HISTORICAL REVIEW OF VICTORIA. 



343 



one pair of arms ? The public service was deserted ; the guardians of the peace disap- 

 peared ; and male and female domestics helped to swell the general stampede. Society 

 was not merely disorganized, it was dissolved ; and the position of the unfortunate 

 Governor was one of unprecedented embarrassment. Something like eleven thousand 



" BLACK THURSDAY. 



people poured into Victoria from South Australia and from Van Diemen's Land, without 

 reckoning those who crossed the Murray from New South Wales in the second half of 

 1851. The scenes witnessed on the roads to the principal diggings were of the most 

 animated character. Every gold-seeker was inspired by a feverish hope ; and, in many 

 instances, his most sanguine expectations were far surpassed. 



Before the end of December, upwards of ten tons of gold had been obtained from 

 the Victorian gold-fields, and the supply appeared to be inexhaustible, so that no sooner 

 did the news of these extraordinary discoveries reach Europe and America, than a great 

 tide of population began to flow outward, in the direction of the new land of Ophir. 

 Upwards of fifteen thousand immigrants arrived by sea during the latter part of 1851, 

 ninety-four thousand in the year following, and nearly a quarter of a million in 1853-4-5. 

 Week after week vessels continued to arrive in Hobson's Bay, landing passengers and 

 discharging cargo as they best could, for they were usually deserted by their crews as 

 soon as they dropped anchor. There was no accommodation for a fiftieth part of the 

 new arrivals in Melbourne ; so an encampment, as large as an extensive village, sprang 

 up on the south side of the Yarra, which became known as Canvas Town, and there, 

 men, women and children those who had been gently born and gently nurtured, and 

 those who had been familiar with a rough life in old countries ; professional men, 

 artisans, husbandmen from rural England, fugitives from justice in California, political 

 refugees from France and from Germany, escaped convicts from the other side of the 

 Strait, and people who had quitted the mother-country with visions of becoming suddenly 



