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Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53, A.

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<h3> Chapter XVII. </h3> <h3> HOMEWARD BOUND </h3> We soon left Port Philip far behind, and in a few days saw nothing but a vast expanse of water all around us. Our vessel was filled with returning diggers; and it is worth while to remark that only two had been unsuccessful, and these had only been at the diggings a few days. One family on board interested me very much. It consisted of father, mother, and two children. The eldest, a little, girl, had been born some time before they left England. Her brother was a sturdy fellow of two years old, born in the colonies soon after their arrival. He could just toddle about the deck, where he was everlastingly looking for "dold," and "nuddets." The whole family had been at the diggings for nine months, and were returning with something more than 2,000 pounds worth of gold. In England it had been hard work to obtain sufficient food by the most constant labour; they had good reason to be thankful for the discovery of the gold-fields. Saturday, November 27, was forty-eight hours long, or two days of the same name and date. Sailing right round the world in the direction of from west to east, we gained exactly twenty-four hours upon those who stay at home; and we were therefore obliged to make one day double to prevent finding ourselves wrong in our dates and days on our arrival in England. Melbourne is about ten hours before London, and therefore night, and day are reversed. Rapidly it became cooler, for the winds were rather contrary, and drove us much farther south than was needed. We were glad to avail ourselves of our opossum rugs to keep ourselves warm. One of these rugs is quite sufficient covering of a night in the coldest weather, and imparts as much heat as a dozen blankets. They are made from the skins of the opossums, sewn together by the natives with the sinews of the same animal. Each skin is about twelve inches by eight, or smaller; and as the rugs are generally very large, they contain sometimes as many as eighty skins. They may be tastefully arranged, as there is a great difference in the colours; some being like a rich sable, others nearly black, and others again of a grey and light brown. The fur is long and silky. At one time a rug of this description was cheap enough—perhaps as much as two sovereigns but the great demand for them by diggers, &c., has made them much more scarce, and it now requires a ten pound-note to get a good one. The best come from Van Diemen's Land. In summer they are disagreeable, as they harbour insects. However, whilst rounding Cape Horn, in the coldest weather I ever experienced, we were only too happy to throw them over us during the nights. One morning we were awakened by a great confusion on deck. Our ship was ploughing through a quantity of broken ice. That same afternoon, we sighted an immense iceberg about ten miles from us. Its size may be imagined from the fact, that, although we were sailing at a rate of ten knots an hour, we kept it in sight till dark. This was on the 3rd of December. We soon rounded the Horn, and had some very rough weather. One of the sailors fell off the jib-boom; and the cry of "man overboard" made our hearts beat with horror. Every sail was on; we were running right before the wind, and the waves were mountains high, a boat must have been swamped; and long before we could "bout ship", he had sunk to rise no more. After rounding Cape Horn, we made rapid progress; by Christmas Day, we were in the Tropics. It was not kept with much joviality, for water and food were running scarce. Provisions were so dear in Melbourne, that they had laid in a short allowance of everything, and our captain had not anticipated half so many passengers. We tried, therefore, to put into St. Helena, but contrary winds preventing us, we sailed back again to the South American coast, and anchored off Pernambuco. It was providential that economical intentions made our captain prefer this port, for had we touched at Rio, we should have encountered the yellow fever, which we afterwards heard was raging there. Pernambuco is apparently a very pretty place. We were anchored about four miles from the town, so had a good view of the coast. I longed to be on shore to ramble beneath the elegant cocoa-nut-trees. The weather was intensely hot, for it was in the commencement of January; and the boats full of fruit, sent from the shore for sale, were soon emptied by us. I call them boats, but they are properly termed catamarans. They are made of logs of wood lashed securely together; they have a sail and oars but no sides, so the water rushes over, and threatens every moment to engulf the frail conveyance; but no, the wood is too light for that. The fruits brought us from shore were oranges, pine-apples, water-melons, limes, bananas, cocoa-nuts, &c., and some yams, which were a good substitute for potatoes. The fruit was all very good, and astonishingly cheap; our oranges being green, lasted till we reached England. Some of our passengers went on shore, and returned with marvellous accounts of the dirtiness and narrowness of the streets, and the extremely NATURAL costume of the natives. We remained here about four days, and then, with favourable winds, pursued our voyage at an average rate of ten or twelve knots an hour. As we neared the English coast, our excitement increased to an awful height; and for those who had been many years away, I can imagine every trivial delay was fraught with anxiety. But we come in sight of land; and in spite of the cold weather, for it is now February, 1853, every one rushes to the deck. On we go; at last we are in the Downs, and then the wind turned right against us. Boats were put off from the Deal beach. The boatmen there rightly calculated that lucky gold-diggers wouldn't mind paying a pound a-piece to get ashore, so they charged that, and got plenty of customers notwithstanding. On Sunday, the 27th of February, I again set foot on my native land. It was evening when we reached the shore, and there was only an open vehicle to convey us to the town of Deal itself. The evening was bitterly cold, and the snow lay upon the ground. As we proceeded along, the sounds of the Sabbath bell broke softly on the air. No greeting could have been more pleasing or more congenial to my feelings. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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