CHAPTER IV.
A BIRTHPLACE OF FREEDOM.
AN EARLY IRISH EXPLORER—PRIMITIVE SQUATTERS—ESMOND'S DISCOVERY OF GOLD—FEVERISH EXCITEMENT—RUSH OF GOLD-SEEKERS FROM THE OLD WORLD—LARGE PERCENTAGE OF IRISHMEN—THE GOVERNMENT ISSUES LICENCES TO DIG—ARBITRARY AND BRUTAL MODE OF COLLECTING THE LICENCE-FEES—TWO ZEALOUS IRISH PRIESTS—THEIR TREATMENT BY INSOLENT TROOPERS—GROWING AGITATION FOR REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES—MASS MEETING ON BAKERY HILL—12,000 DIGGERS BURN THEIR LICENCES—PETER LALOR CHOSEN COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF—THE DIGGERS OCCUPY THE EUREKA STOCKADE—ATTACKED BY THE MILITARY—THE STOCKADE CAPTURED—DIGGERS CHARGED WITH HIGH TREASON AND ACQUITTED—ABOLITION OF THE HATEFUL LICENCE-FEE—DEMOCRATIC FREEDOM WON BY THE DIGGERS—DEVELOPMENT OF MINING—DEEP SINKING—REMARKABLE CAREER OF THE BAND OF HOPE—FATHER DUNNE, THE PIONEER PRIEST—THE BALLARAT OF TO-DAY.
Situated at a height of 1,437 feet above the level of the sea, and at a distance of 70 miles from Melbourne, is Ballarat, the centre of the richest gold-field in the world. Ballarat is a compound native word, meaning in our language a camping or resting-place, "balla" being the aboriginal equivalent for elbow, or, in a figurative sense, reclining at one's ease with the hand supporting the head. No name could have been more suitable or appropriate during the decade that the locality remained a pastoral solitude, but it completely lost its significance when the mineral wealth of Ballarat became known to the world, and thousands of gold-seekers from every civilised country came rushing southwards like a mighty human avalanche. In every infant settlement it is only natural that adventurous spirits should be found form-
