An old resident in Shanghai has received the following letter from a friend, now in Melbourne, under date Ist December, 1879 My Dear Faresp,—I am in receipt at last of your communication in answer to mine of 1877.
Since you heard from me, imy life has been one of frequent adventure and constant excitement; and here I am far worse off than 1 ever was, but as I live in hope, there may soon appear a silver lining in the perhaps net very distant cloud. Twas altogether twelve months on the once far famed Palmer goldfield, and there, after undergoing hardships such as are met on remote goldfields in these colonies, I cleared for other fields and pastures new. Not being one of the few Iucky ones, I felt I would not have been justified in exposing myself, and money. being so easily lost I wended my weary Way into civilization once more. As I believe I have given some account of life'on diggings in search of that filthy lucre, I need not trouble you much more on a topic which may not perhaps be very interesting to you, bnt as I have scrawled an account of the Barrington goldGeld for the benefit of the Sydney Press it may not perhaps be out of place to enclose a copy of same, but before I go any further, I may as well give you some idea of ty doings since I lett the Palmer gold-field. On my return to Sydney, Iand a gentleman who was my bosom friend on the Palmer, fitted onan expedition last October twelve month for New Guinea in search of cedar and gold; yon can not by all accounts have read anything of it, as you do not mention anything concerning it. Well, we chartered a small schooner called the Minnie Lowe, 74 tons register, and sailed from Port Jnckson October 13th 1878, for the unknown and savage shores of New Guinea. All went as merry as a marriage bell for the first month or so. When we anchored on the east coast fifteen all cold, amongst some of the greatest fighting warriors under the sun, the very moment we dropped anchor hundreds of natives came out in their war canoes to fight us, headed by a chief who turned out afterwards to be a good friend to me as you will hereafter see. Well, to sum up, after a well directed fire from our fire arms numbers were shot, but I never heard of such daring as well as pluck shown by these natives. They actually advanced I may sq; to the very muzzle of our guns and showa that if they were to die in endeavouring to repulse white men, they would die hard. That memorable encounter is vividly and hourly before my mind, and well it may be, as five of our party were killed in the encounter and I was wounded with a spear. In the course of a fow days, having made friends with the chief and his people, we landed in his village and made presents. Then some time after we formed a camp ashore and established confidence with the natives, Seven of us explored the eastern coast, while the three remaining ones were left in charge of camp; after three weeks' cruise with occasional fighting we returned, when we found everything all right, thus finding that our fire arms had taught the natives a good lesson. We found the place clear. The natives are war-like, but we deemed it safe to thoroughly investigate the cedar grounds. This trip, we also found colours of gold in the bed of one of the streams in black sand, thus proving the existence of gold in New Guinea.
The schooner started again on the second trip. I remained alone in charge of corny ashore; after a month or so, no tidings having come from the' natives, I gave it up as a bad job, and you will see that my fears were only too well grounded. News came to me through the chief one day, that he had heard white men had been'killed and eaten by natives a long distance away; just realize my position for a single moment, and down with the cursed fever and ague, living in a tent under the broiling hot sun in an equatorial climate, cast like Robinson Crusoe on a savage island, not even in health, not knowing when the time would come that they would take it into their heads to do away with me; such were the fears and the feelings of a man who after all dreamt of seem; lization again. After being four solid months with these, the dreaded warriors of the east coast, a schooner have in sight, having come from the pearling station at Torres Straits to {see if they could by any luck prove what jim, and the plaintiff lad always held the had become of us all, as fears were entertained there that something awful had happened tous. Isent natives after her, and a few hours later I was by a Divine providence enabled to gaze once more ona white man's face.
Lreally believe I couldnothavelived much longer, as I was getting day by day nearer. the other world, fever and ague had got such aholdon me. Well, my dear friend, I must not trouble you in this letter with everything. that occurred to me there during those four months left alone. I will only now give you an outline of the whole disaster, in which fourteen valuable lives were sacrificed in a plucky endeavour to open up that hitherto unknown land, We were the first to have any intercourse on that coast, and here I am as the sole survivor of the Minnie Lowe party, and I am here as a witness to speak the truth and nothing but the truth. Tam happy to say that my testimony, has been received up and down Australia, long paragraphs having appeared in the papers. 'To return to the schooner which so fortunately came down to me, in a time of need we endeavoured after a few days' cruise to find out where they had been murdered and eaten by, cannibals, but I must turn for fear I lose my self-control. I named the place Cloudy Bay on account of the cloudy state of the weather there. All we did find was a boot which I identified as that of my partner, and pieces of the schooner washed ashore, but we did not land there without firing several rounds and some thirteen of those cannibals were shot, Thus ended my adventures on New Guinea, returning a perfect wreck to Torres Straits to await the steamer going South, Iwill give you full particulars in my next, I landed in Sydney last April, and after. recruiting for two months, I went to the Barrington gold field, New South Wales, which had just been opened and after losing heavily gave it up, and Ido not think I shall go there again'as luck not having smiled on me, it is not very encouraging for me to swamp my little all and be compelled to ge, and lite in narrow ways with litre men.
enclose an account of the Barrington bj which you may form some idea of what is and has been done there; it is a copy of what I'sent to the Sydney Press before coming down. Taise enclose my photo; send me youre by return, What are you doing in Shanghai now? I sincerely' hope you are doing well, and enjoying yourself immensely. Kindly excuse my scrawl, unaccustomed as I am to stain much paper.
Believe me, Very faithfully yours, Kaw Beports,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.