Myself And A Few Neighbours Now Procured Some Stretchers, And At The Direction
Of Doctor Carr, Converted The London Hotel Into An Hospital,
And Took There The Wounded.
Said Doctor Carr despatched me to fetch his box of surgical instruments
from Dr. Glendinning's hospital on Pennyweight-hill, a distance of a full mile.
I hastened to return, with Dr. Glendinning himself, and I did my best
to assist the helpless, and dress their wounds.
IMPORTANT - I must call the attention of my reader to the following fact: -
When I entered the stockade with Dr. Carr's surgical box, Mr. Binney,
an old acquaintance since the times of Canadian Gully, took me warmly
by the hand, and said, "Old fellow, I am glad to see you alive! everybody
thinks (pointing to a dead digger among the heap) that's poor Great Works!"
The state of mind in which I was, gave me no time to take much notice
of the circumstances, and must have answered, "Thank God, I am alive,"
and proceeded to my duty.
The identical Mr. Binney, of the firm of Binney and Gillot, now storekeepers
on the Ballaarat township, is a living witness to the above statement.
Solicitor Lynn told me, 'in propria persona' in the Ballaarat prison,
that he would take care to bring forward evidence of the above,
as he had heard it himself, that such was the case; but I forgot to fee
this Lynn, and so he left me to the chance of being 'lynched.'
Chapter LX.
The Southern Cross, In Digger's Gore Imbrued,
Was Torn Away, And Left The Digger Mourning.
The following Letter, from the able pen of the spirited correspondent
of the 'Geelong Advertiser' who most undoubtedly must be a digger - that is,
one of ourselves, from among ourselves, - is here transcribed as a document
confirming the truths of this book:-
THE EUREKA MASSACRE
[From a Correspondent.]
To the Editor of the 'Geelong Advertiser' and Intelligencer.
Bakery-hill, December 3rd, 1854.
Friday you know all about; I will pass that over, and give you a faint outline
of what passed under my own eyes. During Saturday, there was a great deal
of gloom among the most orderly, who complained much of the parade of soldiery,
and the same cause excited a great deal of exasperation in the minds
of more enthusiastic persons, who declared that all parties ought to show
themselves, and declare whether they were for or against the diggers.
Then came a notice from the Camp, that all lights were to be extinguished
after eight o'clock, within half-a-mile from the Camp. At this time
it was reported that there were two thousand organised men at the Eureka
barricade. I was sitting in my tent, and several neighbours dropped in
to talk over affairs, and we sat down to tea, when a musket was heard
to go off, and the bullet whizzed close by us; I doused the light,
and we crept out on our hands and knees, and looked about. Between the Camp
and the barricade there was a fire we had not seen before, and occasionally
lights appeared to be hoisted, like signals, which attracted the attention
of a good many, some of whom said that they saw other lights like
return signals. It grew late. TO-MORROW, I FEAR ME, WILL PROVE A DAY
OF SORROW, IF THE AFFAIR BE NOT SETTLED BEFORE THEN. I and R - - lay down
in our clothes, according to our practice for a week past; and worn out
with perpetual alarms, excitement, and fatigue, fell fast asleep.
I didn't wake up till six o'clock on Sunday morning. The first thing
that I saw was a number of diggers enclosed in a sort of hollow square,
many of them were wounded, the blood dripping from them as they walked;
some were walking lame, pricked on by the bayonets of the soldiers
bringing up the rear. The soldiers were much excited, and the troopers
madly so, flourishing their swords, and shouting out - "We have waked up Joe!"
and others replied, "And sent Joe to sleep again!" The diggers' Standard
was carried by in triumph to the Camp, waved about in the air,
then pitched from one to another, thrown down and trampled on.
The scene was awful - twos and threes gathered together, and all felt stupefied.
I went with R - - to the barricade, the tents all around were in a blaze;
I was about to go inside, when a cry was raised that the troopers
were coming again. They did come with carts to take away the bodies,
I counted fifteen dead, one G - - , a fine well-educated man, and a great
favourite. [Here, I think, the Correspondent alluded to me. My friends,
nick-named me - Carbonari Great works. ] - I recognised two others,
but the spectacle was so ghastly that I feel a loathing at the remembrance.
They all lay in a small space with their faces upwards, looking like lead,
several of them were still heaving, and at every rise of their breasts,
the blood spouted out of their wounds, or just bubbled out and trickled away.
One man, a stout-chested fine fellow, apparently about forty years old,
lay with a pike beside him: e had three contusions in the head,
three strokes across the brow, a bayonet wound in the throat under the ear,
and other wounds in the body - I counted fifteen wounds in that single carcase.
Some were bringing handkerchiefs, others bed furniture, and matting
to cover up the faces of the dead. O God! sir, it was a sight for
a sabbath morn that, I humbly implore Heaven, may never be seen again.
Poor women crying for absent husbands, and children frightened into quietness.
I, sir, write disinterestedly, and I hope my feelings arose from
a true principle; but when I looked at that scene, my soul revolted
at such means being so cruelly used by a government to sustain the law.
A little terrier sat on the, breast of the man I spoke of, and kept up
a continuous howl:
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