itions. These "remanded men" are treated with the greatest severity,
and few have sufficient power of endurance to live out even a short term
with its increase of rigor and hardship. Yet to the energy and
enterprise of the liberated felons is probably due, more than to any
other cause, that increase of prosperity which has long since rendered
these colonies not only self-supporting, but a source of revenue to the
Crown.

[Illustration: CANNIBAL FIRES.]

Another and the most dangerous class of convicts are those known as
"bushrangers." They are desperate fellows, composed of the very lowest
scum of England, have ordinarily been sentenced for life, and, having no
hope of pardon or desire for amendment, they escape as soon as possible,
often by the murder of one or more of their guards, and take refuge in
the wilds of the interior. Some of these bushrangers are associated
together in large hordes, but others roam solitary for months before
they will venture to trust their lives in the hands of other desperadoes
like themselves. There are hundreds of these lawless men prowling like
wild beasts for their prey in the vicinity of every thoroughfare between
the cities and the mines, robbing and murdering defenceless passengers,
plundering the mails, and constantly exacting the best of their flocks
and herds from the stockmen and shepherds, who in their isolated
positions dare not refuse their demands. So desperate is the character
of these outlaws that they are seldom taken, though thousands of pounds
are occasionally offered for the head of some noted ringleader. They may
be killed in skirmishes, but will not suffer themselves to be taken
alive. A man calling himself "Black Darnley" ranged the woods for years,
committing all sorts of crimes, but at length met a violent death at the
hands of another convict, whose daughter he had outraged.

A curious memento of the first theatre opened in Sydney and the first
performance within its walls has come down to us from the year 1796,
about eight years after the establishment of the penal colony. It was
opened by permission of the governor: all the actors were convicts who
won the privilege by good behavior, and the price of admission was one
shilling, payable in silver, flour, meat or wine. The prologue, written
by a _cidevant_ pickpocket of London, illustrates the character of
the times in those early days of the colony:

From distant climes, o'er widespread seas, we come,