One night Dan set fire to my tent in
order to rouse his banker. I dragged Bez outside the tent and
extinguished the fire. There was bloodshed afterwards--from Dan's
nose--and his account was closed. After a while some policemen in
plain clothes came along and examined the dray. They found fourteen
kegs of rum in it, which they seized, together with four horses and
the dray.
I worked for seven months in various parts of the Ovens district
until I had acquired the value in gold of my vanished twenty-dollar
pieces; that was all my luck. During this time some of us paid the
L2 license fee for three months. We were not hunted by the military.
Four or five troopers and officials rode slowly about the diggings
and the cry of "Joey" was never raised, while a single unarmed
constable on foot went amongst the claims to inspect licenses. He
stayed with us awhile, talking about digging matters. He said the
police were not allowed to carry carbines now, because a digger had
been accidentally shot. He was a very civil fellow, and his price,
if I remember rightly was half-a-crown. Yet the digger hunting was
continued at Ballarat until it ended in the massacre of December 3rd
1854.
At that time I was at Colac, and while Dr. Ignatius was absent, I had
the charge of his household, which consisted of one old convict known
as "Specs," who acted in the capacity of generally useless, received
orders most respectfully, but forgot them as much as possible.
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