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[Illustration:
GOVERNOR DAVEY'S
PROCLAMATION
TO THE ABORIGINES
1816.]
HISTORY OF ...
THE AUSTRALIAN
BUSHRANGERS..
BY
GEORGE E. BOXALL
_Author of "The Anglo-Saxon,
a Study in Evolution," etc., etc._
LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN
ADELPHI TERRACE, MCMVIII
_FIRST EDITION, September, 1899._
_SECOND EDITION, May, 1902._
_THIRD EDITION, May, 1908._
PREFACE.
In this story of the bushrangers I do not pretend to have included the
names of all those who have at various times been called bushrangers
in Australia. That, as will be seen from what I have said in the
earlier chapters, would be not merely impossible but useless. I
believe, however, that I have collected some particulars about all
those who succeeded in winning even a local notoriety, and I have also
endeavoured to supply such personal characteristics of the leaders
in the movement as may throw some light on the causes which induced
them to "take to the bush." My principal object, however, has been to
make the picture as complete as possible, so that the magnitude of
the social evil which the Australians set themselves to cure may be
realised; and it is generally believed in Australia that this cure has
been so complete that bushranging will never again become epidemic.
The story is a terrible one. Some of the incidents related are no
doubt revolting, but it is necessary that even these should be told
to show how civilised man may be degraded by unjust and oppressive
laws. We are all creatures of the educational influences to which we
are subjected in our youth, and therefore it is unfair to blame the
earlier bushrangers; because they were the products of the civilisation
of their day, and were not themselves responsible. But sensational as
the story is, its tendency is rather to depress than to exhilarate
the reader, for the story is a sad one, in that it shows a deplorable
waste of what under happier conditions might have been useful lives.
As a rule I have adhered very closely to the newspaper reports of
the time, but to make the story (which naturally tends to be scrappy
and disconnected) as homogeneous and continuous as possible, I have
followed one gang to the close of its career, and then returned to take
up the history of another gang. I have paid special attention to the
geography of the country, and the reader who possesses a fairly good
map of each of the colonies should have no difficulty in following the
movements of each of the gangs, and may thus obtain an idea of the
extent of the area over which it operated.
Hitherto the histories of Australia have passed very lightly over
the bushrangers, but there can be no doubt that they exercised some
influence, and not always for evil, for to their influence is due some
of the sturdy Republicanism of the modern Australians. The publication
of this story may perhaps assist the future historian in tracing the
growth of public opinion in Australia, and will therefore not be
without its use. It is in this hope that I submit it to the public.
G.E.B.
AUTHORITIES QUOTED.
Reports of the Select Committees of the House of Commons on
Transportation, Sessions 1837 and 1838: Chapters I., II., III., IV.
Report of the Special Commission of Enquiry into the state of the
Colony of New South Wales. By John Thomas Bigge, 1822 and 1823:
Chapters I., II., IV.
Despatches of Governors Macquarie, Bourke, Sorell, Arthur, Franklin,
Denison, Latrobe, &c., to the Colonial Office: Chapters I., II.,
III., IV., XII.
History of Van Diemen's Land, from 1820 to 1835. Anonymous. Chapters
I., II.
History of Bendigo. By George Mackay. Chapter XII.
The Last of the Tasmanians. By James Bonwick, F.R.G.S. Chapter II.
_The Spectator._ Chapter IX.
_Hobart Town Gazette._ Chapters I., II., III.
_Hobart Town Courier_ and _Murray's Review_. Chapters I., II., VI.,
X., XI., XV.
_Colonial Times._ Chapters X., XI., XV.
_Cornwall Chronicle._ Chapters I., II., III., VI., IX., X., XI.
_Launceston Advertiser._ Chapters I., II., VI., IX., X.
_Launceston Examiner._ Chapters VI., IX., XI.
_Sydney Gazette._ Chapters I., IV., VI., VII.
_Sydney Monitor._ Chapters I., IV.
_Sydney Australian._ Chapters I., IV.
_Sydney Morning Herald._ Chapters V., VI., VII., VIII., IX., XV.,
XVI., XVII., XVIII., XIX., XX., XXI., XXII., XXIII., XXIV., XXVIII.
_Melbourne Argus._ Chapters IV., XIII., XIV., XV., XXI., XXV.,
XXVIII., XXIX., XXX., XXXI.
_Port Phillip Herald._ Chapters VI., VII., VIII.
_Geelong Advertiser._ Chapters XII., XIII., XIV., XV.
_Melbourne Herald._ Chapters XII., XIV., XV.
_Melbourne Age._ Chapters XXIX., XXX., XXXI.
_South Australian Register._ Chapters VIII., XXIV.
_Brisbane Courier._ Chapter XXVII.
_New Zealand Herald._ Chapter XXVI.
The quotations from numerous provincial papers acknowledged in the
text have been taken at second hand, principally from the metropolitan
papers of the colony referred to, and which are included in this list.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Chapter I.--Characteristics of the Convicts sent to
Australia; Bushranging; Origin and Meaning of
the Term; The Cat and the Double Cat; Condition
of the Prisoners; Some Terrible Revelations; The
Desperation of Despair; Some Flogging Stories;
The Bushranging Act and its Abuses; Some
Opinions of the Magistrates; Savage Treatment of
Criminals Continued to the Present Time; Brutality
not Cured by Brutal Punishment; When Bushranging
First Began 1
Chapter II.--Van Diemen's Land; The First Bushranger;
Mike Howe, the King of the Ranges; The
Raid on the Blacks; The Black War; Musquito;
Outrages by the Blacks; Brutal Treatment of the
Blacks by Bushrangers; A War of Reprisals;
Gigantic Scheme to Capture the Blacks; A Cordon
Drawn Round the Disaffected District; Details
of the Scheme; Its Failure; Only Two Blacks
Captured; Estimated Cost; Fate of the Blacks 17
Chapter III.--Pierce the Cannibal; A Terrible Journey;
A Shocking Confession; Escapes from the Western
Hell; The Ruffian Jefferies; Brady the Bushranger;
Escapes from Macquarie Harbour; Sticks
up the Town of Sorell; The Governor's Proclamation;
Brady Laughs at it; The Fight with Captain
Balfour; Betrayed by a Comrade; Captured by
John Batman; Sympathy at his Trial; End of the
Epoch 33
Chapter IV.--Bushranging in New South Wales; Manufacturing
Bushrangers; Employing Bushrangers;
The First Bank Robbery in Australia; Major Mudie
and his Assigned Servants; Terrible Hollow;
Murder of Dr. Wardell; The Story of Jack the
Rammer; Hall, Mayne and Others 48
Chapter V.--John Lynch; Murder of Kearns Landregan;
Lynch's Trial and Sentence; His Terrible
Confession; Murder of the Frazers, Father and
Son; Murder and Cremation of the Mulligans;
His Appeals to Almighty God 60
Chapter VI.--Jackey Jackey, the Gentleman Bushranger;
His Dispute with Paddy Curran; Some
Legends About Him; Jackey Jackey Always Well
Dressed and Mounted; His Capture at Bungendore;
His Escape at Bargo Brush; Jackey Jackey visits
Sydney; His Capture by Miss Gray; Paddy
Curran's Fight with the Police; Recaptured and
Hung; John Wright Threatens to Make a Clean
Sweep 71
Chapter VII.--The Jewboy Gang; "Come and Shoot
the Bushrangers;" Constable Refuses to Leave
his Work to Hunt Bushrangers; Saved by his
Wife; Robberies in Maitland; Bushrangers in
High Hats; The Bullock-driver Captures the
Bushrangers; An Attempt to Reach the Dutch
Settlements; Mr. E.D. Day Captures the Gang;
Assigned Servants' Attempt at Bushranging; Some
Other Gangs 82
Chapter VIII.--Bushranging in South Australia; The
Robbers Captured in Melbourne; A Remarkable
Raid in Port Phillip; Going Out for a Fight with
the Bushrangers; A Bloody Battle; Cashan and
McIntyre; The Fight with the Mail Passengers;
Cashan Escapes from the Lock-up; Is Recaptured;
McIntyre Caught at Gammon Plains 95
Chapter IX.--Bushrangers and Pirates; Capture of
H.M. Brig _Cyprus_ by Bushrangers; A Piratical
Voyage; Stealing the Schooners _Edward_ and
_Waterwitch_; Mutiny of Prisoners on H.M. Brig
_Governor Phillip_ at Norfolk Island; The Trial of
the Mutineers at Sydney; How Captain Boyle
Recaptured the Vessel 103
Chapter X.--Van Diemen's Land Again; A Hunt for
Bushrangers in the Mountains; Some Brutal
Attacks; "Stand!" "No, thanks, I'm very Comfortable
Sitting;" A Degrading Exhibition; A
Determined Judge; Cash, Kavanagh, and Jones,
an Enterprising Firm; The Art of Politeness as
Exhibited by Bushrangers; A Bushranger Hunt
in the Streets of Hobart Town; The Capture of
Cash; Break Up of the Gang; a Doubtful Mercy 111
Chapter XI.--Norfolk Island; Its Founding as a Penal
Station; The Terrible Discipline in Norfolk Island;
An Attempt to Ameliorate it; Its Failure; The
Rigorous Treatment Restored; The Consequent
Riot; Jackey Jackey's Revenge; An Unparalleled
Tale of Ferocity; The Soldiers Overawe the
Rioters; Thirteen Condemned to the Gallows;
Jackey Jackey's Remarkable Letter; The End of
Several Notorious Bushrangers 124
Chapter XII.--The Third Epoch of Bushranging;
The Gold Digging Era; Influx of Convicts from
Van Diemen's Land; Passing of the Criminals'
Influx Prevention Act; Attitude of the Diggers
Towards the Bushrangers and other Thieves; The
Nelson Gold Robbery; Some Pitiful Stories; A
Rapid Raid; Insecurity of the Melbourne Streets 134
Chapter XIII.--Captain Melville Takes to the Road;
He Ties and Robs Eighteen Men; He Goes to
Geelong for a Spree and Boasts of his Exploits; His
Sensational Capture; Sent to the Hulks; Murder of
Corporal Owens; Melville Removed from the Hulk
_Success_ to the Gaol; Murder of Mr. John Price,
and Mutiny of the Convicts; Melville Attacks Mr.
Wintle; Death of the Noted Bushranger 148
Chapter XIV.--Murder of a Bullock-driver; Sticking
Up in the Melbourne Streets; Stealing £100,000 in
Bank Notes; Want of Efficient Police Protection;
Murders and Robberies at Ballarat, Bendigo, Mount
Alexander, and other Diggings; The Robbery of
the McIvor Gold Escort; A Bushranger Intimidated
by a Bottle of Brandy; Robbery of the Bank of
Victoria at Ballarat; Capture of Garrett in London;
Prevalence of Horse Stealing; The Doctor's
"Creamy" 158
Chapter XV.--An Escape from Norfolk Island; Stealing
a Government Boat; The Convicts of New South
Wales; A Terrible Indictment; Thomas Willmore;
Murder of Philip Alger; Murder of Malachi Daly;
Fight Between Two Bushrangers; Hunting Down
Willmore; His Capture While Asleep; The Last of
the Van Diemen's Land Bushrangers; Wilson and
Dido; Some Minor Offenders; An Unfounded
Charge; A Change of Name to Rid the Island of
Evil Associations 173
Chapter XVI.--The New Bushranging Era; Fallacy
of the Belief that Highwaymen Rob the Rich to
Enrich the Poor; The Cattle Duffers and Horse
Planters; The Riot at Lambing Flat; Frank
Gardiner, the Butcher; Charged with Obtaining
Beasts "On the Cross," He Abandons His
Butcher's Shop; Efforts to Establish a Reign of
Terror in the District; A Letter from Gardiner;
The Great Escort Robbery 188
Chapter XVII.--Johnny Gilbert; His First Appearance
in Australia; Miscellaneous Bushranging Exploits;
Mr. Robert Lowe Makes a Stand; Mr. Inspector
Norton Captured by the Bushrangers; A Plucky
Black Boy; "Mine Know it, Patsy Daly Like it,
Brudder;" A Brave Boy; O'Meally Shoots Mr.
Barnes; A Bootless Bushranger; Capture of John
Foley; Something about the Foley Family; Ben
Hall 205
Chapter XVIII.--Racers as Mounts for the Bushrangers;
The Shooting of Lowry; The Bushrangers
Visit Bathurst; They Hold the Town
of Canowindra for Three Days; Burke Shot by
Mr. Keightley; Female Bushrangers; Death of
O'Meally at Goimbla; A Newspaper Man and
His Wife Stuck up; Lively Times During the
Christmas Holidays 218
Chapter XIX.--A Heavy Sessions at Goulburn; Ben
Hall Hard Pushed; An Amateur Mail Robber;
Discovery of Frank Gardiner; His Trial and
Sentence; The Old Man; A Brush with the Police;
The Chinkies Show Fight; Messrs. Hall & Co. Take
a Lease of the Main Southern Road; Capture of
Mount and Dunleavy; Johnny Dunn; A Desperate
Duel and Death of Sergeant Parry; A Country Ball
and Its Sequel 232
Chapter XX.--Meeting the Gold Escort; Murder of
Constable Nelson; A Brush with the Police;
Attempt to Stick up the Araluen Escort; Death
of Constable Kelly, and Pluck of Constable Burns;
Sir Frederick Pottinger Resigns; Death of Ben
Hall; A Sketch of His Life; Death of Johnny
Gilbert; Record of Johnny Dunn and the Gang;
Capture and Trial of Dunn; His Execution; Fate
of the Chief Members of the Gang 246
Chapter XXI.--Bloodthirsty Morgan; Morgan's
Opinion of the Police; Murder of Sergeant
McGinnerty; Murder at the Round Hill Station;
A Pseudo Morgan; Morgan Threatens to Brand
All Hands; He Shoots Sergeant Smyth; Challenged
to Visit Victoria; He Accepts the
Challenge; His Death at Peechelba 258
Chapter XXII.--The Brothers Clarke; The Raid at
Nerigundah; Deaths of William Fletcher and
Constable O'Grady; Murder of Four Special
Constables at Jinden; Annie Clarke at Goulburn;
Capture of Thomas and John Clarke; A Terrible
Record; A Plucky Woman; An Attempt to
Escape Custody; "Shoot Away I Can't Stop
You"; Some Daring Robberies; Murder and
Cremation of the Brothers Pohlmann; Blue Cap 269
Chapter XXIII.--Bushranging in the Northern District
of New South Wales; Captain Thunderbolt Robs
the Tollbar; A Chinaman Bushranger; A Long
Chase; A Fight with the Police; "Next, Please";
The Bushranger Rutherford; Captain Thunderbolt
and the German Band; Desperate Duel
between Captain Thunderbolt and Constable
Walker; Thunderbolt's Death 287
Chapter XXIV.--Bushranging in the Wild Paroo;
A Raid into South Australia; A Relic of the
Bushranging Era; Agitation for the Release of
Gardiner; Official Reports as to Twenty-four
Bushrangers Still in Gaol; The Cases of Gardiner
and William Brookman; Gardiner and the other
Bushrangers Released; Gardiner leaves the
Country 304
Chapter XXV.--Bushranging in Victoria; Robert
Bourke; Harry Power; He Escapes from Pentridge
Gaol and Sticks up the Mail; An Amateur Bushranger;
The Police Hunt Power Down and Capture
Him Asleep; A Peacock as "Watch Dog;" The
Power Procession at Beechworth; The Trial of
Power; His Sentence; Engaged to Lecture on
Board the _Success_; His Death 315
Chapter XXVI.--Bushranging in New Zealand; Alleged
Fears of the Escort being Robbed; The First Bushranger;
Henry Beresford Garrett; The Maungapatau
Murders; Arrest of Sullivan, Kelly, Burgess,
and Levy in Nelson; Sullivan's Confession; The
Discovery of the Bodies; Sullivan's Release 326
Chapter XXVII.--Bushranging in Queensland; Some
Bushrangers from Over the Southern Border; A
Bogus Ben Hall; The Wild Scotchman; Queensland's
Only Bushranger; A Man of Many Aliases;
He Goes to Fight a Duel with Sir Frederick
Pottinger; He Escapes from the Steamer; Recaptured
and Tried 335
Chapter XXVIII.--Captain Moonlite; The "Reverend
Gentleman" Robs the Bank and Nearly Makes His
Escape; He Breaks Out of Ballarat Gaol; He
Becomes a Reformed Character; He Sticks up the
Wantabadgery Station; A Desperate Battle with
the Police; His Young Companions in Crime;
Sentenced to Death; The Wild Horse Hunters
Turn Bushrangers; An Abortive Attempt to Rob
a Bank 341
Chapter XXIX.--The Kelly Gang; Horse-Stealing a
Great Industry of the District; Faking the Brands;
Assault on Constable Fitzpatrick; The Bush
Telegraphs; Murder of Sergeant Kennedy and
Constables Scanlan and Lonergan; Sticking Up
of the Faithfull Creek Station; Robbery of the
National Bank at Euroa; A Big Haul 353
Chapter XXX.--The Kellys Stick op the Town of
Jerilderie; Robbery of the Bank of New South
Wales; A Symposium in the Royal Hotel; A Three-days'
Spree; "Hurrah for the Good Old Times of
Morgan and Ben Hall"; The Robbers take a Rest
for a Year; The Kelly Sympathisers Again; The
Kellys Reappear; Murder of Aaron Sherritt 365
Chapter XXXI.--Fight between the Police and the
Bushrangers at Glenrowan; The Railway Torn
Up; Attempt to Wreck the Police Train; The
Glenrowan Inn Besieged; Ned Kelly in Armour;
His Capture; The Burning of the Inn; Death
of Dan Kelly, Steve Hart, and Joe Byrnes; Trial
and Conviction of Ned Kelly; His Death; The
Kelly Show; Decrease of Crime in the Colonies 377
Index 386
CHAPTER I.
Introductory; Characteristics of the Convicts Sent to Australia;
Bushranging: Origin and Meaning of the Term; The Cat and the Double
Cat; Condition of the Prisoners: Some Terrible Revelations; The
Desperation of Despair; Some Flogging Stories; The Bushranging Act
and Its Abuses; Opinions of the Magistrates; Savage Treatment of
Criminals Continued to the Present Time; Brutality not Cured by
Brutal Punishment; Where Bushranging First Began.
The species of brigandage known in Australia as bushranging was,
without doubt, evolved, more or less directly, from the convict system
established as the basis of the earlier settlements in the island
continent. The first bushrangers were simply men who took to the bush
to escape work and enjoy freedom of action. Under the harsh laws of the
Georgian era the greater criminals were hung, and not transported, and
the convicts sent to "Botany Bay," in the eighteenth and the earlier
years of the nineteenth centuries, were generally men to whom the
trammels of the civilisation of their day were irksome. Many of them
were political agitators, industrial rioters, and machine-breakers.
The others were poachers and similarly comparatively mild offenders
against the laws, who, under the present laws of Great Britain, would
be sufficiently punished with a few months' imprisonment. Many of these
men, when they were removed to a new land where the social conditions
did not press so heavily on them, became honest and reputable citizens,
and, perhaps, but for the harsh treatment they were subjected to,
numbers of others who were driven to continue their fight against
authority, might also have lived quiet and useful lives. This subject
is a very delicate one, and it is not my intention to pursue it
further here; but if it could be fully treated without giving offence
to numbers of worthy and, in some cases, justly honoured residents
of Australia, some very valuable lessons might be learned from the
histories of some of those families whose founders could not live in
England without offending against the laws, but who could and did earn
the respect of their fellow colonists in Australia who were not "sent
out."
The student of history in Australia is reminded, perhaps more forcibly
than his fellow in England, that the humanitarian spirit, now so
distinguishing a trait in the Anglo-Saxon character, is of very recent
growth. Under the operation of this new force the criminal law of
England was rapidly softened and ameliorated, and with every advance
in this direction the character of the convicts sent out to Australia
steadily deteriorated, if I may so describe the process. With every
alteration in the law a fresh class of criminal was transported, and
these with few exceptions would, a few months before, have been hung.
At first, pickpockets, then sheep and horse-stealers, forgers and
others, who had previously only escaped the gallows in rare instances,
when they could find some influential friend to take sufficient
interest in them to plead their cause, were now transported as a matter
of course. This process continued until transportation ceased, and as
the last batch of prisoners sent out was presumably the worst, having
been guilty of more heinous crimes than their predecessors, we are too
apt to judge the earlier convicts harshly from our knowledge of the
later ones. The general effect was that while, with the amelioration
of the laws, crime steadily decreased in England, it just as steadily
increased in Australia, and no doubt the worst criminals were
transported to Van Diemen's Land after transportation had ceased to
New South Wales in 1842. The laws of England previously to the great
changes made during the past sixty years seem to me to have operated,
whether designedly or not, to clear the country of the disaffected and
the discontented, rather than the criminal. How far the introduction of
large numbers of this class into the country may have paved the way for
modern advances in liberal government in Australia, is a question which
it might be profitable to study; but it only relates to the bushrangers
so far as it enables us to account for the large number of men who
"took to the bush."
The earlier bushrangers seem to have been idle and dissolute, rather
than criminal, characters. They watched for an opportunity to escape
into a patch of scrub whenever the eye of the sentry in charge of
them was turned away, and the nature of the country was so favourable
to this method of evasion that it constituted a continuous challenge
to them to run away, and, almost incredible as it may appear now,
numbers of men started northward or westward in hopes of reaching the
Dutch or English settlements at Batavia, Singapore, Hong Kong, or
some other place in that direction. It must be remembered that the
majority of the working classes at the beginning of the century could
not read and had no knowledge of geography. They had heard sailors
speak of these settlements and had no idea that hundreds of miles of
sea flowed between them and Australia. How many of these poor ignorant
men lost their lives in the attempt to achieve the impossible cannot
be said, but some terrible stories of cannibalism have been related
in connection with this phase of bushranging. The majority of the
"runaways," however, had no such definite ideas as these, erroneous as
they may have been. They hoped to be able to live in freedom in the
bush and to subsist on fruits, roots, or other native growths. Some few
joined a tribe of blacks and stayed longer or shorter times with them;
others simply wandered about until hunger drove them back; while very
many remained at large until they were captured, and these lived by
stealing from farmers and other settlers any articles which could be
eaten or sold. When one of these early bushrangers grew tired of his
freedom he gave himself up at the nearest police station and received
fifty lashes. The penalty for a second offence was twelve months in a
chain gang.
There was no adequate system of classifying the convicts. It was the
custom in advertising runaways to give the name of the man and that
of the ship in which he was transported. Then followed the personal
description, and that was all. It was admitted to be inconvenient,
but no attempt appears to have been made to improve it. Besides
this, for administration purposes, convicts were divided into three
classes according to their sentences. Thus there were men who had been
transported for "seven" years, for "fourteen" years, or for "life."
They were also classified as "young," "middle-aged," and "old," and
usually the crime for which they had been transported was specified,
but such a description gave no indication of the character of the man.
Finally they were divided into "town thieves," "rural labourers," and
"gentlemen." This was a step in the right direction, but it was too
vague to be of much use. The educated convicts were all classified as
"gentlemen" whether they came from the towns or the rural districts.[1]
It is worthy of note that the proportion of skilled labourers, or
tradesmen as they are called, was very small. Very few men who had been
apprenticed to a trade were among the convicts sent to Australia at any
time.
There were no regulations as to hours of work, and the severe
taskmaster might work his assigned servants as many hours as he
pleased. It was generally understood that Sunday was to be a holiday,
or day of rest, but excuses were readily found for making the convicts
work on this day, and this was a fruitful source of discontent. Very
frequently men absconded on Saturday night, remained in the bush on
Sunday, and returned on Monday to take the customary fifty lashes and
resume work.
If flogging is efficacious in preventing crime, it should have made
the convict colonies the most virtuous places on earth, for the
"cat" was in almost continuous use in New South Wales and in Van
Diemen's Land. The "cat" generally used was the ordinary military
or naval cat; but "the cat used at Macquarie Harbour was a larger
and heavier instrument than that used generally for the punishment
of soldiers or sailors. It was called the thief's cat, or double
cat-o'-nine-tails. It had only the usual number of tails, but each of
these was a double twist of whipcord, and each tail had nine knots.
It was a very formidable instrument indeed."[2] How far the influence
of this barbarous instrument of torture tended to make the prisoners
at Macquarie Harbour the most reckless and ferocious of the convicts
of Australia it is unnecessary to enquire, but there can be no doubt
that its influence was for evil and not for good. It is with the
ordinary "cat," with which England in these barbarous times flogged
her defenders as ferociously as she did her prisoners, that we have
to deal; and, frightful as the tortures were which were inflicted on
the convicts, we have positive evidence that their lot was looked
upon with envy by the soldiers who guarded them. Several soldiers in
New South Wales deliberately committed crime so that they might be
convicted, in the hope that, by good conduct, they might earn some of
the indulgences open to convicts. The fact is that any prisoner who
contrived, by obsequiousness or in any other way, to make friends with
an official, had his way made easy for him, while the independent,
whether industrious or not, were ruthlessly persecuted until, in many
cases, they were finally forced to the gallows.
"The prisoners of all classes in Government are fed with the coarsest
food; governed with the most rigid discipline; subjected to the
stern, and frequently capricious and tyrannical will of an overseer;
for the slightest offence (sometimes for none at all--the victim of
false accusation) brought before a magistrate, whom the Government
has armed with the tremendous powers of a summary jurisdiction, and
either flogged, or sentenced to solitary confinement, or retransported
to an iron gang, where he must work in heavy irons, or to a penal
settlement, where he will be ruled with a rod of iron. If assigned to
a private individual he becomes a creature of chance. He may fall into
the hands of a kind indulgent master, who will reward his fidelity with
suitable acknowledgments; but, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred,
he will find his employer suspicious, or whimsical, or a blockhead,
not knowing good conduct from bad, or a despot, who treats him like a
slave, cursing and abusing, and getting him flogged for no reasonable
cause. He may be harassed to the very death--he may be worked like a
horse, and fed like a chameleon. The master, though not invested by
law with uncontrolled power, has yet great authority, which may be
abused in a thousand ways precluding redress. Even his legal power is
sufficiently formidable. A single act of disobedience is a sufficient
ground of complaint before the magistrate, and is always severely
dealt with. But, besides the master's power, the prisoners are in some
measure under a dominion to the free population at large; any man can
give him in charge without ceremony. If seen drunk, if seen tippling
in the public-house, if met after hours in the street, if unable to
pay his trifling debt, if impertinent--the free man has nothing more
to do than to send him to the watch-house, and get him punished. The
poor prisoner is at the mercy of all men."[3] This appears to be a fair
and unexaggerated statement of the conditions, and therefore it is
little cause for wonder that the general tone of morality in the colony
was low. Mr. J.T. Bigge says that "every opportunity was seized for
cheating. When the convicts attended at the store to draw their weekly
rations, supplies were frequently drawn for men not at work there.
False lists of men employed in the various gangs were made out."[4]
In fact, the Government of the Colony was a military despotism under
which corruption was rampant, so that the authorities themselves set an
example of immorality which the convicts were not slow to follow. "The
police made a considerable revenue by blackmailing convicts who were in
business."[5] Those who could pay were allowed to continue to enjoy a
freedom to which they were not legally entitled, while those who would
not, or could not, be blackmailed, to satisfy the exorbitant demands
of the so-called custodians of the peace, speedily "got into trouble,"
and were prosecuted. It was said that if a man could escape from a
country district and go to Sydney he might, if he could afford to dress
well, pass as a free man without attracting attention. A blacksmith
named Brady, assigned to Major James Mudie, of Castle Forbes, eluded
the police in this way for nearly two years. He was recognised by a
fellow convict, some time before he was captured, but this man "let
him go for £5." Such cases, however, were exceptions to the general
rule. The majority of runaways went into the bush and not into the
town, and the _Sydney and Hobart Town Gazettes_ in early times contain
numerous proclamations by the various governors calling upon all well
disposed persons to assist the military in capturing runaways. Some
of the issues of these _Gazettes_ contain columns of the names and
descriptions of persons variously styled "absconders," "absentees,"
"bolters," or "bushrangers." In these the term "bushranger" appears
most frequently in New South Wales, while "bolter" was the more popular
in Van Diemen's Land. The first bushrangers, therefore, were men who
"took to the bush" to escape work, and therefore it was quite possible
for a man to be a bushranger without committing any depredations on his
more prosperous fellows.
But laziness was not the sole cause of bushranging in early times.
A more powerful impulse perhaps was discontent, love of change.
"One of the most common indications of the misery of convicts under
existing circumstances is a passionate desire for change of place;
and when serving considerate masters they are sometimes indulged in
this by being transferred (though always as a sort of punishment) to
their disadvantage. In other cases, however, the desire becomes so
strong that they will steal, or commit some equal offence, expressly
to be condemned to a road gang or penal settlement."[6] In fact the
monotony of their lives became insupportable, even in those cases
where they were not cruelly treated. Captain Maconochie cites cases
of men who have so acted within a few months of their being entitled
to a ticket-of-leave, and who have thus forfeited their chances
of freedom in the near future. In some cases this was due to the
"inhuman treatment" of the master. In one case a valuable servant--a
blacksmith--whose time had nearly expired, was goaded into running
away so that he might be condemned to a further term of service before
obtaining his ticket-of-leave, and this was not an isolated case.
"Generally," said Dr. J.D. Lang, "the condition of the assigned
servant in New South Wales is superior to that of the farm labourer
of England. He is better clothed, better fed, and as comfortably
lodged. He is under personal restraint, not being allowed to leave
his master's property without a pass, but he has many comforts and
means of amusement which render his situation by no means irksome or
severe."[7] But it was just this restraint which the persons with
whom we are now dealing found intolerable. They had not the patience,
the long-suffering resignation of the English farm labourer. Many of
them had been English farm labourers and had found the conditions in
which they lived intolerable, and when they realised that they had not
very much improved these conditions by being sent to Australia, they
rebelled again. "The experience furnished by the penal settlements,"
said Judge Forbes, "has proved that transportation is capable of being
carried to an extreme of suffering such as to render death desirable,
and to induce many prisoners to seek it under its most appalling
aspects.... I have known cases in which it appeared that men had
committed crimes at Norfolk Island, for the mere purpose of being
sent to Sydney to be tried, and the cause of their desiring to be so
sent was to avoid the state of endurance in which they were placed in
Norfolk Island." ... Several cases occurred in which "men at Norfolk
Island cut the heads of their fellow-prisoners with the hoe while at
work, with the certainty of being detected, and the certainty of being
executed. They did this without malice, and when charged said it was
better to be hung than to live in such a hell."[8] Sir Richard Bourke
said: "Capital crimes have been committed in that penal settlement from
a desperate determination to stake the chance of capital conviction and
punishment in Sydney against the chances of escape which the passage
might afford to the accused and to the witnesses summoned to attend the
trial."[9] The early bushrangers of Australia ranged therefore from
the comparatively innocent wanderer in the bush, to such desperadoes
as these, while the crimes they committed varied from petty theft to
burglary, bank robbery, robbery on the high road, and murder. The
modern idea of a bushranger is a bold highwayman, and no doubt many of
the bushrangers come up to this ideal, but the story of the bushrangers
would not be complete if it took no note of the others.
The settlement on Norfolk Island was established with the view
of sending all the reconvicted prisoners there. It was the penal
settlement of a penal settlement. It was abandoned for a time, after
the founding of a similar settlement on the banks of the Derwent river
in Van Diemen's Land, but was re-established as a place of punishment
in connection with that colony, and many of the most notorious of
the bushrangers ended their days there, as we shall see later. It
was in the convict settlements in those islands that the greatest
brutalities were perpetrated on the prisoners, and Norfolk Island,
Macquarie Harbour, and Port Arthur were each known as "The Hell" among
the "old hands," as the convicts were called after transportation had
been abolished. It was in these settlements that the more violent
and refractory of the convicts were gradually collected, and the
history of these places tends to prove that brutality cannot be cured
by brutal means. Flogging which was an every-day occurrence had no
reformatory effect. The early bushrangers thought nothing of it. It
certainly did not deter them from absconding whenever they thought
fit. When an absconder tired of wandering about the bush, he returned
to the settlement to take his flogging "like a man." In the stories
told by the old hands, the absconder or offender in some other way was
represented as walking jauntily up to the triangles, throwing off his
jumper, placing himself in position for tying, and then, when he had
been secured, telling the flagellator to do his "d----est," and, if
the descriptions of the manner in which the floggers performed their
task which have come down to us are true, the punishment was a terrible
one. It is said that there were two floggers in Sydney who were
regarded as artists in their profession. These men performed together,
the one being right-handed and the other left. They prided themselves
on being able to flog a man without breaking the skin, and consequently
there was no blood spilled. But the back of the flogged man is
described as having been puffed up like "blown veal." The swelling
"shook like jelly," and the effects were felt for a much longer period
than when the back was cut and scored as it generally was, for we are
told that the ground, in the Barrack Square in Sydney, all round where
the triangles stood, was saturated with human blood, and the flogging
places elsewhere must have been in the same condition. But to return.
When the man had received his dose and was cast loose, he would throw
his jumper across his shoulders and walk away with a grin--or with some
such remarks as "Well, is that all you can do?---- you!" and afterwards
boast that "the---- couldn't get a whimper" out of him. I have heard a
story of a man who was flogged. The flagellator kept hitting him low
down across the loins. The prisoner turned his head round once and said
fiercely: "Hit higher, blast you!" The flogger took no notice, and the
prisoner made no other sign until he was untied. Then he knocked the
flogger down with his fist, and was immediately seized up for another
"dose."
"I can assure you, from personal observation, that it is not uncommon
to see a poor wretch working on the roads, or labouring in the fields,
with his coarse shirt sticking to the green and tainted flesh of his
lacerated back, and that, too, for the most venial offence.... I
have it from unquestionable authority, that it frequently occurs in
the summer season that the eggs of the blue-fly become inserted and
hatched in the wounds of the punished offender, from which they are
occasionally extracted by some humane companion."[10]
The blow-fly in Australia, although frequently called "blue-bottle,"
is not blue. It deposits its young alive in the form of maggots, and
great care has always to be taken to prevent sores on man or beast from
being "blown." It is very common for flannel shirts, which have become
greasy from perspiration, to be blown on the backs of workmen, and the
maggots thus deposited will attack and irritate any scratch or sore
they can find if not removed quickly.
The convict, so far from having been ashamed of being flogged, boasted
of it. But nothing pleased them better than the relations of stories
about the flogging of "freemen," as those settlers who had gone to the
colonies neither as convicts nor officials were called. One story,
which may or may not be true, has been told as having occurred in every
convict district in Australia. It was to the effect that a master one
day gave a letter to an assigned servant and told him to take it to
the nearest gaol. The servant, surmising that the letter was somewhat
to the following effect:--"Dear Sir,--Please give the bearer fifty
for absconding (or what not), and oblige, yours truly, &c.," told a
plausible tale to the first freeman he met and induced him to deliver
the letter. The point of the story generally lay in the ingenuity
with which the convict induced the freeman to deliver the letter for
him, but the astonishment of the freeman when he was seized up to the
triangles in spite of his struggles and protestations, and given the
"fifty," was a perpetual source of joy and hilarity to the convicts who
heard the story. There is nothing inherently improbable in this story.
It is quite probable that the incident may have occurred more than
once. Although freemen were legally exempt from flogging, unless under
sentence of a qualified Court, many authentic instances of freemen
having been flogged have been told. Here is one. "A store-keeper in
Hobart Town had offended his neighbours, and one of them, in revenge,
posted a written placard libelling the offender. The placard was
affixed to a big gum stump at the corner of Collins and Elizabeth
Streets. Just as the complainant was putting this bill on the stump
the man libelled in it passed and called the attention of the Military
Commandant, who was near at hand at the time, to it. A sort of informal
drum-head Court Martial was held on the spot, and the libeller was
found guilty and sentenced to receive three hundred lashes, which were
administered at once, in spite of the protests of the victim that he
was a freeman and was therefore entitled to a judicial trial. When
two hundred lashes had been administered, a cry of 'Ship ho' was
raised, and the last hundred was got rid of as quickly as possible, the
Commandant, the flagellator, the spectators, and others all rushing
away to the wharf to hear the news from Europe."[11] If the law could
be thus set at defiance by a military official in the case of a free
immigrant holding a good position, what chance of justice could there
be for a convict? A story illustrating the reckless manner in which
prisoners were flogged is told by the _Launceston Advertiser_. "A
prisoner was found guilty of absconding, and sentenced to receive fifty
lashes, when some circumstances were disclosed which proved that the
prisoner was innocent, but had lost his pass. 'Never mind,' said the
Launceston magistrate, 'the warrant is signed, let him be punished now;
I will forgive him the next time he's brought up.'" The tyranny of the
officials was boundless. One Government rule was that all convicts
should take off their hats to officers and officials whenever they
passed. In January, 1839, a party of convicts was building some steps
at Woolloomooloo Bay, on Sir Maurice O'Connell's estate. Several of
them were rolling a heavy stone down to be placed in position when an
officer passed along and the convicts immediately rose up and took
their hats off. The stone rolled quickly down the steep embankment,
struck the overseer and knocked him down, almost breaking his leg.
Captain O'Connell gave orders that the men should not salute anybody
in future while at work. A few days later Colonel Wilson, Chief
Police Magistrate of Sydney, passed, accompanied by his daughter. The
convicts continued at work without noticing him. "Take off your hats,"
cried the Colonel. Several of the men did so, but Joseph Todd, who
was carrying a heavy load, took no notice. "Take off your hat, you
scoundrel," said the Colonel. Todd said he had been ordered not to.
The Colonel shouted "I'll have your back skinned for you, you rascal,"
called the sergeant of police who acted as guard, and gave Todd in
charge. Captain O'Connell appeared to defend his man and said Colonel
Wilson was trespassing and had no right to interfere with assigned
servants on their master's estate. Sergeant Goodwin deposed that the
path was a common one and people frequented it to get to the bathing
place. Sergeant Mather said that Todd had struggled when arrested.
The Bench held that Todd being an assigned servant had been guilty of
disorderly conduct in resisting the police. Had he been a freeman he
would have been justified in resisting arrest without a warrant; but,
being a prisoner, his conduct had been highly disorderly, and he was,
therefore, sentenced to receive fifty lashes. A week later Todd was
again arrested for being out after hours, and was sentenced to receive
thirty lashes. The paper in reporting this charged Colonel Wilson with
tyrannical conduct, and says that he went to see Todd flogged.[12]
I am not relating the worst cases in order to "make out a case" for the
bushrangers, but simply facts to illustrate the life in the colonies at
the time, and thus account for the large number of men who "took to the
bush," and the special Acts passed to prevent this breach of the law
were as tyrannical as the acts of the officials or the masters which
went so far to create it. The "Bushranging Act" (11 George IV., No. 10)
authorised the military or civil police to arrest any person on the
mere suspicion that he or she was illegally at large, and the onus of
proof was thrown on the suspected party. This Act was a fruitful source
of complaint. No one was safe except well known officials, and it is
said that the Act was extensively used for purposes of extortion and
black mail. A young woman was arrested by an ex-constable and charged
with being illegally at large. It was in vain that she protested that
she was "free" and did not require a pass. He insisted on taking her to
the lock-up. Fortunately, while walking along the street she met some
one who knew her and who threatened the ex-policeman with prosecution
if he did not release her. The fellow did so and was not prosecuted.
Probably had an enquiry been held it would have been found that he was
acting in collusion with the police. Even the officials were not always
safe. Mr. Jacques, the Government auctioneer, had been to a dinner
party. Being near the Custom House he decided to walk to the wharf from
whence the steamer, which ran to Balmain, started and go home in her.
Not having walked to the wharf from that point before, he found it
necessary to apply to a constable for information as to which turning
he should take, and was immediately arrested as a convict illegally at
large. In spite of his protests he was conveyed to the nearest police
station. The sergeant in charge refused to believe his story, and
thought that the presence of a well-dressed man in that quarter was
suspicious. Mr. Jacques was therefore detained till morning, when he
was recognised by the magistrate and discharged. In 1834 a circular
letter was addressed by the Governor to the various police-magistrates
in New South Wales, enquiring whether, in their opinion, the Act
should be reaffirmed or not, and the replies were by a large majority
in favour of its being continued, while others merely suggested that
it might be amended in various ways to prevent the abuses which had
grown up under its operation. Judge Burton was almost alone in his
condemnation of the Bushranging Act, which, he said, was repugnant to
the laws of England. "England and the United States of America," he
said, "are the only two countries in the world where passports are not
compulsory," and he deprecated the introduction of the passport system
into Australia. It was held that the conditions existing in the colony
made such an act necessary, and it was therefore re-enacted without
amendment.[13] It is worthy of note, as illustrating Colonial Office
procedure of that day, that it was the paid officials, and not the
public, who were consulted in this matter.
The facts being as I have stated, the wonder is not that large numbers
of prisoners "took to the bush" but that all did not do so, and the
more we study the early history of the convict settlements the less
we feel inclined to blame the early bushrangers, however savage or
atrocious their actions were. But we have not yet quite escaped from
barbarism. In spite of the positive evidence that flogging brutalises
and does not reform it is still continued. We also continue to hang
criminals, although there is no proof that it deters crime or effects
any good whatever. I do not belong to any society for the abolition of
capital punishment. I may admit that perhaps there may be men whose
death is desirable or expedient; but, if it is so, if there are men
unfit to live or whose death might add to the happiness or security
of the majority, then I think that we might extend to our fellow
creatures, however ferocious or abandoned they may be, the mercy which
we show to savage or superfluous dogs and cease from torturing them
in their last moments. Hanging has had a sufficiently lengthy trial
in Australia if it has not in England. Old residents in Sydney or in
Hobart Town or in any other locality where penal settlements have
existed can point out numbers of places where the gallows has been
erected, and in some cases trees are still standing where numbers of
men have struggled away their last few moments of life. This, however,
is not the place to enlarge upon this subject, but the story I have
to tell shows a lamentable waste of life, and many even of the more
notorious of the bushrangers have exhibited qualities which might under
happier conditions have fitted them for useful work. This is specially
true of the earlier bushrangers who were the victims generally of
unjust laws. Of the later ones, the native-born bushrangers, it is
impossible to speak in the same terms. They were not driven to crime
by want or oppression, but they were the vicious products of a vicious
past. Their crimes were due to vicious environment and education, but
they are gone now and, if we may draw some lessons of utility for the
future, even their lives may not have been altogether wasted.
From the evidence I have adduced it will be seen that the early
bushrangers were very numerous. "In one case it became known," said Mr.
James Macarthur, "that a gang of about sixty convicts, employed in the
Government gangs in Liverpool, intended to break out on a certain night
and take to the bush. It was considered advisable to allow them to
break out, proper precautions having been made to capture them. It was
the intention to attack our farming stations at Camden. We armed twelve
of the best-conducted of our convict servants, but the absconders found
that their design had been discovered and did not attempt to put it in
force."[14] Thus the bushrangers did not always go out singly, or in
twos or threes. Mr. J.T. Bigge says: "At Windsor, and in the adjoining
districts, the offence termed bushranging, or absconding in the
woods, and living upon plunder and the robbing of orchards, are most
prevalent.... At Emu Plains, or the district of Evan, gambling, absence
from work, insolence to overseers, neglect of work, and stealing, are
the most common offences.... As the population of New South Wales has,
until lately, been virtually limited to the occupation of a small
tract of land that lies between the Blue Mountains and the sea, and as
few temptations to plunder existed in the tracts contiguous to these
boundaries, excepting those that are afforded by the wild cattle in
the cow-pastures, the offence of bushranging, or continued absence in
the woods, has not of late been common. Instances have occurred of the
departure of convicts for the purpose of traversing the country with a
view to escape, of the escape of some from Newcastle, sent thither for
punishment, and their wandering and temporary existence in the vicinity
of Windsor; and latterly, a few instances of escape from the road
parties in the districts of Liverpool and Bathurst; but there has been
no systematic or continued efforts of desperate convicts to defy the
attempts of the local Government in New South Wales, or to subsist by
plunder, such as have existed until a very late period in Van Diemen's
Land."[15]
It is in Van Diemen's Land, therefore, that our story of the more
serious phases of bushranging first begins.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Evidence of Sir Francis Forbes, Chief Justice of New South
Wales. Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, July,
1837.]
[Footnote 2: Despatch from Governor Macquarie to Earl Bathurst, June
28, 1813.]
[Footnote 3: _Sydney Gazette_, November 20, 1830.]
[Footnote 4: Commission of Enquiry into the state of the colony of New
South Wales, 1822.]
[Footnote 5: Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on
Transportation, July, 1837.]
[Footnote 6: Report by Captain Maconochie, forwarded to the Colonial
Office by Sir John Franklin, October 7th, 1837.]
[Footnote 7: Select Committee of the House of Commons on
Transportation, August, 1838.]
[Footnote 8: Select Committee of the House of Commons on
Transportation, August, 1838.]
[Footnote 9: Despatch to Colonial Office, entitled "Administration of
Justice at Norfolk Island, November, 1838."]
[Footnote 10: Secondary Punishments discussed by an Emigrant of
1821.--_Launceston Advertiser_.]
[Footnote 11: History of Van Diemen's Land from 1820 to 1835.]
[Footnote 12: _Sydney Gazette._]
[Footnote 13: Dispatch of Governor Bourke to the Colonial Office, 1835.]
[Footnote 14: Select Committee of the House of Commons on
Transportation, July, 1837.]
[Footnote 15: Commission of Enquiry into the state of the colony of New
South Wales, 1822.]