This Party, As I Have Said Before, Consisted Of Five Gentlemen,
Including My Brother.
Of the latter I shall only say that he was young
and energetic, more accustomed to use his brains
Than his fingers, yet
with a robust frame, and muscles well strengthened by the various
exercises of boating, cricketing, &c., with which our embryo
collegians attempt to prepare themselves for keeping their "terms."
Frank - - - (who, from being a married man, was looked up to as the head
of our rather juvenile party) was of a quiet and sedate disposition,
rather given to melancholy, for which in truth he had cause. His
marriage had taken place without the sanction - or rather in defiance of
the wishes - of his parents, for his wife was portionless, and in a
station a few grades, as they considered, below his own; moreover,
Frank himself was not of age. Private income, independent of his
parents, he had none. A situation as clerk in a merchant's office was
his only resource, and during three years he had eked out his salary to
support a delicate wife - whose ill health was a neverfailing source of
anxiety and expense - two infants, and himself. An unexpected legacy of
500 pounds from a distant relative at last seemed to open a brighter
prospect before them; and leaving his wife and children with their
relatives, he quitted England to seek in a distant land a better home than
all his exertions could procure for them in their own country. I never
felt surprised or offended at his silent and preoccupied manner,
accompanied at times by great depression of spirits, for it was an
awful responsibility for one so young, brought up as he had been in the
greatest luxury, as the eldest son of a wealthy merchant, to have not
only himself but others nearest and dearest to maintain by his own
exertions.
William - - -, a tall, slight, and rather delicate looking man, is the
next of our party whom I shall mention. His youth had been passed at
Christ's Hospital. This he quitted with the firm conviction (in which
all his friends of course participated) that he had been greatly
wronged by not having been elected a Grecian; and a rich uncle, incited
by the beforementioned piece of injustice, took him under his care, and
promised to settle him in the world as soon as a short apprenticeship
to business had been gone through. A sudden illness put a stop to all
these schemes. The physicians recommended change of air, a warmer
climate, a trip to Australia. William had relatives residing in
Melbourne, so the journey was quickly decided upon, a cabin taken; and
the invalid rapidly recovering beneath the exhilarating effects of the
sea-breezes. How refreshing are they to the sick! how caressingly does
the soft sea-air fan the wan cheeks of those exhausted with a life
passed amidst the brick walls and crowded, noisy streets of a city;
and William, who at first would have laughed at so ridiculous a
supposition, ere the four months' voyage was terminated, had gained
strength and spirits sufficient to make him determine to undertake a
trip to the diggings.
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