Sheep-grazing,
wool-growing, and boiling down sheep and cattle for tallow was the great
business of the country from its earliest settlement up to 1851, when
the _gold fever_ swept the land.

Australia was inhabited by over 100,000 natives, black cannibals of the
ugliest description; but at this day not a hundred of them remain. The
natives were exceeding stupid and useless; the first settlers, who, as
Capt. Rocksalt observes, were jail-birds and scape-gallows, were not
very dainty in dealing with the obnoxious natives; so they determined to
get rid of them as fast and easy as possible. For this purpose, they
used to gather a horde of them together, and give them poisoned bread
and rum, and so kill them off by hundreds. It was a sharp sort of
_practice_, but the _ends_ seemed to justify the _means_.

Gold, "laying around loose," as it did, was, no doubt, _discovered_
years ago; but not in quantities to lead the ignorant to believe money
could be made hunting it. People may be stupid; but it requires a far
greener capacity than most of them would confess to--at least, ten years
ago--to make them believe gold could be picked up in chunks out in the
open fields.

But Australia began to be populated; by convicts first; and then by far
better people; though the very worst felons sent out often became decent
and respectable men, which is indeed a great "puff," we think, for the
healthfulness of the climate. A convict shepherd now and then used to
bring into Sydney small lumps of gold and sell them to the watch-makers,
and as he refused to say where or how he got them, it was suspicioned
that he had secreted guineas or jewelry somewhere, and occasionally
melted them for sale.

However, one day the thing broke out, nearly simultaneously, all over
Australia. Gold was lying around everywhere. The rocks, ledges, bars,
gullies, and river-banks, which were daily familiar to the eyes of
thousands, all of a sudden turned up bright and shining gold. Old Dame
Nature must have laughed in her sleeve to see the fun and uproar--the
scrabble and rush she had caused in her vast household.

"It did beat _all!_" exclaims the old Captain. "In forty-eight hours
Sydney was half-depopulated, Port Phillip nearly desolate, while the
interior villages or towns--Bathurst, &c., were run clean out!"

Stores were shut up, the clerks running to the mines, and the
proprietors after the clerks. Mechanics dropped work and put out;
servants left without