New Gold Mountain

by Christopher Cheng

  When I told Uncle that I could return to China anytime I like he said, ‘This is very true’. He then reminded me that it would not be proper for me to return to China without the bones of Baba, and even those of Third Uncle. I hung my head and said, ‘This, too, is very true.’ I need to earn much gold. This is not so good. And Uncle reminded me that I am his responsibility now and he would like me here with him. He says that I can work for the gold, doing the tasks that he assigns me to ease his load. But he did not tell me how.

  Saturday, October 20

  I have been looking around our camp today and I think that there are twice as many Chinese miners here now as compared to last month; maybe there are more than four hundred mining for the gold here. That means twice as much work for me to do with Mr Fung in his garden, for there are more mouths to feed with his fresh vegetables. Some days he attends to other gardening duties while I remove insects or till the soil.

  It is good that there are more Chinese here. Now maybe the Big-Noses will not annoy us as much and will let us mine peacefully. It is so pleasing seeing many Chinese faces and hearing so many Chinese noises. Now there are many games of fan-tan and mah-jong in Chinese tents each evening. Mostly the games are peaceful, but sometimes the Bosses have to assert their authority and break up disputes. Some of the men can be very loud when they are not enjoying their games.

  But there are also more than twice as many Big-Noses in the Lambing Flat now. I am glad that Uncle and I live in our own tent with other Chinese men in the Gully away from the Big-Noses. Just from walking past their tents into the stores I know that the Big-Noses do not want us to be near them. Maybe they think we will spy on them and attack them in the middle of the night!

  Wednesday, October 24

  Still no mining, but much digging of gardens and cleaning of our tent. Now Uncle thinks that it would be good if I can clean some of the Bosses’ tents too. They have remarked on how tidy Uncle’s tent always is. At least I am being paid for these tasks. But I want gold as payment and not food or some tool. I would complain to the Bosses or Uncle, but I am most grateful that they have assisted in my development.

  Thursday, October 25

  I was right. The few Chinese miners who were mining next to the Big-Noses have given up and moved closer to where there are more Chinese. They were not able to mine without harassment so they left. They should have listened to what the Bosses and Uncle, who are more experienced, told them. Some of the men were telling of having their mines tossed in while they were resting in their tents, or of having their tents ransacked when they were mining for the gold. The Big-Noses yelled at them and threw rocks and small branches. They stole mining tools or destroyed them. I do not understand why these white miners are that way. We have not interfered with any of their possessions or any of their mines. Why do they interfere with Chinese?

  Monday, October 29

  Some of the religious men have visited the Big-Noses, so Ah Kee was telling us. He heard this, and much more, when he was in town purchasing supplies. These religious men do not visit the Chinese miners. They must know that we have our own gods to worship. Ah Kee was saying that one religious man came and could not even get the white miners together for a meeting. He left very annoyed and talked about ‘many lost and wretched souls’.

  One religious man had his religious books and papers stolen while he was drinking white tea with one of the storeowners in the Flat. He had left them in his bag on his horse, which was hitched to a post. That will surely make the spirits restless, for the thief to steal from a religious man. Another religious man tried to gather the miners for a religious service, but only very few attended. They probably did not want to interrupt their mining.

  It is strange that the white miners only worship one god—there is so much work for one god to do! I think that it is much better, the Chinese way, with different gods for different tasks. On a goldfield every miner should be worshipping Cai Shen, god of wealth. I asked Uncle to explain about the Big-Noses’ god, but he could only tell me that the Big-Noses have temples like ours to worship their god. Their temples are not red colour, so their fortune will not be good, and they have no creatures at the doorway to deter evil spirits. I very much would like to find out more about the Big-Noses’ god.

  Ah Kee also told us that there has been much fighting in the Flat between the white miners—they are fighting each other. This is a good happening, because the more they fight each other, the less they will fight the Chinese. Most times, he said, they were fighting because they have been drinking too much alcohol. Pon Chow is like this. He drinks too much and smokes powder and then turns wild with rage. He tells the men later that he does not know what he was doing, he does not even have any memory of his madness, except maybe from the bruises and the pains that he inflicts on his person. The Bosses have isolated him and forbidden him to drink. It seems strange, for he is a very nice man when I talk to him. The storekeepers told Ah Kee that the best thing that could happen would be for troopers to arrive to stop the fighting and the violence. As Ah Kee said to us, that would help protect the Chinese too.

  Tuesday, October 30

  We have snakes in China, but I have never seen a snake like the one I saw today. It was long and smooth and slid across the ground faster than I thought possible. Uncle says that because the weather is warming, the snakes are more likely to be around, and that is even more reason for me to be careful of where I walk. Never touch the snakes. They are venomous. Leave them alone. That is best for safety.

  Saturday, November 3

  If today was not so boring with nothing new to write, I would not be writing that this is day number thirty-two of writing in this book.

  Getting hot. No rain. Dam water looks dirty.

  Monday, November 5

  The old men, Uncle and the Bosses, have been warning the arriving Chinese miners to stay clear of the Big-Nose mines. Even some of the Chinese who were mining near them have been advising the new miners to stay clear, but some of them will not listen to experience. They think that they can mine wherever they like. All Chinese know that this is how it should be, but the reality is that we can’t. We Chinese have to mine as one.

  Ah Woo has just arrived. He registered with the Bosses and then straight away he went closer to the town to set up his mining. He said he found an abandoned mine, with no other mines close by. No notices were there, no claim pegs were there, and no other miner was around (which really is not possible, because he did say that he could hear people speaking). He said that it looked as though no-one had been digging in that place for many moons. But the Big-Noses discovered him. He told us he was clearing the mine of the rubbish that was in the shaft, and that when his head was in the hole the Big-Noses came over and struck him hard blows to the body, picked him up by his arms and legs and threw him off the mine. They shovelled the dirt back in the hole and then they chased him away and stole his mining tools and anything else he owned. I know he had a blanket and his weighing scales when he arrived.

  He is now mining with Boss Chin Yee to pay back the supplies he had to purchase from him.

  Tuesday, November 6

  Another attack on a lone Chinaman.

  Mi Kay reported to the Bosses that he was mining alone, not near Chinese and not near Big-Noses either. His tent was flattened and his mine filled with dirt—while he was still in the mine. Then when he was trapped by the legs, the Big-Noses started carrying away his dirt that he was going to wash in the cradle. He picked up handfuls of dirt and threw them at the raiders, but they simply laughed at him.

  These Big-Noses are cowards. They hunt in packs and look for the strays. That is what it is like.

  Thursday, November 8

  Tonight I am very tired after spending the day tilling soil for Mr Fung (and receiving no gold). He is preparing new ground for planting so I am helping him. Thank you, Uncle, for all the blisters on my hands today.

  While we were working the soil I asked Mr Fung why he is called Mr Fung and not Fung
… Then I stopped. I did not even know his Chinese name. Even Uncle and the Bosses call him Mr Fung. To him it is very simple. Mr Fung, like Uncle, believes that not all the European miners are bad and he wants to get on with them. (He tells me that Big-Noses is not a very nice name to call the European miners and that I should definitely not call them Big-Noses to their nose! He giggled as he said this to me and I giggled too.) So, because he is trading much with the European miners and they find it easier to call him Mr Fung (or sometimes just Fung), he allows this. The names do not worry him as long as they are paying in gold. And as I write this, I realise he still has not told me his Chinese name.

  Wednesday, November 14

  I could not write last night. I do not know precisely where I am, except that I am almost one day’s walk from our Gully. The Bosses were right. We do have to be very careful and look after each other, stay clear of the white miners and keep our most important possessions close to us.

  Tonight we are not in our camp. We were attacked, driven out of our Gully. Now we are hiding, sheltering near bushes and under trees along the roadway from our Gully. I try to remember what happened, but I have never seen such hurting before. All I know is that a blasting brass band and many Big-Noses armed with digging tools came marching towards us, and they started attacking us, tossing our tents, burning them, spilling all our goods onto the floor, stomping on our food. I am confused. I do not understand this. All we are doing is mining like they are mining. Most of us Chinese were together, not even near the white miners like Ah Woo foolishly was.

  How long we will be here, I do not know. Uncle does not know either. He is busy in talk with the Bosses. Maybe they are trying to work out what to do. As the attackers approached I grabbed my book (which is why I can write now) and also the bag with Baba’s bag, and I ran with Uncle. He was holding the Almanac and carrying his bag of writing tools and the herbs. He can run quickly for an old man, and he is strong. He was pulling me along as he ran. I have left in our tent Third Uncle’s cap. I hope that it is still there if we can return. Today I will not dislike being with Uncle. I am thankful that I have Uncle to look after me.

  Why do they treat us this way? I have not eaten this day.

  Thursday, November 15

  I cannot write today. I am feeling drowned. Uncle has told me that the miners are probably worried about so many Chinese being here. ‘I do not really know why,’ he tells me, but I think maybe he does. ‘There is no justification for what they do to us. But even so,’ he says, ‘we must get on with the European miners and learn to live and work together.’

  Those miners are selfish. They are horrid. Why do they think that they are the only ones who can mine here? I did nothing today. We are resting and sleeping on rough ground under a tree.

  Friday, November 16

  ‘Shu Cheong, your possessions, your important possessions, what are they?’ questioned Uncle.

  ‘My Baba’s possessions, they are most important.’

  ‘Then keep them in this satchel that I have made for you,’ Uncle said. ‘I, too, have a satchel for my book and my medicines. When we return to our camp, leave the bag close to the flap of our tent. Do this in case we are attacked again, so that you can quickly grab hold and run with it.’

  ‘And what about my diary?’

  ‘Is that important to you?’ I could tell that to Uncle it was very important, nearly as important as my Baba’s possessions. ‘Yes, Uncle. I have worked hard and written much.’ Uncle was smiling, even though I wasn’t trying to please him.

  ‘Then, Shu Cheong, that too must be placed in the satchel every night when you have finished writing your words. This is a very good thing that you do, Shu Cheong. One day people will read your words and will know that we Chinese are the same as other miners at the Flat. Maybe it will help the European and the Chinese miners and people of other skins to live together, if you record the true things that occur here. And don’t forget your special Chinese formal clothes. They must be in the satchel, too. If we have important occasions, these must always be worn.’ And then Uncle laughed and said, ‘Just don’t grow too fast.’

  Saturday, November 17

  I am not allowed to move away at all from the area where we are now, so I have spent all day sitting and looking and listening. We shared some of the food that men were able to grab as we fled and other food that some of the men have found here in the bush. Boss Chin Yee and Mr Fung argued over which food from the bush we can eat. Mr Fung would not eat some of the food because he says that it could make us sick, but Boss Chin Yee learnt about bush food from the Aboriginals in Victoria. Some men listened to Mr Fung and would only eat the food they knew. Other men ate anything they could … I think it depended on how hungry they were. I was very hungry. But there wasn’t enough food of the type Mr Fung knew, so I ate some of the bush food that Boss Chin Yee collected. The food had a very different taste to what I am used to. Some of it was nutty, and other pieces tasted of dirt. I do not like this food and I would like some rice instead.

  Sunday, November 18

  I was not feeling well this morning. Mr Fung might have been correct. Uncle used some of his precious herbs, and brewed tea for me to drink. This evening I felt better.

  Monday, November 19

  We are back in our old mining camp in the Gully now. At first light Boss Chin Yee sent out some of his men to check that we could safely return. The Big-Noses have ruined much of what we had—and what they couldn’t steal, break or mess up, they burnt. Some of our mining tools, tents and possessions were tossed on the small fires. Straight away some men were back into mining, while others have hung flysheets, pegged down tents, and cleaned away the charred remains of our old camp. Even the cradles are back in operation—at least, the ones that survived damage from the hating miners. The windlass, though, needs repair. ‘No time to lose,’ says Uncle. He says that now it is very important for all Chinese to stay together and be watchful.

  Wednesday, November 21

  Not two days we are back and already the white miners are here visiting us and asking Uncle to write for them the letters that they need. I still cannot understand how Uncle straightaway starts writing their letters again, especially while there are important repairs to be made to our camp and equipment, to return it to the way it was. But again he says that not all European miners are destroyers. ‘Some of them want to live together with us and would even have us mine side by side with them.’ I did hear one of the Big-Noses apologise for the hurt and the destruction that those of his kind have done to us. And he continued with the words that Uncle keeps saying to me—that not all white miners hate the Chinese and want them to leave, only a few. Later Uncle told me that another reason why he keeps writing their letters is so he can keep knowing what is happening in the Flat—and maybe even what the miners plan—without having to go closer and be in danger.

  Thursday, November 22

  I stood on a mound near a hill today and I saw what the European miners have complained about and what (maybe) they fear. But for Chinese eyes this is a wonderful sight. From the distance it looked like a swarm of ants, blue and black, walking in line, following the leading ant to the source. And we Chinese here at the Flat, we are the source. It was one line that stretched for what must be miles and miles. The ants were miners and the miners had come from a province near my home in China. They, too, have arrived in the goldfields carrying their baskets. It is very, very good to have more Chinese here in the Gully.

  When they came nearer our camp I would have rushed to join their line. I wanted to ask questions, to see if they knew my family, to find out news from home, to see if they brought any items from China. I wanted to see if there was another Chinese boy with them. But Uncle said that I had work to finish and that the miners were to rest undisturbed before talking to the Bosses. But we did have a special feast tonight with food that the men had carried all the way from China. There were dried vegetables, some Chinese tea (such sweetness!), canned fish and even Chinese sausage.
I have not eaten Chinese sausage since I left my village. It made me remember Mama and her cooking, and I wish that I was home in my beautiful China.

  Friday, November 23

  Hok Foo rushed into our camp today. He and a few other men had been missing since we were attacked. I was so excited to see him and he was very excited to see us, I could tell. I could see his gold tooth sparkling, and that only happens when he smiles. How the gold we mine can become a tooth, I do not know. But it was his news that really made us excited. He came to speak to Uncle and the other old men, to tell them that he had found more gold. Immediately some of the older men sent teams out to the find. They wanted to stake claims before the white miners could come in and throw us off. Uncle says that if we stake claims first then the fields are ours and we can do the mining without worrying about being thrown off again.