Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/201

 at the Tenterfield races, for whom he was on the look-out, he would return it. This promise he faithfully kept, much to their astonishment, by sending to them, to the post office at Warwick, the £20 he had taken from them.

After such chivalrous conduct, it is pleasing to learn that Captain Thunderbolt met a more picturesque death than the majority of his confrères. This latter-day Beau Brocade was killed in a desperate duel with a brave young constable—Alexander Walker—in 1870.

Not less romantic were the stories of strangely-won fortunes that were then common talk, as, for instance, the richest copper mines in Australia being sold for a bottle of rum.

The six years H. H. spent in compiling his "Australian Dictionary of Dates and Men of the Time" brought him into contact with many of the oldest inhabitants, and as a consequence his mind became stored with curious facts and legends.

His retentive memory enabled him to enliven his Australian reminiscences with the most curious collection of tales culled from all sources. He records somewhere in his book a remarkable series of wrecks suffered by the same people. The adventures of Jonah pale into insignificance before this plain statement of misfortune:

"The 'Mermaid,’ colonial government cutter, left Sydney for Raffles Bay, but on entering Torres Straits she ran on shore and was lost, October, 1829. All on board were saved upon a rock. In three days the 'Swiftsure,' Captain Johnson, which sailed from Tasmania, hove in sight, and took on board the captain and crew of the 'Mermaid,' but in a few days she also ran on shore and was wrecked. Two days afterwards