[Editor: This is a chapter from The Eureka Stockade by Raffaello Carboni. A glossary has been provided to explain various words and phrases that may be unfamiliar to modern readers.]
VI.
Sua cuique voluntas.
I was really delighted to see the old spot once more ; Easter, 1854. I do not mean any offence to my fellow-diggers elsewhere ; it struck me very forcibly, however, that our Ballaarat men look by far more decent, and our storekeepers, or grog-sellers if you like, undoubtedly more respectable.
Of a constitution not necessarily savage, I did not fail to observe that the fair ones had ventured now on a large scale to trust their virtue among us vagabonds, and on a hot-wind day, I patronized of course some refreshment room.
I met my old mate, and we determined to try the old game; but this time on the old principle of labor omnia vincit — I pitched my tent right in the bush, and prophesied, that from my door I would see the golden hole in the gully below.
I spoke the truth, and such is the case this very day. Feast of the Assumption, 1855 :— What sad events, however, were destined to pass exactly before the very door of my tent! — Who could have told me on that Easter Sunday, that the unknown hill which I had chosen for my rest, would soon be called the Massacre Hill! That next Christmas, my mate would lie in the grave, somewhere forgotten ; and I in the gaol! the rope round my neck!!
Let us keep in good spirits, good reader, we shall soon have to weep together enough.
Gravel Pits, famous for its strong muster of golden holes, and blasting shicers, was too deep for me. The old Eureka was itself again. The jewellers shops, which threatened to exhaust themselves in Canadian Gully, were again the talk of the day: and the Eureka gold dust was finer, purer, brighter, immensely darling. The unfaithful truants who had rushed to Bryant’s Ranges, to knock their heads against blocks of granite, now hastened for the third time to the old spot, Ballaarat, determined to stick to it for life or death. English, German, and Scotch diggers, worked generally on the Gravel Pits, the Irish had their stronghold on the Eureka. The Americans fraternised with all the wide-awake, ubi caro, ibi vultures.
Here begins as a profession the precious game of “shepherding,” or keeping claims in reserve ; that is the digger turning squatter. And, as this happened under the reign of a gracious gold commissioner, so I am brought to speak of the gold licence again. First I will place the man before my reader, though.
Get a tolerable young pig, make it stand on his hind legs, put on its head a cap trimmed with gold-lace, whitewash its snout, and there you have the ass in the form of a pig; I mean to say a “man;” with this privilege, that he possesses in his head the brains of both the above-mentioned brutes.
Source:
Raffaello Carboni. The Eureka Stockade: The Consequence of Some Pirates Wanting on Quarter-Deck a Rebellion, Public Library of South Australia, Adelaide, 1962 [facsimile of the 1855 edition], pages 8-9
Editor’s notes:
Feast of the Assumption = the Christian celebration on 15 August of the ascension into heaven of the Virgin Mary; this is a public holiday in several countries (Eastern Orthodox churches, which use the Julian calendar, celebrate the occasion on August 28)
labor omnia vincit = (Latin) “labor [work] overcomes everything”, or “labor overcomes all difficulties”, or “labor conquers all”; from “Georgics”, book 1 (line 145) by Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro, 70 BC – 19 BC) [the extended quotation is “labor omnia vincit improbus”, translated as “persistent work conquers all” or “hard work conquers all”]
sua cuique voluntas = (Latin) “for each man his own will”, or “everyone has his own will”; possibly from “De Rerum Natura” (“On the Nature of Things”), Book 2 (line 261), by Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus, ca. 96 BC – ca. 50 BC), or from “De Re Rustica” (“On Farming”) by Columella (Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, 4 – ca. 70) [also translated as “voluntary will” or “individual will”]
ubi caro, ibi vultures = (Latin) “where the flesh is, there are vultures”; derived from Matthew 24:28 in the Latin Bible: “ubicumque fuerit corpus, illic congregabuntur et aquilae [aquilæ]”, i.e. “wherever the body is, the vultures will gather” (in this context, “aquilae” is translated in various editions of the Bible as “eagles” or “vultures”) [Carboni uses this phrase in chapters 6 and 13]
References:
labor omnia vincit:
“P. Vergili Maronis Georgicon Liber Primvs”, The Latin Library [“labor omnia uicit”] (accessed 30 December 2012)
Virgil [translated by David R. Slavitt]. Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil, John Hopkins University Press, 1990, page xvii (accessed 30 December 2012)
Publii Virgilii Maronis [edited by the Rev. J. G. Cooper]. Opera, or, The Works of Virgil, Robinson, Pratt, and Co., New York, 1841, page 67 (accessed 30 December 2012)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau [translated by Angela Scholar]. Confessions, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000 page 651, note 22 (accessed 30 December 2012)
Richard M. Krill. Greek & Latin in English Today, third revised edition, Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Wauconda, Illinois, 1993 (reprinted 1998), page 243 (accessed 30 December 2012)
sua cuique voluntas:
“Titi Lvcreti Cari De Rervm Natvra Liber Secvndvs”, The Latin Library (accessed 29 December 2012)
John Masson. The Atomic Theory of Lucretius Contrasted with Modern Doctrines of Atoms and Evolution, George Bell and Sons, London, 1884, pages 125, 126 (accessed 29 December 2012)
Algernon Paul Sinker. Introduction to Lucretius, University Press, 1937, page 28 (accessed 29 December 2012)
Lucretius [translated by Martin Ferguson Smith]. On the Nature of Things, Hackett Publishing, 2001, page 41 (accessed 29 December 2012)
“De Re Rustica: L. Junii Columellae”, Bill Thayer, University of Chicago (accessed 29 December 2012)
ubi caro, ibi vultures:
“Matthew 24”, Veritas Bible (accessed 4 January 2013)
“Matthew 24:8”, Online Multilingual Bible (accessed 4 January 2013)
“Matthew 24 : Douay-Rheims Bible parallelChristian Community, New Jerusalem, Clementine Latin Vulgate, Biblia Sacra Vulgatam”, Veritas Bible (accessed 4 January 2013)
Ludovicus Pelt [Anton Friedrich Ludwig Pelt]. Epistolas Pauli Apostoli ad Thessalonicenses: Perpetuo Illustravit Commentario, Gryphiswaldiae, London, 1880, [page 34] [“Ubicunque cadaver projectum sit, ibi vultures convenire”] (accessed 4 January 2013)
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