CHAPTER TWO
It was raining in the diggings. For over a week Ah Sing had suffered alone. He lay huddled between filthy blankets in his tiny humpy dug into a hill-side above the Palmer River. In daylight the hut provided a clear view of the Palmer. But it was night now, and Ah Sing knew his old eyes would never see the river of gold again.
The old Chinaman had panned the Palmer for over eight years. He had been one of thousands of his countrymen to arrive at the far northern Queensland port of Cooktown from southern China in 1875 to join the great goldrush.
Ah Sing coughed and brought up blood. His frail body shook incessantly from the fever which for weeks had just refused to go away. He lay on a dirt floor which during the rain had slowly turned to a spongy mud. The dampness only added to his misery. First it had seeped though the blankets and then into his clothing.
Ah Sing's body convulsed in yet another coughing spasm, and when it eventually subsided he closed his eyes and prayed that when death came he would not be alone.*
Ben Luk was born in the colony of New South Wales. He too had
worked the Palmer diggings for years. He had come with his father
from the well worked southern goldfields,
Ben's father never saw the Palmer goldfield. He was one of hundreds of diggers murdered by marauding Aborigines on the long and dangerous road from Cooktown to the Palmer River. Somehow Ben had escaped, and it had been Ah Sing who had taken in the fifteen year old son of a Celestial father and a long since dead European woman, when all others of both races rejected him.
Now Ben was a grown man and the Palmer was all but played out. He had scoured the length and breadth of the goldfield over the past two years and found barely enough gold to provide food and supplies.
Most of the white men had gone years earlier, leaving behind them a fortune in gold to the Chinese who had the patience and determination to methodically work every inch of the entire goldfield and river bed. But now even Chinese on the Palmer were few and far between. Ben knew it was time to move on.
At twenty three, Ben Luk stood six feet tall and was powerfully built with a strong honest face. He wore his long black hair in a pigtail like a Chinese, but wore European clothes. He rode a fine chestnut mare and carried a carbine and stock-whip for protection, not only against Aborigines, but also against those Chinese and Europeans alike, who made no secret of their hatred for his mixed blood. Over the years in the wild Palmer country Ben had become proficient in the use of both the rifle and the whip.
Ben urged his horse through a swollen creek, just upstream of the point where it gushed into the Palmer River, then continued along the riverbank in the darkness towards Ah Sing's shack. Soon he would tell Ah Sing of his plans to move on and encourage the old man to leave with him.
Ah Sing's humpy appeared through the deluge. There was no light shining. Ben quickened his pace. When he pushed the door open and called out Ah Sing's name, there was no answer. He rummaged around and found an old miner's lantern and lit it. When the glow fell on Ah Sing's face Ben thought he was dead.
Ah Sing lay perfectly still, his eyes closed and his mouth hanging wide open. But when Benlifted him from the pile of wet blankets and laid him in a dry place, the old man's eyelids fluttered and he tried to speak.
Ben fetched a flask from a saddlebag and put it
to Ah Sing's lips. At first Ah Sing gasped when the brandy seared
his throat, but soon he felt it's warmth and spoke.
`Stay close to me Ben Luk. I have little time to say what I must
say before I pass on...'
`I will not leave your side again,' Ben said softly and took Ah
Sing's frail hand in his.
`I have told you before Ben Luk,' Ah Sing wheezed, `I was once a
successful merchant in Hong Kong, but foolish gambling led to the
loss of all I possessed and my creditors sent me in servitude to
this awful wilderness to repay their due in gold.'
`Yes, yes.' Ben said softly, `but surely the many shipments of gold
you sent to Hong Kong must have more than repaid your
indebtedness.'
Ah Sing began to cough again. His little body shook violently as he
retched and gasped for air. His bony fingers clutched at Ben and
drew him closer. `Some time ago I happened upon many large gold
nuggets...more than enough for me to return to China with
dignity...'
Ben felt Ah Sing's grip weaken. He watched as the old man's eyes
closed again and he began to slip away.
`The large nuggets I found are buried deep in the ground directly
beneath where I lie.' Ah Sing's thin lips barely moved when he
spoke.
Ben knew the end was near.
`Take them,' Ah Sing murmured softly. `They are my dying gift to
you. Leave this miserable place. Go to the capital of this colony,
and take your place in it as a merchant, as I did in the colony of
Hong Kong. Your mixed blood gives you the patience and frugality of
the Chinese, and the forcefulness and tenacity of the English. Use
these things to your advantage Ben Luk. Remember all I have taught
you. Do not allow yourself to become indebted to anyone, and you
will surely succeed.'
Ben felt Ah Sing's body relax. The old man's wrinkled face looked
at peace now. Ben took Ah Sing into his arms and comforted him long
into the night.
The rain had cleared by morning. Ben laid Ah Sing to rest in a deep
grave beside a large flat rock on the hill overlooking the river.
Immediately afterward he started digging up the floor of the
humpy.
It was late in the day when Ben uncovered two Chinese earthenware
jars. They lay side by side nearly three feet below the surface.
Each jar contained gold nuggets, all much larger than any he had
ever seen before. Ben estimated there were at least a thousand
ounces of gold in each jar. For a long time he just sat and stared
in wonderment. Later he returned one of the jars to the ground and
carefully re-buried it.
The next morning Ben stood beside Ah Sing's grave, and with his
head bowed he paid his last respects:
`I leave you now Ah Sing, where your spirit may watch the river
from this great rock as I have so often seen you watch in the past.
I shall not waste what you have given me.Should I fail as a
merchant because of my ignorance of business matters, or should I
somehow lose the wealth with which you have entrusted me, then I
shall return for the second jar of gold which I have left with you
for safe keeping. In this way, if necessary, I shall have a second
chance to fulfill your wish that I use your gold to become a
successful merchant.'