y
enjoyed the seven weeks during which the _Galatea_ lay in Sydney
harbour.

The outward cargo discharged, the homeward freight of wool began to come
down, and the stevedores were kept busy all day long screwing it into as
small a compass as possible in the hold.

Meanwhile Captain Staunton was in great tribulation. The gold-fever was
then at its height in Australia. The precious metal had been discovered
some years before, but about a month previous to the arrival of the
_Galatea_ in Sydney, news had come down the country of the discovery of
a new auriferous region, the richness and extent of which was said to be
something past belief. The result of this rumour was that every idle
loafer who arrived in an Australian port made it his first business to
desert from his ship and start hot-foot for the gold-fields. If the
matter had ended here the shipmasters would have had cause to
congratulate themselves rather than the reverse, but unfortunately for
them it was not so. The gold-fever had stricken _everybody_--merchants
even, mechanics, clerks, all in fact but the few cool hands who realised
that by remaining in the half-deserted towns they were _sure_ of making
that fortune the winning of which at the diggings was problematical; and
one consequence of this was that when seamen deserted a ship no one
could be found to take their places; and Captain Staunton could stand on
his own poop and count at least fifty vessels whose cargoes were on
board, hatches battened down, and everything ready for sea; but there
they lay, unable to sail for want of a crew to man them.

Now the _Galatea_ was not in quite so bad a plight as this; for when the
last bale of wool had been screwed in and the hatches put on, there
still remained in her forecastle eight good men and true--six belonging
to the port watch and two to the starboard--who had resisted all the
alluring dreams of fortunes to be made in a day at the diggings. The
other eight had deserted in a body one Sunday, very cleverly eluding the
police, whose chief duty it then was to prevent such occurrences. The
second mate and the cook were also missing. Hence Captain Staunton's
anxiety. On the one hand, he was averse to the extreme step of taking
his ship to sea half-manned; and on the other, he was haunted by the
constant dread of losing still more of his men if he remained in port
until he had made up his complement.

At length, however, to his infinite relief, he chan