[Illustration: ROBERT O'HARA BURKE. _From Photo_--HILL, Melbourne.] AUSTRALIAN HEROES AND ADVENTURERS. LONDON: WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE, AND MELBOURNE. 1889. PREFACE. This book is the first of a series which the Publisher intends to issue, illustrative of life and adventure in the Australian Colonies and the Islands of the Pacific. It has been carefully compiled from reliable sources of information--viz., _Wills's Diary_, _King's Narrative_, _Howitt's Diary_, Wood's _Explorations in Australia_, Withers's _History of Ballarat_, Sutherland's _Tales of the Gold-fields_, Raffello's _Account of the Ballarat Riots_, McCombie's _History of Victoria_, etc., etc. Most of these books are very expensive or out of print, and therefore not easily procurable at the booksellers. In the succeeding volumes of the series it is proposed to give--"Buckley, the Runaway Convict, and his Black Friends," "John Batman, the Founder of Melbourne," "Fawkner, the Pioneer," "Early Days of Tasmania," "Botany Bay Tales," "Remarkable Convicts," "Notorious Bushrangers," "Brave Deeds," "Squatting Tales," "Remarkable Personal Adventures," "Curious Anecdotes," etc., etc. MELBOURNE, 1889. CONTENTS. Burke and Wills--Two Heroes of Exploration. CHAPTER I. PAGE ACROSS AUSTRALIA 7 CHAPTER II. THE RETURN JOURNEY 21 CHAPTER III. SUFFERINGS AND DEATHS OF THE TWO LEADERS 34 CHAPTER IV. SEARCH PARTIES, AND CONCLUSION 48 Old Times on the Gold-Fields. CHAPTER I. THE CONVICT'S STRATAGEM 63 EARLY DISCOVERIES IN NEW SOUTH WALES 66 HARGRAVES, THE PIONEER MINER 69 AN ABORIGINAL DISCOVERER 77 CHAPTER II. GOLD IN VICTORIA 80 JAMES ESMOND, THE VICTORIAN PIONEER 81 OTHER PIONEERS 85 CHAPTER III. EFFECT OF DISCOVERIES 89 CANVAS TOWN 94 RAG FAIR 95 NEW CHUMS AND OLD CHUMS 96 CHAPTER IV. SLY GROG SHANTIES 100 CHAPTER V. THE DIGGER'S LICENSE 105 DIGGER-HUNTING ANECDOTES 109 CHAPTER VI. BEGINNINGS OF REVOLT 116 AN IRISH GALLANT 117 REFORM LEAGUES 120 CHAPTER VII. THE EUREKA HOTEL MURDER 125 A LOYAL TOAST 130 BURNING THE LICENSES 131 THE LAST DIGGER-HUNT 134