C H A P T E R LVII. THE AGE OF GOLD: ITS BIRTH, AND EARLY DEVELOPMENTS.
SYNOPSIS:—Early Prospectors and Prospecting.—Mirabilis Annus.—Gold in the Pyrenees. — The First Gold Buyer. — The First Gold Proclamation. — The First License Regulations. — The First Gold Exhibits. — The First Ballarat Licenses.— Further Regulations.— The First Government Escort.—Its Arrival — The First Melbourne Coach.—Ballarat in its Glory. — The Stampede from Melbourne.—A Journalistic Collapse.—A Busy Day. — The Straits of Trade. — The Doctors Procession to the Diggings. — The Mount Alexander Gold Field. — The First Melbourne Gold Circular.— Attempt to Start a Newspaper.—Finding of the Several Gold Fields.—Doubling the License Fee.—Doing the Doctor.— The State of Melbourne.
OLD, defined as "the purest and most ductile of all the metals," was in all ages deemed the Its possible discovery was the dream of the ancient voyagers, and the most valuable. whether they adventured north or south, east or west, hope waved a golden symbol before their eyes, and all their perils by sea or land were illumined by an ardent expectation that the attainment of untold golden treasures would constitute not the least of their rewards In California, which was ultimately instrumental in precipitating the unearthing of the auriferous riches of Australia, gold was found by some Spanish officers in 1539, and forty years later (1579), after Sir Francis Drake took possession of the country in the n a m e of Queen Elizabeth, in an account of his discovery, he declared "that there is no part of the earth here to be taken up wherein there is not some probable show of gold or silver." Two-hundred and seventy-two years later still, the first gold-seekers at Ballarat used the same words as to the abundance of the gold indications, but m u c h more unqualified as to quantity. T h e first Australian gold "discoverer" was an impostor amongst the first batch of convicts arriving at Sydney. With two or three brass buckles and a guinea, he manufactured some specimens of gold ore, which he announced as having been found by him amongst the pebbles in a creek a few miles away, and on the strength of such good luck, endeavoured to obtain clothes and provisions from the Government store, as the reward of his enterprise. T h e allegation was investigated, the deceit detected, and the fellow was flogged for his fraud. A few years afterwards the same m a n was hanged for a graver offence. In 1837, a convict assigned servant, employed as a shepherd at Bathurst, declared that he had found some gold specimens in the bush ; but, as he was unable to produce them, and had no corroborative testimony, it was assumed he was not a truth-teller, and a twenty-five lash castigation was the reward of his temerity. T h e likelihood of the Australian continent containing extensive gold deposits was k n o w n more than thirty years before they became a grand reality—Count Strelecki, w h o spent some time in Port Phillip, and m a d e himself quite at h o m e amongst all its mountain-ranges, its valleys, rivers and water-courses, prepared a very valuable Report upon the geology of the then most remote portions of the country. This document was presented to the House of C o m m o n s in March, 1841, and the following extracts possess a special interest as bearing on the subject of this chapter:— " T h e country between the Murray and Lake O m e o " (he wrote) " shows on an extensive scale the primitive and secondary rocks; a gillite and quartz rock on one side, to the east; old red-sandstone, with conglomerates, on the other, to the west.
" Indications of simple minerals and ores appear, indicative of such being buried beneath, hardly however, worth the trouble of seeking for." AAA
