Our pilot says he gives 200
pounds a year for a small four-roomed cottage, two miles from the
town.
. . .
To show how well prepared the young adventurer was for life in
Australia,--notwithstanding letters of introduction and means of
obtaining money if required--after remaining only a few days in
Melbourne, and disbursing but a small modicum of the limited supply
of cash he had taken with him, anxious to see the interior of the
Island Continent, he obtained employment for himself and brother, a
lad only fifteen years of age, at a large sheep station two hundred
miles up the country. The following letter, dated February 12th,
1853, describes their proceedings to that date:--
MY DEAR FATHER,
We are at Deniliquin. And where in the world is that? you will say.
Well; it is about two hundred miles north from Melbourne, on the
Edward River, in the New South Wales district, and nearly five
hundred miles from Sydney. The station belongs to the Royal Bank
Company. We have engaged as shepherds at 30 pounds per annum each,
and rations. We are very comfortable, in a hut by ourselves, about
four miles from the station. We have between thirteen and fourteen
hundred rams, by far the smallest and easiest flock, under our
charge.
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