Although I could not deny that the faults of which they complained, in reality existed, yet I believed that they were not the persons who had the right to correct them. Many of the foreign diggers had a deal more to say, about the misgovernment of the colony, than any of Her Majesty's subjects; and I did not like to hear them talk treason. They had come to the colony for the purpose of making money--because Australia offered superior advantages for that purpose--and I thought that they should have been satisfied with the government found there, without taking upon themselves to reform its abuses. I explained all this to Karl; but, while admitting the truth of what I said, he still adhered to his determination to take a part in the revolution of Eureka. "Several times," said he, "have I had armed men command me to show a licence, and I have also been imprisoned, because I did not have that piece of paper in my pocket. I have several times been insulted in the colony, because I am not an Englishman. I care but little which gets the worst of this struggle--the minions of the government or its subjects. Where the blood of either, or both, is to flow, there I wish to be." I said nothing more to dissuade Karl from following this singular wish; but permitted him to accompany me to the stockade--where he was enrolled in one of the companies. Volume Three, Chapter XII. THE EUREKA ROUT. I have stated that about four hundred men were kept under arms at Ballarat, to oppose the amusement of digger-hunting, so much indulged in by the government officials. The former had now made their rendezvous at the stockade on the Eureka. They were accustomed to meet in the day, and get drilled by officers, whom they had appointed for this duty. During the night, most of them, who were residents of Ballarat, returned thither, and slept in their tents, while others, who had come from Creswick's Creek and the more distant gold-fields--to take part in the affair--remained at the boarding houses of the township. On the night of the 2nd of December, 1854, there were about one hundred and seventy men in the stockade. Having entered into the cause, I determined to devote my whole time to it; and on that night I was there among the rest. The diggers, who were present, supposed they had as much right to stay in the stockade as elsewhere. They certainly were not interfering with the officials in the execution of their duty; nor, in any way, making a disturbance. There was no just cause why they should have been attacked on that particular night. It is true, that during the previous week, the troopers had been opposed by the diggers they were hunting; and had in some cases been prevented from making arrests. But the authorities need not have supposed, that the men in the Eureka Stockade were the same who had offered this resistance. They could only have thought so, and acted on the belief, by a singular stretch of imagination.