IN:THE:LAND:OF PEARL:AND : GOLD ALEXANDER: MACDONALD IN THE LAND OF PEARL AND GOLD THE AUTHOR IN THE LAND OF PEARL AND GOLD A PIONEER'S WANDERINGS IN THE BACKBLOCKS AND PEARL- ING GROUNDS OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW GUINEA BY ALEXANDER MACDONALD F.R.G.S. AUTHOR OF "IN SEARCH OF ELDORADO" "THE LOST EXPLORERS" ETC. BLACKIE & SON LIMITED 50 OLD BAILEY LONDON E.G. GLASGOW DUBLIN BOMBAY 1907 DU IO4 l 4 1 TO MY FATHER 1 236830 PREFACE The experiences related in this book are frag- mentary and do not necessarily follow consecutively. They could not be made to do so without a consider- able amount of uninteresting explanation, as the scenes depicted in "In Search of Eldorado" are spread over the same period and chiefly in the same countries. These sketches, therefore, are only meant to be but little pictures that stand out in relief in my memory. They are complete in themselves, but in most cases supplement those contained in my previous travel volume. A wanderer gathers many impressions. In swiftly changing scenes these possibly may be coloured somewhat, as the abruptness of the change does not allow time for his mind to become disassociated from what he may just previously have experienced. Things therefore often appear to him to be incon- gruous when they are not really so. He is always adaptable, however, and soon falls into line with his new environment. When writing of his adventures afterwards, the knowledge of later events, distance from the spots where they happened, and perhaps present interests, may cause them to appear in a more or less distorted perspective, but sometimes, instead, vii viii Land of Pearl and Gold a glamour is cast over them which exercises upon him an intense fascination, and almost compels him to revisit the scenes of his memory-cherished ex- periences. I think the latter feeling is common to all wanderers, and as a result their writings when they do write may be tinged more or less, and somewhat story-like because they deal more with people than with geo- graphical facts. But a book of travel should be accurate, and I have always endeavoured to give my impression of things as at the time when the adventures actually occurred. Indeed most of the papers were written during my travels, and some of them are of very recent date. As a matter of fact, one or two of the adventures the reader, with some trouble, may guess which have not yet reached the conclusions which perhaps the last lines suggest But hope ever leads. CONTENTS Pge THE HOLDING OF PELICAN CREEK i THE RUSH AT CROCODILE CROSSING - - 21 THE SINKING OF THE "GOLDEN PROMISE" MINE - 37 "!N SEARCH OF ELDORADO" - 53 WHITE, BLACK, AND YELLOW - - 73 How WE HELD MACKAY'S FIND 89 PROSPECTING ON THE GEM-FIELDS - 105 A SUGAR EXPERT - - - 121 IN THE LAND OF THE TUGERI - - 151 WITH THE MEN OF THE YODDA VALLEY - - 165 ON A COLONIAL COASTER - - 193 THE GREAT LAND OF GOLD ... _ 227 "WHERE THE MOPOKE CALLS" - - 253 THE PEARLING-GROUNDS OF AUSTRALIA - - 267 UNDER THE SHADOW OF THE LEOPOLDS - 291 CHRISTMAS ISLAND - .... 305 ix ILLUSTRATIONS The Author Frontispiece Murgoona facing page 22 The "Golden Promise" Mine 4 Some of Our Party > 64 6 Big Mackay > 7 Old Ruck going out to look for his Breakfast > 76 Aboriginals ready for a Corroboree i> 80 The Underlie of the Admiral An Opal Mine Loading Sugar-Cane on a Queensland Plantation 128 Pine-apple Plantation, Queensland Aboriginal Boys Bathing above Barren Falls, Queensland X 44 Native Village near Port Moresby, British New Guinea 1 60 Dry-blowing for Gold, Kalgoorlie 228 Peak Hill: the Arrival of a Team The Author just Disappearing in Diving Dress The Pearling Lugger "Dorothy" 288 The Holding of Pelican Creek AUSTRALIA of late years has been undergoing a course of development which is attracting the attention of the world. From her coastal cities and state capitals rail- ways have been creeping steadily out on to the central desert, and very soon the vast mineral treasures of that inhospitable waste will be laid invitingly open to all. It is strange how little really is known of Australia even by Australians, and to the average Briton the great Austral Land consists merely of Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, a few to him unimportant grazing stations, and the gold-fields of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. Perhaps some may also have an idea that Ballarat of the early gold-rush days is now a large Victorian city, and that Geelong is another town somewhere near Melbourne; that New- castle, Broken Hill, Goulbourn, and Bathurst are townships of some kind in New South Wales; that Toowoomba is a health resort about a hundred miles from Brisbane and that ; gold comes from one or two mining camps in Queensland. A comparatively short time ago this was all that was to be known, for the waterless interior was a land (B823) 1 2 2 Land of Pearl and Gold of mystery untrodden by white man. But the Un- known ever exercised a powerful fascination over the Anglo-Saxon race, and when once the road over the coastal ranges became possible, some hardy pioneers, in search of fresh pasture for their stock, pushed out west, and farther west, and finally built Bourke, an isolated outpost on the Darling River. Far-seeing governments backed up the adventurers with rail- ways, laid almost exactly in their tracks, and other towns sprang up along the line as it advanced. Ex- pedition after expedition set out to explore the interior fastnesses from the various outposts now being formed throughout the country; but it seemed as if the limit of country capable of bearing stock had been reached, for those who returned from most of these expeditions reported the near presence of a burnt-up desert shod with iron-stone boulders, over which it was next to impossible to travel, and which was infested with fierce unreasoning hordes of aborigines. The colon- ists, therefore, settled down to develop that which they already possessed, and incidentally to build up a Southern Empire, leaving the natives, reptiles, and innumerable pests to contend for the waterless tracts beyond. At this point, however, another factor came into play in the development of Australia: a new race of men were springing up; children of the soil were they " in the true sense, reared in the back-blocks", hardy, strong, and seasoned, and well fit to wage war with Nature for whatever that fickle dame had in her treasure-store. The capitals on the coast were now ranking among the first-class cities of the British Empire; but to the The Holding of Pelican Creek 3 " " back-blockers they were only names such as Lon- don and Edinburgh. Similarly to the highly polished and sophisticated gentlemen who spent their business hours in Pitt or George Street, Sydney, or Collin, Bourke, or Queen Street, Melbourne, the "back- blockers" were as a semi-savage tribe of people who had to be kept "out back" at any cost. But the men on the desert fringe neither knew nor cared what the city-bred people thought of them. They pursued their avocation which as yet was that of rearing sheep with a careless indifference, in strong contrast to the spasmodic fits of energetic "do something or burst" which occasionally seized them. At length the Wes- tralian gold rushes startled the world, and reckless wanderers from all parts gravitated thither. Here the genuine back-blockers from the eastern colonies first fraternized with kindred spirits from over the seas and elsewhere, and as a result became fired with more ambition than they had had before. They alone were physically able to penetrate the gold-bearing desert from Southern Cross on to Coolgardie, thence to Kalgoorlie, Kanowna, and farther east. Railways followed, then capitalists and limited companies. The thirst for gold had now seized these sons of Australia the early Victorian rushes were before their time and as the powerful combinations of capital and machinery introduced from England and the other states drove them ever inwards, by making it im- possible for men unaided to carry on gold-mining profitably where mechanical appliances existed, they spread north, south, and east, and soon the Westra- lian desert was marked like a huge gridiron by their tracks. In the east the same thing had already hap- 4 Land of Pearl and Gold pened, although from a different cause. Long periods of drought had ruined most of the settlers; the banks had gone down, and altogether matters were very bad for both bush and city people. The back-blockers were augmented by many of the best of the latter, and strange tales of fabulous fortunes made in fever- infested New Guinea, whither many had gone some time previously, instilled the belief among some that out in the heart of their own deserts lay fortunes for all. The reckless pioneering spirit, which has rolled back the confines of the British Empire to its present boundaries, now dominated these men, and soon the mystery of the Terra Incognita was solved. Pros- pecting parties crossed and re-crossed the country, suffering great hardships, but never despairing in their hopes of one day "striking it". Often they found minerals they did not know, and frequently they discovered valuable gem-stones for which they could find no market. When any find was made of more than usual importance, the capi- talists and the railway arrived soon after. Those fortunate enough to have good claims and some who had not sold out to the capitalist and retired no where the others their man knows ; packed up swags again and moved on in disgust to look for more "shows".