River of the Sun: An unforgettable Australian saga of love, betrayal and belonging by Patricia Shaw

Author:Patricia Shaw [Shaw, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780755389582
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2011-10-26T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWO

The Finns decided to remove themselves to Townsville for easier access to the goldfields. Because the fishing was so good and so lucrative in Bowen, they hadn’t moved from the bay, but now they felt it was time to get serious about prospecting. The night before they sailed, they gave themselves a send-off with lashings of food and a supply of ale, schnapps and gin, and invited all their friends in the harbour. It was a rip-roaring party. Lew stumbled back aboard the junk at dawn, managing to stay on his feet just long enough to wave farewell to his departing friends. Then he fell into his bunk to sleep off the after-effects.

At four o’clock that afternoon he emerged, dived into the sea to complete the cure, and climbed back on board, refreshed, to find Hong waiting for him, looking very concerned.

‘What’s the matter?’ Lew asked him, in Chinese, since Hong’s English was still hopeless, even though he was very proud of his efforts.

‘Big trouble in the town last night, Captain. The white men went berserk, rioting, and chased Chinamen all over the place. Beating them up!’ Then Hong grinned. ‘But this time the Chinamen were ready. They waited up by the lumber yards, and when the white devils came chasing, honourable Chinese gave them some of their own medicine. Very good fight. They cut some of them with elegance.’

‘Oh Jesus!’ Lew groaned. ‘You tell the crew to stay here. They’re not to go into the town for any reason. It’s not our fight. We keep right out of it. You hear me?’

Lew dressed and went into town looking forward to a good feed. He’d become accustomed to the way colonials ate, steaks as big as boots, even for breakfast, loaded with three eggs, gravy and slabs of bread. They were big meat eaters and liked potatoes instead of rice. They ate few green vegetables, and when they did, they were boiled tasteless. He’d noticed that quite a few Chinese had begun to grow vegetables on small plots outside the town. They’d have no trouble selling their produce, and it occurred to him that these small farmers might stay here. They were a stoical race, well able to ignore racial slights and bright enough to see they could live well here as market gardeners with any amount of space and no irrigation problems.

The pubs were churning with angry miners growling about the Chinks who’d attacked their mates, vicious sly ‘yellers’ who’d used the most cowardly of weapons, daggers, on blokes who were just out having a good time. Lew heard that the Chinks were responsible for all the villainy perpetrated in the town, that they were purveyors of all manner of vice and that no white woman was safe from them. Lew tired of the company of boring braggarts and went to see Mrs Middleton. It was difficult to gauge from all the boozy rantings just how serious the trouble had been, and with Jack Middleton away, his wife could be nervous, alone in that house.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.