[Editor: This report on a lecture given by William Bramwell Withers (1823-1913), regarding the Eureka Rebellion, was published in The Star (Ballarat, Vic.), 11 July 1860.]
The Ballarat outbreak.
The concluding lecture on this subject was delivered by Mr Withers on Tuesday evening, in the reading-room of the Mechanics’ Institute, Barkly street. There was about the usual average attendance, and the chair having been taken by Mr Vice-President Anderson, he briefly introduced the lecturer to the meeting.
After recapitulating the heads of the topics narrated in the previous lecture, the lecturer proceeded to narrate the arrival, on the Tuesday before the stockade collision, of troops and mounted police, by way of Geelong and Bacchus Marsh from the metropolitan depots, and quoted descriptions of the effects produced on the minds of the diggers by this display of force on the part of the government.
A party of troopers coming along the Main road to the camp were “joed,” and when near the bridge were stoned by the diggers, whereupon the troopers turned and charged the people who retaliated with whatever weapons were at hand. Injuries were inflicted on both sides, and the troopers seemed to have the worse of it. On the same day parties of military arrived, and marched through the thoroughfares with bayonets fixed, a display which the diggers but ill brooked. Another party of troops arriving by way of the Eureka with a baggage train, was set upon, when most of the troops had filed past and baggage waggons were capsized, and one or two of the soldiers severely beaten, one dying next day from the injuries inflicted. This was a brutal and dastardly attack on the part of the rowdy portion of the insurgents, and was generally condemned by all the better disposed among the justly incensed population of that day.
These exciting episodes were transpiring on the eve of the day appointed (29th November) for a monster meeting on Bakery Hill, to receive the delegates on their return from their mission to Sir Charles Hotham, for the release of the “martyrs” Westerby, M‘Intyre and Fletcher. At this meeting a Creswick contingent was also expected, and also deputies returned from visits to the other gold fields, for the purpose of feeling the pulse of the people in other localities.
The Reform League Committee, however, by this time began to fear that the agitation was fast getting out of the region of moral force towards the more prononcé form of physical force resistance. Mr J. B. Humffray fell into temporary ill repute at this juncture because of some supposed vacillation on his part. He was also accused of cowardice for not appearing at the meeting in question, but this accusation had been rebutted, and the opinion of the miners with respect to the conduct of the League secretary might be pretty safely inferred from his return as their first representative in Parliament, and his return at every subsequent election whether opposed or unopposed.
The delegates were present at the meeting, and related the issue of their mission. There were about 12,000 men present at the meeting, including several companies of men who had begun to drill in the use of the pike and other arms.
Resolutions were carried of a hostile character towards the Government and the doings of the officials. The first resolution “viewed with the hottest indignation the daring calumny of the Acting Chief Justice” in denouncing “as riots the persevering and indomitable struggles for freedom of the brave people of England for the last 80 years.”
The 3rd resolution pledged the meeting to burn all their licenses, and to defend and protect all who might be arrested as consequence.
The fourth resolution repudiated all further application to commissioners for adjustment of disputes, and pledged the meeting to settlement of disputes by arbitration.
The fifth resolution stated that the meeting would not feel bound to protect any man after the 15th December who had not joined the League.
The last resolution protested “against the common practice of bodies of military marching into a peaceable district with fixed bayonets, and also any force firing on the people under any circumstances without the previous reading of the Riot Act,” and further declared “that if Government officials continue to act thus unconstitutionally, we cannot be responsible for similar or worse deeds from the people.”
All the resolutions were carried almost by acclamation and one or two speakers who tried to oppose the passing of such vigorous pronouncements had to make a rapid exit in order to escape the wrath of the meeting. The excitement was very great, a lot of licenses were then and there burnt, revolvers were discharged, and the camp authorities, who watched the meeting from a distance, began to be more and more alarmed. The military were under arms in Soldiers’ Gully awaiting orders, and delegates were sent from the meeting to request the withdrawal of the troops from sight as their presence only tended to increase the irritation.
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Melbourne and the Rev. Mr Downing had come up to attempt to allay the excitement among their own flock, and they with Father Smyth tried to prevent the third resolution from being adopted but failed. The resolutions were carried amid the discharges of firearms and loud shouts of applause, while the smoke from the tiny bonfires of licenses curled up, it might be said in emblem of the end so shortly to come to the physical force resistance of the insurgents. The meeting came to an end peaceably, but the signs of the times led to the retirement of most of the moral force leaders, and Peter Lalor was brought to the fore and duly installed as leader of those men who had armed in defence of the cause they had espoused.
The lecturer here quoted several passages Carboni Raffaello’s history of the Stockade, wherein the Chairman of the meeting was made to break out in fierce patriotic poetry, as follows:—
“On to the field, our doom is sealed,
To conquer or be slaves;
The sun shall see our country free,
Or set upon our graves.”
On the day after the license burning meeting the commissioners at the Camp decided on making a bold show of authority, and the troopers were ordered out for license collection. Many of the diggers when asked for their licenses showed their league tickets instead; attempts to arrest were then made, resistance was offered, the Riot Act, or a part of it — which of the two did not very clearly appear — was read, and a regular row ensued. This was in the Gravel Pits, and the melee was marked by discharges of firearms and by hurling of missiles by the diggers, and furious charges by the troopers, but no lives were lost.
The Camp was alarmed by the result of this mad act of the officials, an act, however reprehensible it might be that was to be in part attributed to the wrong headed policy of the Governor and his advisors. The camp was immediately under arms, and the diggers on their part as promptly took measures of an equally belligerent nature.
An insurgent flag called the “Southern Cross” had already been made, and in the afternoon of the day of the license collection collision another meeting took place on Bakery Hill. Lalor mounted the stump and called on the men to fall in — Pike men and pistol men, and men with guns mustered and swore fealty to their new flag and their chief, and a new and bloodier phase of the agitation appeared to be rapidly coming.
Men were told off to collect ammunition and weapons. The camp, in anticipation of an attack, was barricaded, and it was reported that in the event of an attack the residents in Lydiard street were to fire their houses lest the insurgents should use them as covers from which to fire upon the camp. In the meantime all the available force in Melbourne was ordered to Ballarat under the command of Sir Robert Nickle, some four field guns forming part of the military equipment.
The lecturer proceeded to cite several passages from Raffaello’s history, descriptive of the organisation of the insurgents and the erection of the stockade, the formation of a council of war, appointment of a minister at war, formation of companies of armed men under officers, and the general preparation made for carrying things to extremities.
Several documents were read in illustration of the temper and doings of the insurgents, and the lecturer stated that a declaration of independence had been drawn up by the insurgent minister at war. He had not been able to procure a copy of the document, and perhaps there was not one now in existence, but some of those who had seen it described it as incoherent and bombastic.
The lecturer also expressed the hope that a local museum would soon be set on foot, in which such relics of the outbreak, documentary or otherwise, as were still available might be secured from loss. Returning to the course of his narrative, the lecturer proceeded to remark, that after the license raid, the Camp authorities were rather chary of showing themselves on the Flat, as the diggers had a quasi-martial possession of the territory, and had the district told off in patrol divisions.
Everybody felt that the end was approaching, but what the end would be did not so clearly appear. The moral force men fell out of the movement in despair, and the head and front of the so called rebellion was led by Lalor, Vern, and the one or two thousand armed men who consented to be under the orders of those energetic protesters against the scandalous misrule of those days.
The Eureka stockade was now constructed, and consisted of an area of about an acre, rudely enclosed with slabs, and including several tents and diggers’ holes. The site was at the rear of the Free Trade Hotel, at the head of the little gully running down into Specimen Gully from that point where the Eureka Lead curved round by the Specimen Hill road, now called Eureka street. The site was most injudicious for any purpose of defence, as it was easily commanded from adjacent spots, and the ease with which the place could be taken was apparent to the most unprofessional eye.
Here, however, the insurgent chief and his confederates assembled on the Friday and Saturday, the 1st and 2nd December, the council of war sat and deliberated, pikes were forged, the men were drilled, munitions of war and commissariat contributions were received, scouts were sent out, an attack on the camp was talked over, and the chances of a successful interception of the force approaching under General Sir R. Nickle was discussed.
But while the stockaders were acting and deliberating, there was but a deficient organisation of their means or men, and they were totally ignorant of the measures resolved on by the authorities at the Camp. Friends of the movement, but who nevertheless hesitated to go the length of armed reprisals, continued to visit the stockaders, and it is said that enemies and spies in the guise of friends also dropped in even up to the night immediately preceding the final struggle. Disorganisation and ignorance described the grand military defects of the stockaders. They were not ready in any sense for the struggle, and the coup struck by the authorities was thus rapid and entirely successful.
At length the fatal Sunday morning dawned, scouts had been called in, patrols were gone home, no attack was expected, no proper outlook was kept, and only some 180 or 200 men were in the Stockade when the alarm was raised, and the military and troopers were seen right upon the insurgent rendezvous. The attacking party was guided by Mr Warden Amos, the first shot was fired from the Stockade, to which the troops replied by a volley of musketry; the Stockade was soon surrounded, and in about twenty minutes a regular sauve qui peut arose among the stockaders, and the place was captured.
The lecturer cited three accounts of the collision, and proceeded to describe the brutal and murderous revenge taken by the troopers indiscriminately upon offending and unoffending persons. The cruelties perpetrated by some of the troopers were a lasting disgrace to that arm of the service, and met with universal and most richly deserved execration. Quiet unoffending men who had nothing to do with the outbreak, were remorselessly hacked or shot down by these brutal vagabonds in authority, and many a man maimed for life and many a home made desolate by the sheer and barbarous revenge of these villains on horseback and under Government pay.
The murderous doings of that day after the stockade was taken were utterly indefensible, and besides the killing of Rowlands by a trooper, the slaughter of Powell by Akehurst, then Clerk of Petty Sessions, was one of the worst of the bloody deeds done, and one which very nearly led to the conviction of Akehurst for manslaughter, if not for the capital offence. Akehurst, however, escaped, as the dying man’s testimony was not taken on oath. The lecturer gave particulars of these matters, and stated that Lalor, the commander of the stockaders, was wounded by two gun shots, and was secreted under a heap of slabs while the victorious troops and police sacked and burned the place — some of the wounded insurgents, to the eternal infamy of the authorities, being burned ere they were dead.
The affair being over and the troops retired with the prisoners they had taken, Lalor was let out of his hiding place and furnished by Father Smyth with a horse and a change of apparel. The beaten chieftain thus escaped, with his wounds undressed and still bleeding, to the bush, and got to a tent where there was only a woman present. She put his arm in a sling, but as she went off mysteriously in the afternoon, Lalor grew suspicious of treachery, and stole off again and hid himself till sundown in the stump of a hollow tree. He went at night fall to the tent of a trusty friend, about a quarter mile distant from the scene of the fatal encounter in the morning, and from there he removed to the protection of his constant friend the Roman Catholic priest, at whose place the wounded arm was amputated, and the invalid put under proper care.
Prices were now set upon the heads of Vern, Lalor, and Black, and Sir Robert Nickle having arrived with his force, martial law was proclaimed at the illegal instance, it is said, of the Governor without the advice of his Executive Council. A review of the whole military force then on Ballarat was held a short time after, on the ground now occupied by the Ballarat Gas Works and buildings on the western and northern sides.
Meanwhile Vern and Black had escaped, and Lalor was shifted from tent to tent to evade the search of the police, until at length he was removed to Geelong, and subsequently to Melbourne, where further surgical operations were performed, and where he lay till after the state trials were over and a virtual amnesty was brought about. Vern was never taken, nor Black the “minister at war;” the former was till lately residing in the neighborhood of Buninyong, and the latter was killed by an accident in a quartz mine near Italian Gully, while Lalor as was well known had been returned to Parliament as one of the Ballarat representatives contemporaneously with Mr J. B. Humffray, and was still a member of the Assembly, though no longer representing this district.
The lecturer went at length into the details connected with the foregoing particulars, and said that the estimate of the killed on the Sunday morning was about 25 on each side, but whether or not so many were slain on the side of the Government force had never yet transpired authentically. The insurgents were buried in the Cemetery most of them, where also lay Captain Wise and his comrades who fell in the struggle of the Sunday morning. Over the Stockaders remains a monument had been erected by the friends of the deceased, the work being gratuitously supplied by Mr Leggat, the sculptor at Geelong.
Among the prisoners taken were several of our well known citizens including Mr Hayes, the chairman of the license-burning meeting, Mr Seekamp, the original proprietor of the Ballarat Times, and Raffaello, the quaint historian of the Stockade, albeit none of these were at the Stockade at the time of the collision. The prisoners were regarded as State prisoners, and their trials in Melbourne were called State trials, and created great excitement. All the prisoners were acquitted, and the jury did not fail to censure the proceedings of the authorities in Ballarat by a rider to the verdict declaring that had the Government done its duty properly the jury would never have been called on to perform the duty they had then discharged, of delivering their verdict upon men arrested as insurgents in arms against the Government.
It appeared that most of the men who were more directly concerned in the Stockade affair were either Irishmen or natives of foreign states; but it was also singular that as the agitation received its first impetus to violence by the murder of a Scotchman (Scobie), so the last act in the tragedy — a supplementary act, illegitimately added to the more legitimate business at the Stockade — included the death of another Scotchman (Hardie). This man was shot two or three days after the capture of the Stockade during a reckless discharge of musketry from the Camp on one of the evenings of martial law. The same mad firing wounded a woman on Bakery Hill, nearly killed a judge in Lydiard street, and lodged bullets in Bath’s Hotel and other houses on the township, while a sortie of troopers from the Camp treated the inhabitants of Lydiard and other streets to a sight of particularly erratic and unreliable swordsmen, who, apparently without rhyme or reason, put the Queen’s quietest subjects in bodily fear of their lives while the unaccountable paroxysm lasted.
The lecturer briefly narrated the reforms which had been brought about by the stand taken by the Stockaders and their more peaceable coadjutors, including the concession of parliamentary representation, local self government, and our present political and social liberty, and concluded with a peroration eulogising the bravery of the diggers and the military who opposed them, execrating the cruelties perpetrated by the more revengeful troopers, and congratulating the population of to-day on the happier auspices under which they were at liberty to pursue their vocations, and to bear their share, as freemen fairly represented, in directing the destinies of the colony — a colony the main body of whose settlers were descended from men who had fought and proved that —
“Freedom’s battle once begun,
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,
Though often fought is ever won.”
The delivery of the lecture occupied some two hours, and the usual vote of thanks having been passed and acknowledged, the proceedings ended.
Source:
The Star (Ballarat, Vic.), 11 July 1860, p. 3
Editor’s notes:
The piece of poetry quoted by Timothy Hayes is the first stanza of a poem written by the Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852), entitled “The Parting before the Battle”:
“On to the field, our doom is seal’d,
To conquer or be slaves:
The sun shall see our country free,
Or set upon our graves.”
See: 1) “The Parting Before the Battle”, in: Thomas Moore, The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore, Collected by Himself, vol. III, Leipzig (Germany): Bernh. Tauchnitz jun., 1842, p. 80
2) Thomas Moore, “The Parting Before the Battle”, internetPoem.com
3) Thomas Moore, “The Complete Poems of Thomas Moore”, Biblioteca Virtual University, 2008, p. 507 [PDF file]
4) “Thomas Moore”, Wikipedia
The piece of poetry quoted by William Bramwell Withers (with the third line slightly misquoted) is an extract from a poem, “The Giaour”, written by the English poet George Gordon Byron (Lord Byron) (1788-1824):
“For Freedom’s battle once begun,
Bequeathed by bleeding Sire to Son,
Though baffled oft is ever won.”
See: 1) Lord Byron, “The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale” (11th edition), London: John Murray, 1814, p. 6 (lines 123-125)
2) Lord Byron, “II. Freedom: Fallen Greece: Lord Byron (1788-1824)”, Bartleby
3) “The Giaour”, Wikisource
4) “The Giaour”, Wikipedia
5) “Lord Byron”, Wikipedia
acclamation = loud and enthusiastic approval, assent, or praise; a form of approval, indicated by applause, cheers, or shouts; (in the context of a meeting) widespread cheering, clapping, or general acclaim in favour of a motion or statement (an affirmative approval gauged by a loud and eager expression of approval, instead of by an official ballot or vote)
arms = armaments, firearms, weapons
Assembly = the Legislative Assembly, the lower house of parliament in the various colonies and states of Australia
Black = George Black (1817-1879), a gold-miner, and Secretary of the Ballarat Reform League; he was born in Lancashire (England) in 1817, came to Australia in 1852, and died in Kew (Melbourne, Vic.) in 1879
See: 1) H. R. N. [Henry Richard Nicholls], “Mr. George Black [19 April 1879]”, The Argus (Melbourne, Vic.), 19 April 1879, p. 9 (The Institute of Australian Culture)
2) “George Black”, Ballarat and District Industrial Heritage Project (Federation University)
3) “George Black”, Eurekapedia
calumny = an untrue and defamatory accusation, charge, or misrepresentation which would have the effect of damaging, discrediting, disparaging, or tarnishing someone’s reputation or standing; a falsification or malicious statement used to damage or injure the respect and admiration held by people for someone or something; defamation, slander
the Camp = (in the context of Ballarat officialdom in the 1850s) the Government Camp (also referred to as the Police Camp, or the Gold Commissioners’ Camp)
See: “Government Camp, Camp Street”, Eurekapedia
Carboni Raffaello = [see: Raffaello Carboni]
Charles Hotham = Sir Charles Hotham (1806-1855), an officer in the Royal Navy (UK), a Lieutenant-Governor, then Governor, of Victoria (1854-1855); he was born in Dennington (Suffolk, England) in 1806, came to Australia in 1854, and died in Melbourne in 1855
See: 1) B. A. Knox, “Hotham, Sir Charles (1806–1855)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “Charles Hotham”, Wikipedia
chary = wary, unwilling to take risks, careful, cautious; reluctant to take action so as to avoid possible danger, error, or risk (can also mean: choosy, finicky, particular; frugal, sparing)
collision = a battle, fight, struggle, or violent conflict; a strong or vehement disagreement
ere = (archaic) before (from the Middle English “er”, itself from the Old English “aer”, meaning early or soon)
execration = the act of execrating (i.e. the act of cursing or denouncing), being an action motivated by strong feelings of dislike, disgust, or hatred, aimed towards someone or something which is regarded as an abomination, detestable, or loathsome
fire = [1] set fire to something; to set something on fire (to burn something, especially as a deliberate act)
fire = [2] to shoot at someone or something (e.g. to fire at the enemy, open fire upon a target)
Hayes = Timothy Hayes (1820?-1873), a gold-miner, and Chairman of the Ballarat Reform League; he was born in Kilkenny (Ireland), circa 1820, came to Australia in 1852, and died at Yarra Bend (Fairfield, Melbourne, Vic.) in 1873, aged 53 years old
See: “Timothy Hayes”, Eurekapedia
in arms = under arms [see: under arms]
— men arrested as insurgents in arms against the Government
J. B. Humffray = John Basson Humffray (1824-1891), gold-miner, politician; he was born in Newtown (Montgomeryshire, Wales), came to Australia in 1853, and died in Ballarat in 1891
See: 1) Diane Langmore, “Humffray, John Basson (1824–1891)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “John Basson Humffray”, Wikipedia
joed = past tense of “Joe”: a call of derision; from the call of warning regarding police on the Victorian diggings searching for diggers without gold licences, where diggers would call out “Joe”, to warn other diggers that the police were in the vicinity (derived from the name of Lieutenant-Governor Joseph LaTrobe); “Joe” was a slang term for a policeman in Victoria)
Lalor = [see: Peter Lalor]
peroration = the concluding part of a speech, especially regarding its use to inspire enthusiasm, or its use to sum up an argument (may also refer to a speech which is regarded as too long or overly rhetorical)
Peter Lalor = (1827-1889), a gold miner, leader of the Eureka Rebellion, and politician; he was born in Raheen (Queen’s County, Ireland) in 1827, came to Australia in 1852, led the Eureka Rebellion in 1854, later became Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, and died in Richmond (Melbourne, Victoria) in 1889
See: 1) Ian Turner, “Lalor, Peter (1827–1889)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “Peter Lalor”, Wikipedia
prononcé = (French) (archaic) marked, noticeable, pronounced; decided, definite (the feminine form of “prononcé” is “prononcée”)
Raffaello = [see: Raffaello Carboni]
Raffaello Carboni = Raffaello Carboni (1817-1875), a gold-miner, author, composer, and interpreter; he was born in Urbino (Italy) in 1817, came to Australia in 1852 (left in 1856), and died in Rome in 1875
See: 1) Jennifer Lorch, “Carboni, Raffaello (1817–1875)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “Raffaello Carboni”, Wikipedia
Reform League = the Ballarat Reform League: an organisation formed in November 1854 with the object of rectifying the grievances of the Ballarat (and Victorian) mining population, including abolishing the Gold License and seeking democratic changes (the group was influenced by the British pro-democracy Chartist movement)
See: 1) “Ballarat Reform League”, Eurekapedia
2) “Ballarat Reform League”, Wikipedia
removed = (archaic) moved, relocated (especially used with regards to moving house, i.e. changing one’s place of residence)
Rev. = an abbreviation of “Reverend” (a title given to a minister of a church, a priest, a member of the clergy)
rider = an extra statement added to a previous statement; a statement which adds a change (or changes), extra information, or clarification to a previous statement (especially further information or an additional clause, or clauses, added to a legal document); a statement made by a jury, in addition to its verdict, as a non-binding recommendation to a judge (such as a sentencing recommendation)
R. Nickle = [see: Robert Nickle]
Robert Nickle = Sir Robert Nickle (1786-1855), the commander-in-chief of the British military forces in the Australian colonies; in August 1854 he shifted his headquarters from Sydney to Melbourne as a consequence of the gold rushes; he was born at sea in 1786, came to Australia in 1853, and died in Jolimont (East Melbourne, Vic.) in 1855
See: 1) Ronald McNicoll, “Nickle, Sir Robert (1786–1855)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “Robert Nickle (British Army officer)”, Wikipedia
row = a noisy argument, conflict, disturbance, or fight; an argument or dispute; a loud noise, commotion, or uproar
rude = primitive, raw, or rough, or in an unfinished state or natural condition (distinct from the modern usage of “rude” as someone being discourteous or ill-mannered)
sauve qui peut = a French term, meaning “save (himself) who can” or “(let him) save (himself) who can”, although it has been loosely translated as “save yourself if you can”, “every man for himself”, “run for your life!”; a state of disorder or panic or; a frantic rush to escape or flee; a mad rush, rout, or stampede (the term is usually rendered with hyphens, “sauve-qui-peut”)
Scobie = James Scobie, a miner who was killed by James Bentley (owner of the Eureka Hotel), and two of his employees, in Ballarat in October 1854; the local authorities (including friends of Bentley) rejected pressing any charges against Bentley, following which local miners rioted, burning down Bentley’s hotel; Bentley was subsequently tried and found guilty of manslaughter
See: 1) “ Black”, Eurekapedia
2) “Eureka Rebellion”, Wikipedia (see section: Murder of James Scobie and the burning of Bentley’s Hotel)
Seekamp = Henry Erle Seekamp (1829-1864), journalist, editor and proprietor of the Ballarat Times; he was charged with seditious libel (sedition), regarding articles published in the Ballarat Times (the articles were claimed to have partly or wholly instigated the Eureka Rebellion), and was sentenced (in March 1855) to six months’ jail; he was born in England in 1829, came to Australia in1852, and died in Clermont (Queensland) in 1864
See: 1) “Henry Seekamp”, Eurekapedia
2) “Henry Seekamp”, Wikipedia
stole off = moved away quietly and/or secretly; crept away (also rendered as “stole away”)
till = until (“until” is derived from the word “till”, both words have the same meaning, and both are grammatically acceptable; “until” was then abbreviated as “’til”, with an apostrophe added to indicate a contraction; however, “’till” was also used with an apostrophe, gaining some currency of usage in the 18th century, in the mistaken belief that it was also a contraction of “until”; till, until, and ’til are grammatically acceptable, whereas ’till is not)
told off = (archaic) allocate or assign a particular duty or duties; to count off a number (especially a person, or a number of persons), and then separate that number from the rest (e.g. to count off six soldiers from a company), especially so as to assign them to a particular duty; can also mean: to admonish, rebuke, reprimand, or scold, especially to do so in an angry manner to someone who has done something wrong
train = a group of animals (especially pack animals), people, or vehicles slowly following each another in a line (e.g. a camel train, a wagon train); a retinue of attendants or retainers following an important person (e.g. a king or president); a caravan of animals or vehicles (can also refer to a train of thought, or a train of events, being a line or sequence of thoughts, or of events, which appear to be connected to each other)
under arms = armed; bearing weapons; equipped and prepared (especially for armed battle, conflict, or war); armed personnel in a state of military readiness (whether actual or ceremonial) (e.g. a camp under arms, a garrison under arms, men under arms, soldiers under arms, troops under arms)
Vern = Frederick Vern, a gold-miner, and one of the leaders of the Eureka Rebellion; he (supposedly) came from Hanover (Germany) and (supposedly) had previously been an officer in the military; however, little is factually known about him, and his tales about himself have been regarded as dubious
See: 1) “Frederick Vern”, German Australia
2) “Frederick Vern”, Eurekapedia
3) “Poster, Reward Poster for the capture of Frederick Vern, 11/12/1854 (original)”, Victorian Collections
4) “Frederick Vern”, Wikipedia
waggon = an archaic spelling of “wagon”
[Editor: Changed “by discharges of fire arms” to “by discharges of firearms”.]
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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