in Barclay Sound, and
as there was not a dollar of insurance we were ruined, and had to
commence all over again.

The result of all this was that later we embarked with about six
hundred others on the steamer _Northerner_ for Victoria, to try
and retrieve something of what we lost. I will not vouch for the
accuracy of the dates or the rotation in which the incidents are
related, but I have done my best after cudgeling my brain for weeks
for the general result as here presented.

[Portrait: Edgar Fawcett.]

CHAPTER II.

THEATRICAL MEMORIES.

In looking through a trunk of old letters and other odds and ends the
other day, I came across what might be considered of some interest to
some of our pioneers in the sixties. The find consisted of six
playbills, or, as they could very well be considered, theatrical
posters, from the size; but they were such as were then given to
people as they passed the doorkeeper into the old Victoria Theatre on
Government Street. They measure two feet long by ten inches wide, and
are like posters alongside those now used. These plays were produced
in the times of Governors Douglas and Seymour, and were under their
distinguished patronage.

In those days very few theatrical companies visited Victoria, except
at irregular intervals, so that theatre-goers had to rely, to a great
extent, on the productions of the Victoria Amateur Dramatic Club to
fill up the intervals. At this date there were many well-educated and
professional men here who had come from the Old Country to get rich
in a short time; and, thinking the mines were close to this city,
many of these joined the club. Charles Clarke was a prominent member,
also W. M. Anderson, C. B. Tenniel, together with many of our young
business men, viz., Arthur Keast, the brewer; Lumley Franklin, the
auctioneer; S. Farwell, the civil engineer; H. C. Courtney, the
barrister; H. Rushton and Joseph Barnett, of one of the banks;
Ben Griffin, mine host of the Boomerang; Godfrey Brown, of Janion,
Green & Rhodes; W. J. Callingham, of McCutcheon & Callingham, drapers
(the latter, by the bye, was a most clever low comedian); Plummer,
the auctioneer; and last, though not least, Alex. Phillips, of
soda water fame. These names will all be familiar to old pioneers.
As female talent was scarce, or they were loth to take part in
theatricals, the other sex had to be enlisted, and I shall not forget
the meeting at the Boomerang (our meeting-place) when