have raised the "animated bust." It shall serve to unite also in honoured memory the names and effigies--the very form and semblance of these now celebrated men, whose great exploit has shed such lustre upon the records of exploration and discovery in this our age, and engrafted so large a share of interest and glory upon the earlier annals of Victoria.'" [Illustration] OLD TIMES ON THE GOLD-FIELDS, INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF THE BALLARAT REBELLION. Old Times on the Gold-Fields. "Gold, Gold, Gold, Gold-- Bright and yellow, hard and cold." --TOM HOOD. CHAPTER I. _THE CONVICT'S STRATAGEM._ The earliest discoverer of gold in Australia is unknown to fame. Probably he was one of that class of colonists whom Barrington, the pickpocket, poet, and historian, describes in the oft-quoted couplet:-- "True patriots we, for be it understood, We left our Country for our Country's good;" and who were employed on the roads of the colony and on the selections of its settlers in doing the rough work incidental to the opening of a new country. For the first report of the existence of the precious metal we are indebted to the cunning of a convict, who attempted to regain his liberty by the following stratagem. It is related by Governor Hunter in his journal of Transactions in the Colonies. In August 1788, a report was current in the settlement which for some time appeared credible. It ran thus:--A convict named Dailey had discovered a piece of ground on which was a considerable quantity of yellow ore. Specimens of the stuff were examined by the Lieutenant-governor (in the temporary absence of the Governor), and found to contain several particles of gold. The convict was interrogated, and so plausible was his tale that the officials fully believed it, and doubted not that the man had discovered a valuable field. He was disinclined to make known its whereabouts until the Governor's return, when he promised to give full particulars of the discovery, provided he and a certain female prisoner should be liberated and given berths in one of the ships then on the point of sailing for England. But the Lieutenant-governor, impatient at the reservation of the convict, told him that unless the alleged discovery was substantiated the reward should be of rather a disappointing and irritating nature. Fearing punishment, the convict relaxed a little, and said that the mine was on the lower part of the harbour near the seashore, and offered to lead the officer to the place. Accordingly an officer and three or four soldiers embarked with the discoverer. He took them down the harbour and landed them near a wood which he said was only a short distance from the mine. He led the party into some dense scrub, and when in the thick of it, managed to give them the slip. The cheat then made for the camp as quickly as his legs would take him round the bay, and got back early in the afternoon.