There was a strong feeling amongst the diggers that the license fee of thirty shillings per month was excessive, and this feeling was intensified by the report that it was the intention of the Government to double the amount.  As a matter of fact, by far the larger number of claims yielded no gold at all, or not enough to pay the fee.  The hatred of the hunted diggers made it quite unsafe to send out a small number of police and soldiers, so there came forth at irregular intervals a formidable body of horse and foot, armed with carbines, swords, and pistols.

This morning they marched rapidly along the track towards the White Hills, but wheeling to the left up the bluff they suddenly appeared at the head of Picaninny Gully.  Mounted men rode down each side of the gully as fast as the nature of the ground would permit, for it was then honeycombed with holes, and encumbered with the trunks and stumps of trees, especially on the eastern side.  They thus managed to hem us in like prisoners of war, and they also overtook some stragglers hurrying away to right and left.  Some of these had licenses in their pockets, and refused to stop or show them until they were actually arrested.  It was a ruse of war.  They ran away as far as possible among the holes and logs, in order to draw off the cavalry, make them break their ranks, and thus to give a chance to the unlicensed to escape or to hide themselves.  The police on foot, armed with carbines and accompanied by officers, next came down the centre of the gully, and every digger was asked to show his license.  I showed that of William Matthews.

It was not that the policy of William Patterson was tried and found wanting.  He was at work on his claim a little below mine, and knowing he had no license, I looked at him to see how he would behave in the face of the enemy.  He had stopped working, and was walking in the direction of his tent, with head bowed down as ifin search of something he had lost.  He disappeared in his tent, which was a large one, and had, near the opening, a chimney built up with ironstone boulders and clay.  But the police had seen him; he was followed, found hiding in the corner of his chimney, arrested, and placed among the prisoners who were then halted near my tub.  Immediately behind Patterson, and carrying a carbine on his shoulder, stood a well-known shipmate named Joynt, whom poverty had compelled to join the enemy.  He would willingly have allowed his friend and prisoner to escape, but no chance of doing so occurred, and long after dark Patterson approached our camp fire, a free man, but hungry, tired, and full of bitterness.  He had been forced to march along the whole day like a convicted felon, with an ever-increasing crowd of prisoners, had been taken to the camp at nightfall and made to pay 6 pounds 10s.—­viz., a fine of 5 pounds and 1 pound 10s. for a license.