Fern Vale Volume Iii Part 10

At a certain spot on the Darling Downs approaching towards their northern extremity, and where the country divides the eastern from the western water-sheds, a party was encamped for the night round their fire; on which preparations were being made by a civilized black for the evening meal of white men, who lay stretched on the ground in the full enjoyment of their "doodeens." The culinary operator was Joey, and the rec.u.mbent beings were his master and the shepherds, who had progressed thus far with a flock of sheep, on their way from New England to Fern Vale.

The weather that had spread devastation over the face of the country, was equally fatal in its effects to the flock of our hero. He had attempted to force their march so as to reach his destination before their entire destruction, but was at last constrained to halt in a state, both to man and beast, of perfect exhaustion. He had been the more anxious to reach his own station as he was aware that, after the long and severe drought the district had been visited with, a flood might be expected as the inevitable consequence; and that if he were caught in it the strong probability was that he would lose the remaining half of his flock. Further progression, however, for his exhausted sheep, he saw was, at least for a time, perfectly hopeless; and he felt his only alternative was to wait for the rain, which from the portensions of the sky, was not far distant. Therefore a rude hut, or arborous shelter of boughs and saplings, was erected to shield him and his companions from the rays of the sun, and they waited with what patience they could a.s.sume for the pluvial blessing so much prayed for all over the country.

Here then the party was located, anxiously waiting for the advent of the propitious event that would admit of their progression; and, on the evening we have discovered them to the reader, they were dragging out in listless idleness the remainder of an intolerably hot day, too much enervated to indulge in any exertion or conversation. While John Ferguson, who was possibly even more taciturn than his companions, was absorbed in his own gloomy thoughts, occasioned by the inauspicious result of his journey, he with his colleagues was suddenly aroused from his lethargy by a most unearthly sound in the close proximity of their camp. He instantly started to his feet, and was greeted with a burst of demoniacal laughter that made his very blood curdle in his veins.

Before him stood a being evidently human, but no more like his first prototype than Gabriel to Lucifer; a man wild and dishevelled in appearance; his eyes like b.a.l.l.s of fire; and his face and other parts of his body, perceptible from his all but state of nudity, cut and bleeding. In the fitful light of the camp fire he had more the appearance of one of the eliminated shades of Hades than an habitant of this world. The startled and affrighted quartette, who had been interrupted by his unexpected appearance, gazed on the object with wonder, commiseration, and alarm; for his condition was speedily made palpable by his wild gesticulations and incoherent utterance. He was mad, and in that most to be deplored state of madness--delirium tremens.

John Ferguson advanced a few steps towards the man with the object of leading him to their temporary abode; but the maniac warned him off by a wave of the hand, and darted off again into the settling obscurity with the fleetness of an arrow. No human creature in such a condition could be permitted thus to rush to inevitable death by observers with any spark of Christian charity. John Ferguson and his companions felt this, and notwithstanding the darkness of the night, and the interminable nature of the bush around them, they instantly pursued the fugitive, being guided in his track by his fearful cries and yells.

The chase was tedious, and but for an accident might have been fruitless. The unnatural stimulus of madness lends powerful aid to the cartilaginous anatomy of its victims; so that, notwithstanding the evident fatigue that this wretched inebriate had sustained, his crural muscles performed their functions with even more force and facility than those of his athletic pursuers; and he continued to keep considerably in advance of them. But his course was providentially checked by a fall, that not only stopped him in his headlong career of destruction, but extinguished the treacherous spark that had stimulated his system, and then left him prostrate and perfectly paralysed. When his pursuers came up, and by the light of a "firestick" gazed upon him, they found him writhing in agony on the ground, foaming at the mouth, gnashing his teeth, and actually biting the very dust in the intensity of his suffering. Nature could not long stand so fearful a tax as this without speedily succ.u.mbing. Reason had already been hurled from her throne by the arrogated sway of the incensed devils of debauch, and strength and consciousness had been expatriated by the usurpation; while life was all but extinguished. In this state he was borne by his rescuers back to their camp, and tended with every care they could devise; but when he awoke to consciousness, it was only to add the horrors of a raging fever to those of dementation; the more fearful on account of the inability of his attendants to afford him any a.s.sistance.

To truthfully describe his appearance, or his sufferings, as he lay rending the air with his fearful and impious imprecations, would not only be beyond our powers of portrayal, but would have none other effect than to sicken and disgust our readers. Nevertheless we feel constrained, fain as we would draw a veil over the scene, to continue our description for the furtherance of temperance and morality. The man remained for fully twenty-four hours in the state we have mentioned; when the exacerbation of his malady threatened to terminate his existence. No hope of relief could be entertained, for none was procurable in such a situation; even had the exhausted travellers been capable of seeking it. So that the wretched being's doom seemed inevitably sealed.

At this moment the Fern Vale party were startled by the sudden appearance of two others, who came seeking their comrade, and bore in their countenances almost as indelible a stamp of dissipation as that on the visage of the dying madman. From these new comers John learnt that the three had been travelling in company of a bullock dray, and being unable to proceed on their journey, through the loss of the greater portion of the team, they had all been engaged in a social wa.s.sail on some grog they had had in charge; and for a considerable period had all been more or less drunk. Their companion had been in a fit of delirium tremens for days; and while in a state of madness had suddenly gone, they knew not, nor at the time cared not, whither. But finding he did not return as they had antic.i.p.ated even their besotted natures began to take alarm for his safety, and had induced them to go in search of him.

The two men now stood by the prostrate and paralysed form of their late robust companion, on whom, blunted and debased as were their own feelings, they could not gaze without emotions; and as they witnessed the glaring blood-shot eyes, rotating in their sunken and discoloured sockets, the pendent jaw which left the parched tongue protruding from the open mouth, the colourless emaciated cheeks which contrasted fearfully with the sore and livid lips, the generally wasted frame, the shaking though powerless hands imploring with the looks of distracted vision, and the ineffectual attempts to articulate the cravings for that very poison which was fast hastening a commingling of his putrid carca.s.s with its native dust, their hearts sickened within them. They, however, knew the purport of his signs; and subdued as they were by the presence of the destroying angel, and chastened by the momentary visitations of compunction, their devotion to their idol, and their belief in its efficacies were such, that, even in the face of death, they exorcised their destroying spirit. Before their motion could be antic.i.p.ated, or prevented by John Ferguson, one of the dying man's companions drew a bottle from his bosom, and applied it to the lips of the sufferer.

The taste of the exhilarating poison effected a transitory release of the bonds of death's victim. His hands clasped with a convulsive grasp the endeared destroyer of his life; and as the spirit flowed into the celiac channel of his wasted system, its consuming fire mantled his cheek with an unnatural erubescence, shot from his l.u.s.trous eyes, and imparted vigour to his inert frame. If the men's action had been noticed in time John would have no doubt prevented the drink being given, though it would have signified little; for no power on earth could have saved the victim, while possibly the draught of spirits which he had taken ameliorated his departing agonies. Be that as it may he had hardly swallowed it than fresh strength seemed to have been imparted to his frame. He then started to his feet, waved the bottle above his head with a fiendish laugh, and fell to the ground a corpse.

Can mortals ever be rescued from the fearful infatuation of drink? Can rational and sentient beings ever be brought to an abhorrence of that vile and b.e.s.t.i.a.l vice that equally destroys the intellect and degrades the body? or will reason ever inculcate in the mind of man the virtue of temperance, so as to use without abusing the gifts of a bountiful providence? Let an incorrigible drunkard stand before such a scene as we have attempted to describe, and for five minutes witness the agonies and death of a fellow inebriate; let his soul commune with the tortured spirit of the wretched victim of intemperance; let him witness the horrors of delirium tremens, that tear to pieces both body and life, and consigns them to the lowest depths of perdition; let him not only witness but feel the h.e.l.l that burns up the very soul of the blind votaries of Bacchus; and let him witness the last struggle, the tortuous departure of the spirit, accompanied with the blasphemous ribaldry of the vile worm that, while insinuating its eliminated spirit before the judgment-seat of its Maker, dares to utter its arrogant defiance to the august and omnipotent Creator. Let him see this; tell him this is the consequence of intemperance possibly only indulged in moderately at an early stage, but growing by degrees as evil does grow, like the gathering avalanche acc.u.mulating in its downward progress until it reaches its final descent amidst universal destruction. Tell him also that a similar fate awaits every drunkard, and tell him, if he turns not away from his course of vileness, such will be his; then, if his conscience does not lead him to penitence through such a lesson, no human effort can save him.

The state of the weather, the mortification of the body, and its consequent immediate decomposition, made it imperative that no time should be lost in the interment of the corpse. The funeral obsequies were speedily performed, with little more ceremony than what would attend the burying of an animal, while nothing marked the spot where lay the bones that would in all probability be soon forgotten. The two men then took their departure, and we doubt not would soon return to their carouse; such is the quickness with which man forgets the visitations of the warning hand of G.o.d.

A few days after the event we have just narrated the rain that had been so long threatening at last appeared with one of those terrific thunder-storms which the colonies are in the summer visited with; and speedily the whole surface of the country became deluged. The arid and thirsty soil drank in the moisture, and almost spontaneously shot forth its herbage. The flock was then enabled to luxuriate on the tender gra.s.ses and, notwithstanding the deluging rains, to pursue its journey with more comfort than it had experienced for some considerable time previously.

For a week the rain continued with unabating violence when John Ferguson and his flock struck the course of the Gibson river near Brompton. The river was "bank high" at the time, rolling its swollen volume on in sullen impetuosity; while the ground around was so saturated and swampy that the travelling of the sheep was exceedingly tedious; and their owner began to feel anxious lest their course should be altogether impeded. He, however, managed to push on past Brompton, when the weather happily moderated; and though still overcast, and rainy-looking, the actual fall of water ceased. The respite was made good use of by John Ferguson, who pushed on as rapidly as he could, and he arrived at the Wombi without any interruption; but there he met with a check he had little antic.i.p.ated. He fully expected the bridge would be level with the water or even covered, and thought that he might have to wait for the river to fall; but the volume of water had considerably subsided and left no trace of the structure he and his neighbours had erected. It had in fact been washed away by the flood, and he was made painfully aware that the only course open to him was to wait until the swollen current became sufficiently reduced to make it practicable to swim over his sheep. With that object he camped his party and flock on the bank of the Wombi.

For some days they waited in this position; but the river, notwithstanding that the rain had ceased, fell very slowly; while the surrounding gloominess plainly indicated an additional visitation of wet as not far distant. In conjunction with this the sheep began to show signs of foot-rot; and John, becoming anxious to get them home, considered it better under the circ.u.mstances to attempt a pa.s.sage of the river at once. Acting on this decision he removed the flock to the old crossing-place and attempted the transit.

Two of his men had, by the aid of a horse, swam the river, and a large number of the sheep had either crossed or were struggling in the current, when a noise was heard that struck our hero with dismay. The distant roll of thunder, combined with the roar of battle, would convey but an imperfect idea of its nature. Distinct and more distinctly came the sound and, while the darkened atmosphere lent its gloom to the mighty convulsion that seemed to rend the earth, the cause of the noise seemed to approach nearer and nearer. Though John had never seen the sudden rising of a river he had heard of such phenomena, and guessed that the sound that he then heard was the harbinger of such an event. He therefore used all his exertions, with those of Joey and the white man that had remained with him on the upper bank of the Wombi, to prevent the remainder of the sheep from following their fellows into the water.

They were with difficulty diverted from the stream; and those that had already crossed, being driven by the men as far as possible from the influence of the tide, John waited with an intense anxiety to watch the fate of those that would of a certainty be overtaken by the current.

The flood was in the Gibson river, and its cause can be easily explained in a few words. Towards its source the rain had been continuous, and the water-holes and surcharged swamps being filled to repletion, had burst their bounds and added their immense volumes to the already swollen stream. This imparted a force and impetuosity even greater than the current had previously possessed, and forced the water in one immense body down its course. On and on it swept like the monstrous rolling surge of the ocean, carrying to inevitable ruin everything that it overtook in its pa.s.sage. John stood on an elevation sufficiently high to enable him to watch the progress of the destructive fluid; and, with his gaze alternately directed to it and his sheep still swimming in the stream at his feet, he calculated their chances of reaching the bank in safety. For this, however, he had little time, for the progress of the flood was quicker than that of his thoughts; and the sudden rise in the Gibson, as the deluge approached, caused a similar one in the Wombi. As the main body in the river swept past, it flooded the minor stream with its back current, sending the reversed tide, seething and swelling, up its narrow channel, and carrying with it some hundreds of the swimming sheep, most of which were drowned in their vain struggles with the element.

Unfortunate as this was John gave vent to no vain regrets, but at once decided how he would act. He knew that the brunt of the flood was over, and that the water would speedily fall in the river. He therefore determined to camp where he was for the night, and in the morning to send on the portion of his flock on the opposite side of the river, while he waited with the remainder until the flood should have so far receded as to permit his crossing them with safety. He communicated his plans to both sections of his party, while Joey lit a fire and prepared a camp.

Towards midnight, when everything was hushed in the nocturnal stillness, Joey came softly to his master, who was stretched in his blanket before the fire on the damp ground, and awoke him from his sleep. John, when he was aroused, instantly started up in the full expectation of some fresh misfortune, and hastily demanded of Joey what was the matter.

"You no hear, ma.s.sa?" replied Joey; "you listen. The black fellows come back again and make great noise."

John listened attentively for some moments, and unmistakably distinguished the sounds of blacks' voices, though what was the purport of the noise he could not conjecture. It was evident to him they had returned to the neighbourhood and, from the sounds he heard, in considerable numbers. But where could they be camped? he asked himself; surely not at their old ground in the scrub, he thought; for the noise plainly indicated a closer proximity. In fact, it sounded to him as if it emanated from somewhere about Strawberry Hill, if not from that very place. Then John's thoughts led him to make the enquiry what could bring them across the Gibson; if they had any object in visiting Strawberry Hill; and if so, what that object could be? His thoughts, once led into such a channel, were not long in picturing a gloomy catalogue of probable causes. A remembrance of Rainsfield's cruelties was too indelibly impressed upon his mind to be forgotten, and the scene he had witnessed at the blacks' camp on the night previous to their departure was instantly conjured up in all its horrors. Though the disappearance of the blacks for months had momentarily dimmed his memory to the pangs he then witnessed and felt, they were instantly remembered when his mind reverted to the subject; and he vividly recollected the ebullition of evil pa.s.sions that had been kindled in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of some of the survivors and relatives of the victims. In his fancy he heard anew the threat of revenge that was uttered against Rainsfield; and he began to entertain the belief that the blacks were at the station of Strawberry Hill, and had come there for the purpose of wreaking vengeance on their destroyer and his family at a time when they would imagine their visitation least expected.

At the same time, however, he could not bring his mind to imagine that the blacks would be bold enough to attack the whole station, being confident the knowledge of the superior prowess of the whites would deter them, besides their dread of fire-arms, which, they would know at least all the men on the station would possess. He had no doubt, either, but that Rainsfield, having incurred the enmity of the aborigines, would take every precaution against surprisal, and believed that he could, with the a.s.sistance of one or two of his men, preserve himself against the a.s.saults of a hundred of the blacks. But still John Ferguson could not divest his mind of some degree of apprehension, which (notwithstanding his endeavours to calm the perturbation his train of thoughts had led him to experience) still lingered there, and dark forebodings disturbed his brain.

"Where are they, do you think, Joey?" he enquired, as if he wanted corroboration of his own senses.

"Strawberry Hill, I believe, ma.s.sa," was the reply.

"I am afraid so, too," said John; "and I fear they are up to no good. If they were only going to rob the store they would never make so much noise over it."

"No, ma.s.sa, they not go to rob the store," said Joey; "they be frighted to do that again, I believe; taltoe (food) kill too many black fellow that time when they steal 'em ration; they be going to kill now, I believe."

"That's what I've been thinking too, Joey," replied his master; "but they wouldn't have any chance if the white fellows had guns."

"I don't know, ma.s.sa," replied the black boy; "p'rhaps no, p'rhaps yes--black fellows be very frightened of guns; but the Nungar black fellows, you pidner (know), very wild and budgery belonging to fight (good at fighting), and bael they lik'em (hate) Mr. Rainsfield; so I believe they will try very hard to kill him."

"I've no doubt they will," replied his master, "if they can get a mark at him; but if he keeps himself and his men within the house they will be able to fire away at the blacks without giving them a chance at themselves."

"White fellows all sit down liket huts," said Joey, by which he meant to imply that the men in all probability would be in their own huts, removed from the house of the station; "and," he continued, "bael Misser Rainsfield fight 'em all round big fellow humpie; and black fellow, when he find 'em bael come out, he gett'um firestick, and mak'em humpie one fellow-corbon fire;" which may be rendered into our vernacular by saying, that Rainsfield would be unable of himself to protect all parts of the dwelling; while the blacks would unhouse him by setting on fire the building, which it must be remembered was of wood.

John mused a few minutes in a reverie, in which his feelings sustained a violent convulsion. That love preserved a prominent position we have no doubt; and, also, that apprehension for the safety of the object of that love maintained a lively agitation in his mind. We fear we must not attribute his sympathy and anxiety for the family to a general friendship alone, but to the additional stimulus of a more inspiring feeling. However, we will not arrogate to ourselves the censorship of his motives, but simply confine ourselves to a recordance of events.

"Joey, get my horse and saddle him," said John, turning to the boy, who was standing with his body bent in an att.i.tude to catch the floating sound of the blacks' voices.

Joey turned his eyes, looking surprised at his master; and though he did not actually ask him the nature of the work he intended to require of his horse, his manner and hesitation made that inquiry; and his master devising its meaning voluntarily made the explanation.

"I will go over at once to Strawberry Hill, Joey," he said, "and see what the blacks are doing; for I cannot bear this suspense, and I fear the morrow will disclose some fearful work."

"Bael you cross the river, ma.s.ser," cried the boy; "too much water sit down. Bael you swim, ma.s.ser? More liket be drowned."

"Don't make yourself uneasy, Joey," replied his master, "my horse has taken me over worse floods than that; it is only back water from the Gibson, and there is very little current."

"But oh! ma.s.sa, bael you go! supposing you cross river, and supposing black fellows fight with Misser Rainsfield, what you can do? bael you got 'um gun or pistol, and black fellow have plenty spear; so you do nothing, and black fellow only kill you."

"No fear, Joey," said John. "The blacks would have no object in killing me; and if they are congregated at Strawberry Hill, to commit some outrage as I suspect, I may be enabled to effect some good by inducing them to abandon their scheme; or, at least, I can afford some a.s.sistance to the family they are attacking."

"Oh no, ma.s.sa! I tell you no," exclaimed the poor faithful attendant.

"These black fellows kill any white fellow now; bael they care for you now; they come to kill Misser Rainsfield; and Misser Rainsfield's friends liket help him they kill them too. Bael you go! Budgery ma.s.sa!"

exclaimed the attached creature, as he threw himself down on the ground before his master, and clung to his feet.

The expression and evidence of so much attachment in the poor boy sensibly affected the kind nature of John Ferguson; and he was moved to see so much genuine warmth and affection in one of a race which was looked upon as incapable of such emotions--a race which is deemed by professed judges of their nature to be dest.i.tute of all human virtue; to be the lowest in the social scale; incapable of the inculcation of civilisation, morality, and religion; to be only a stage above the brute creation, and to be segregated by an insuperable barrier from all sentient creatures. Could you, oh, self-sufficient philosopher (who enunciate these doctrines), only present yourself before these two, and penetrate with a visual percipiency the heart that beats in the breast of that poor, prostrate black, thou wouldst surely be brought to acknowledge the existence of that germ that was implanted in our first parents by the omnipotent Creator. Thou wouldst also be brought to acknowledge, unless prejudice blinded thine intellect, that, degraded as that race which thou contemnest undoubtedly is, much of the weight of that degradation has been the burdening of thine own countrymen. Say not that, by the immutable decrees of Providence, the black races are destined to disappear before the white, and to succ.u.mb their savage natures and existence to advancing civilisation. Such may, or may not, be so; but in either case how can you relieve yourself of the obligation imposed upon you by the Supreme Being to ameliorate the condition of that unfortunate people of whom you first rob their inheritance and then sweep from the face of the earth, by instilling into their unsophisticated natures all the vices incidental to yours; without attempting their regeneration, or even an ethic inculcation.

John looked upon his faithful attendant as he implored him not to venture either near the blacks or across the swollen river before him; and he felt a pleasurable sensation, akin to grat.i.tude, towards the poor creature. It is true he had himself almost reared the poor boy, who had been always near him; but the idea of so much attachment being in the nature of the black had never occurred to him; and its discovery therefore caused him astonishment.

"I must go, Joey," he said, "I have no fear for danger to myself; and if anything should happen this night to the family at Strawberry Hill, and I remained here, I shall ever accuse myself as being, by my selfish neglect, accessary to their fate."

"Will ma.s.sa let me go with him?" enquired the boy.

"No, Joey," replied his master; "I wish you to stop here with the shepherd and sheep, until the water falls sufficiently to enable you to cross with them; but get me my horse, I must lose no time;" saying which he turned away to seek the shepherd, who was watching the flock, to give him directions, while Joey performed the necessary services for the horse.

The black boy went down with his master to the edge of the river, in vain entreating to be permitted to accompany him, and stood on the brink of the water as John plunged his horse into the dark rolling stream. The night was black and cloudy and the opposite bank was hardly discernible in the gloom; while the opaque waters rolled their disturbed body in their sullen course. As John had said the river was not swift, but it was deep and treacherous. Its tide, though swollen by the immense volume in the Gibson, ran only slowly; but it was filled with eddies caused by the stoppage of its own natural current. Its pa.s.sage was therefore more dangerous than perhaps it would have been had it been running with the velocity of its parent stream.

As John entered the water the n.o.ble animal that carried him, guessing the nature of the work that was expected of him, courageously breasted the current, and swam for the opposite bank. For some minutes he could have been seen speeding his course, with precision for his desired goal; when anon he would be drawn into the vortex of one of those whirlpools in which the stream then abounded, and from which his persevering beast would extricate himself, and again struggle on his course. The horse and rider had nearly reached the other side, and were almost lost to Joey's sight in the obscurity, when suddenly both man and beast were entirely submerged; and the next instant the animal's feet were plainly discernible above water, in a state of violent agitation.

With one bound the black boy sprang into the water, and swam vigorously for the spot where his master had disappeared; but his anxieties were relieved by John's reappearance, and seeing him strike out for the bank in company with his horse. Joey did not return when he perceived that his master was safe, but pursued his course. Long and arduous was his struggle, and he had enough to do to preserve himself from the eddies and floating ma.s.ses that were rotating in the pools, or that were descending the stream. But he succeeded in crossing it without any mishap, and he presented himself to his master as the latter was about to mount his horse after his own dangerous pa.s.sage.

"What, Joey!" exclaimed John as he witnessed the boy before him, "what on earth has possessed you to risk your life in crossing the river by yourself, and after my telling you I wanted you to stay with the sheep?"