crews are away making their fortunes--or trying to make them--at
the new gold-fields. And those that aren't absolutely deserted are left
with only the cap'n aboard to look after 'em. _Your_ crew'll be leaving
you before twenty-four hours are passed over their heads--unless they're
an unusually steady lot--mark my words if they don't."

"And how long has this state of things existed?" I inquired.

"Oh, ever since the discovery of the new gold-field; and that's--let me
see--why, about five months," was the reply. "See that full-rigged ship
over there--painted green, with white ports--that's the _Sophie
Ellesmere_, of Liverpool. Her crew was the first to desert; and it was
only last Thursday that I heard her cap'n saying that he had been ready
for sea exactly five months on that day. He has written home to his
owners to send him out a crew, and he's expecting 'em by the next
steamer; the arrangement being that they're to go straight aboard from
the steamer, and up anchor and away. But, bless you, sir, they'll never
do it; they'll insist upon having a fling ashore, for a few days, after
their trip out here; and so sure as they get leave to do that, they'll
be off, like all the rest."

"And are there no men to be obtained here in place of the deserters?" I
asked.

"Lord bless your soul, no, sir! Why, it's a difficult matter to muster
hands enough even to unload or load a ship, with labourer's wages up to
a pound a day; and the men who are willing to work even at that figure
are either the few long-headed ones who prefer a moderate certainty to
the chance of ill luck at the gold-fields, or such poor delicate chaps
as can't stand the hardships of camp life. But, as to _sailors_, bless
you, sir, there ain't _one_ to be had for love or money. Even those who
deserted from the _Sophie Ellesmere_ haven't been up there long enough
yet to get tired of the life and to want a change."

"Then I suppose this new gold-field is proving pretty rich?" I
hazarded.

"Well, if you are to believe all that the newspapers say about it, there
must be gold to be had for the trouble of picking it up, almost," was
the reply. "And it is certain that at least one man--a sailor he was,
too--managed to scrape together ten thousand pounds' worth of gold in
the three months. He and three of his mates worked a claim together,
and struck it downright rich when they got down to the gravel; one
nugget alone that they brought up weighed four