remarkable Personal
Adventures," "Curious Anecdotes," etc., etc.

    MELBOURNE, 1889.




CONTENTS.


Burke and Wills--Two Heroes of Exploration.

  CHAPTER I.                                   PAGE
    ACROSS AUSTRALIA                              7

  CHAPTER II.
    THE RETURN JOURNEY                           21

  CHAPTER III.
    SUFFERINGS AND DEATHS OF THE TWO LEADERS     34

  CHAPTER IV.
    SEARCH PARTIES, AND CONCLUSION               48


Old Times on the Gold-Fields.

  CHAPTER I.
    THE CONVICT'S STRATAGEM                      63
    EARLY DISCOVERIES IN NEW SOUTH WALES         66
    HARGRAVES, THE PIONEER MINER                 69
    AN ABORIGINAL DISCOVERER                     77

  CHAPTER II.
    GOLD IN VICTORIA                             80
    JAMES ESMOND, THE VICTORIAN PIONEER          81
    OTHER PIONEERS                               85

  CHAPTER III.
    EFFECT OF DISCOVERIES                        89
    CANVAS TOWN                                  94
    RAG FAIR                                     95
    NEW CHUMS AND OLD CHUMS                      96

  CHAPTER IV.
    SLY GROG SHANTIES                           100

  CHAPTER V.
    THE DIGGER'S LICENSE                        105
    DIGGER-HUNTING ANECDOTES                    109

  CHAPTER VI.
    BEGINNINGS OF REVOLT                        116
    AN IRISH GALLANT                            117
    REFORM LEAGUES                              120

  CHAPTER VII.
    THE EUREKA HOTEL MURDER                     125
    A LOYAL TOAST                               130
    BURNING THE LICENSES                        131
    THE LAST DIGGER-HUNT                        134

  CHAPTER VIII.
    THE EUREKA STOCKADE                         136
    STORMING OF THE STOCKADE                    141
    EXCITEMENT IN MELBOURNE                     145
    WRONGS RIGHTED                              149


[ILLUSTRATION: MAP ROUTE.]




Australian Heroes and Adventurers.




BURKE AND WILLS.

TWO HEROES OF EXPLORATION.




CHAPTER I.

_ACROSS AUSTRALIA._


There stood for twenty years, at the intersection of Collins and Russell
Streets, the only monument which the city of Melbourne can boast of.
Increasing traffic has recently necessitated its removal to a small
reserve opposite our Parliament Houses, where it occupies a most
commanding position at one of the chief entrances of the city. It is the
lasting memorial of two men and the expedition they led across the
continent of Australia. It stands in silent and solemn grandeur amidst
the noisy turmoil of a busy thoroughfare--two massive figures gazing
earnestly and longingly, seemingly in a solitude as complete as the
deepest seclusion of the lonely plains of the interior, where the
heroes whose memory they perpetuate met their fate. No inscription tells
the curious visitor or wayfarer who they are, or records the deeds that
have gained them such a high place in the estimation of the citizens of
Victoria. The story is an old one in these days of rapidly passing
events, but we think it will bear repetition, and, therefore, in the
following pages we will do our best to relate the events that led to the
erection of so magnificent a memorial.

From the days of the first settlement of New South Wales at Port Jackson
in 1788, down to the present time, the laudable desire of bettering
their condition, enhanced by the adventurous spirit moving in their
breasts, has prompted the colonists of Australia to organise parties for
the exploration of the unknown interior of their vast continent. In not
a few instances the explorer has been the precursor of the squatter and
the selecter of settlements and civilisation. The journey of Oxley, in
1818, led to the discovery that the Macquarie and other rivers ended in
large reedy marshes. This discovery gave rise to the belief in an
immense inland sea, into which all the rivers of the interior emptied
themselves. But subsequent travellers in search of this supposed inland
sea dissipated the belief in its existence. In 1828 Sturt reached the
"great salt river," called the Darling, which has since filled such an
important part in facilitating the carriage of our staple product to
the ocean. In his next journey Sturt went down the Murrumbidgee and the
Murray as far as Lake Alexandrina. His description of the country
surrounding the lake--plenty of green pastures and abundance of
agricultural land of the most fertile kind--induced the squatters to
send down their emaciated flocks from the parched plains of Riverina,
and also led to the emigration of numbers of farmers and vine-growers
from overcrowded Europe, who founded the Colony of South Australia.
Mitchell, in 1836, descended the Darling, crossed over the Murray, and
entered into what is now the Colony of Victoria. He named it "Australia
Felix," because the country which met his view delighted him with its
beautiful scenery, and its congenial climate presented such a pleasant
contrast to that of the land he had just travelled over. Pioneers from
Port Jackson and Van Diemen's Land migrated to this newly-revealed
district. The productiveness of its soil, and the subsequent discovery
of gold, soon attracted a great number of adventurers and immigrants to
the happy clime. In an incredibly short period the district grew into a
rich and prosperous colony, and Melbourne, its mighty capital, took rank
amongst the chief cities of the world.

The success attending the early exploring expeditions equipped by the
mother colony seems to have incited the colonists of Victoria to emulate
the doings of their neighbours. In 1859 a patriotic offer was made by
an enterprising citizen of Melbourne--Mr. Ambrose Kyte--to contribute
L1000 towards defraying the cost of fitting out an expedition to explore
the vast interior of Australia. This generous offer was accepted.